Thread: How to rip cut a pallet plank with small width

Ripping narrow timber is always a challenge.

Most circular saws come with a rip guide of some sort.
To help balance the saw I often have another piece the same thickness next to the one I am cutting, and both pieces of timber on my cutting bench (an old door).

If using a saw table, make sure to use a push stick and other safety equipment.

I tried using the rip guide that comes with it but I still can't get a perfect cut. Can't seem to make the guide tight against the plank. Need more practice probably


Huy

Like Handyjack said an extra piece butted up to the piece to be cut will balance the saw, to hold the piece maybe a screw each end and then into an old solid door or other suitable sacrificial work surface, screw head has to be flush tho and not in line with the saw cut.

You could also use sticks (same thickness as board) at each end and sides butted upto piece to be cut which themselves are clamped at some distance away from the piece to be cut. Old door is good for clamping to.

You could place one clamp at the end of piece to be cut and one at the middle, cut as far as middle clamp, stop and move middle clamp to start of board, continue to end of board clamp, stop and move end clamp to middle of board and then continue completing the cut. Old solid door is good here again.

And you could do something like use goberg props to hold down the board. Have to be repositioned as the cut progresses.

You could screw an angle piece to the (old door) at each end of board with an allowance for a wedge that could forced into between angle piece and end of board, all has to be same thickness as board tho or at least no higher than



Pete

I use a jig to rip strips off a sheet of MDF that is appropriate for this work.

Let me describe it and I'll post a picture later.

-- Make a piece of MDF or ply about the size of the baseplate of the circ saw. It is better to be a few inches longer and wider.
-- most circular saws have the ability to attach guides and whatnot to the bottom. Attach this new subplate, but ensure that the underside hasn't any bolts or screws .... Countersink them.
-- descend the circ saw right through the sub plate to full drop, cleanly, so to cut a zero clearence kerf. Lift, unplug and turn the saw over.
-- you now have a very neat line measure from the line the thickness you want your ripped off lengths to be, let's call them 1/2" (12.7mm for the rest of the world!). Use the top and bottom of the kerf, draw a line and using this line affix a strip of timber (with a couple of screws), say 10mm wide, 6mm thick and 100mm longer than the sub plate. This strip will act as your fence. It's 100mm longer so the front and back extend 50mm so you can use it as a visual guide.
-- you are done.

Turning the saw over, you now have a ready made strip ripper. It will rip strips 1/2" wide off whatever you are sawing all day. The guide rides along the edge of the material. Use it like a circ saw guide, but better!

Your trick for using it on fence palings and reclaimed pallet slats is the hold the strip in place at the far end while ripping the bottom, stopping half way, the holding the near end and finishing the rip.

I do this all the time on the last 6" of MDF or ply I'm ripping. I did exactly this to make my Christmas tree branches for the "trees" I sold at Xmas. I ripped hundreds of strips, all identical, in exactly this manner without using a table saw....all 100% circular saw with my sub plate.

Other ways, as per comments above, is to use a clamp top and bottom on another jig. Something like the Kreg Automaxx clamps would be perfect. Make another jig to hold the left side of the slat against a spare slat, with the Automaxx clamping only on the very left hand edge - this will act as a conveyor, give you lots of stable ripping surface too.

You can soup it up by making the under-fence adjustable, but you'll get the idea.

Hope this helps.

So many ways to achieve this. Thank you all, that's awesome.

@evanism a picture will be great.

As I re-read your answer I start picturing this in my head. So the width being cut off is the distance between the fence and the blade. And if my brain picture is right unlike a guide jig, the strip of wood being cut off is trapped between the fence and the blade, like with a table saw, making it even easier to get a straight cut.

Huy


Huy

Hi if you are doing a lot of these types of cuts it can be a bit challenging as the fence always seem to want to drift away from the edge.

You can use a bench dog & toggle clamp arrangement - the horizontal type so there is nothing sticking up beyond your plank.
A track or sled arrangement for you saw will help no end.you can shim up your sled or track to match the thickness of your plank and you can then cut strips easily.

Well, here we are! Pictures!

This is no marvel, but it works with absolute precision.

This is the top. The two screws you see secure the Festool circ saw. They screw from above, I keep them in the board to save losing them.... You dont need atomic level securing here, its just a board.... you can see where I've written any relevant info to jog my fossilized brain for next time....

DSC09059 (681x1024).jpg

This is upside down. Nothing fancy, but you can see the gap I rip.

DSC09060 (681x1024).jpg

And these are the strips I rip. The fence is long as I rip, in this case, from a 2400x1200x18 board of ply. The long fence keeps it accurate.

DSC09061 (1024x681).jpg

I rip boards, the OP wanted palings, but it just a matter of securing the slat from moving.....

Good Morning Huy

First, welcome to the Forum, and to woodworking.

Evanism has suggested an excellent solution to sawing larger pieces, but smaller stuff is always a challenge - how do you hold the timber secure ? An endless question.

If you modify Evanism's approach and use a larger, thicker piece of MDF, then when you turn it over, you can place it on two saw horses and you have invented a table saw - albeit, one without any safety features. Be very, very careful as circular saws are perhaps the most dangerous thing in the workshop!

On the question of buying your own table saw, may I suggest that you hasten slowly. When I started woodworking 30+ years ago the cheapest table saws were very expensive so I bought a Triton Workbench and installed a Makita saw in it - not ideal, but workable. Now, bench saws are much cheaper, but if I replace my elderly Triton it will probably be with a medium size bandsaw - partly for safety, partly for noise, partly for things a saw bench cannot do. All priorities and compromises.

When I started I bought cheap hand tools, saw I was producing crap and bought piles of cheap power tools, and still produced crap. Bought better tools and slowly learned how to use them, and started making the occasional keeper. Now I am increasingly using hand tools and the electrics remain silent. It is deeply satisfying to hand plane and release the beauty of the timber; machine planning is never pleasant until you finish.


Fair Winds

Graeme

I will never ever buy crap tools again.

Here is a completely bodged up version of how it work... Mark was right....

Secure a "base board" down to *something*. The baseboard needs to be longer than the thing you are cutting and wider than the sled. Here you can see a length of chipboard secured with two clamps.

DSC09062 (1024x685).jpg

Then I've made a "stop" using two bench dogs. This is not needed, but if you are doing heaps of these, the dogs will locate the kerf in the same place of the underside support every single time. If you do a few today and more tomorrow and need to disassemble in between, then it makes the kerf exactly the same. Of course, you could make it up all as once single jig to fit underneath.... I'll do a sketchup to show what I mean.....

DSC09063 (1024x685).jpg

I've added a fence paling to simulate the pallet slat....

DSC09064 (1024x685).jpg

and on top is my rip-er-jig with the imaginary circ saw attached to it....

DSC09065 (1024x685).jpg

OBVIOUSLY all the crap wont be in the way and the underlying "jig" will be bigger than the raw material to be ripped.

This is the underside jig.

-- It is 1400 long... you are ripping pallet slats, they will be 1200 long-ish
-- The width of the "support piece" is entirely dependant on your circular saw jig, but Id reckon 150 is heaps
-- The squares randomly interspersed are bits of sandpaper you will glue down so the board doesn't slip around. NO NEED for clamps! tra-da!!!
-- the circles are screws where you glued and screwed the support board down

rip jig.jpg

-- and here is a slat added ready for sacrifice.
-- you can see the kerfs! Trendy!

rip jig 2.jpg

Chop, lift saw, remove slat and rip another! Here is a closeup of the end. You can see the support board is 18mm thick and the slat to be cut is 16mm... Ive assume the sandpaper is 1mm or 2mm thick. Just make the support close-ish in thickness....

rip jig 3.jpg

So easy you can do it out in the yard in the sun with a beeerrrrr!. mmmmm..... beer.

My idea won't work....the moving kerf destroys the sub board. We need to reverse the top jig and its fence to guide from the left... This will keep the kerf in exactly the same place. Same bottom jig, just a mod to the top one

Diagrams in the morning!

Thank you all. Lots of tips here, I will check this again a bit later.

Huy


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@Evanism, a lot of the pictures you posted are broken. From post #10 i can only see on pic. But I get the idea now. Thanks


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