Dear all,

I thought I would post something to show how I use a tracksaw for ripping operations, for those like me with limited machinery. The intent is both (a) to perhaps give an idea to anyone in the same boat but (b) maybe also provoke any tips or suggestions from more experienced and skilled members.

So my current project is a large office table to be made of flooded gum. It is turning into my favourite wood - the shop fixtures I have made with it keep drawing my eye. It is medium difficulty in workability I would say (not as horrible as say Karri, but noticeably tougher than say Tas Oak).

For the legs I need some fairly thick pieces but my available stock is only ~27mm and ~32 thick. The ~32mm roughsawn stock will be too small on its own for a beefy leg I think (once it loses width from flattening/jointing). But the 27mm stock, laminated, should be ample. Here is the patient:

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The plan is to laminate sections to give me thick pieces that are thick enough for legs (at least ending up ~40mm). Now I did start trying to flatten the entire board by hand, thinking I would then saw up. I am a keen handtool woodworker but there is a question of time. Once you knock off most of the high spots, well.... this just isn't practicable for those with jobs and familiies (removing ~2mm by hand).

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So instead what I did is:

1. Cross-cut the board to the intended leg length (with about ~2cm to spare, for waste) - about 77cm.
2. Use the tracksaw to make fairly rough rip-cuts, to break it up into four strips, to be pieces to laminated together, living with some inaccuracies I note below.
3. Use hand tools to perfect the joined parts.

The idea is to leverage what hand tools are can be best at (reliable precision with time and attention) while dealing with the limitation of only so much horsepower you can pull out without consuming your available time. Yes I sharpen my own lovingly restored saws. No, ripping ~5.4 metres of inch-thick hardwood is not for me!

I jointed one end, and marked rough pencil lines, referenced off the jointed edge, and placed a track on the boards. They are rough-sawn, meaning the track doesn't sit on the material perfectly level, so the cut is not exactly square. I just adjust the track on a pencil line by eye, which is not precise. It feels quite inelegant. The saw (55mm blade), with the standard blade is also underpowered to rip 27mm of hardwood, but a few passes taking 1cm a time is fine.

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The results? Completely unacceptable if you were milling/machining. Partly this is because, without some jigs and mucking about, it is difficult to line up the track perfectly parallel at the best of times. I am reasonable at doing so but it was pointless to even try because I was not starting with square, flat stock to reference from.

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But then, each piece goes back over to the bench and one of the rough faces meets a long, straight ruler and a jointer (a No 7).

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The pieces are much easier to plane and flatten than the whole board, because the width (~38mm) is less than the blade of a large hand plane, so one doesn't have to check for twist, just that it's straight across length.

And because I'm not milling elsewhere and then bringing in my shop, I can glue up straight away on the two planed surfaces, each pair making a future leg. (Although I have not experienced it, I have heard from respected sources that eucalypt should either be planed or wiped with acetone right before glue-up so I am following that at least for now!)

Once the glue dries, I will then flatten one side of each leg piece. Because I will be making tapered legs, I will be planing down all the faces anyway. Essentially I will just square 3 sides, to mark out the tapers, the 4th is unnecessary because it can come down as part of tapering. I only need 3 squares sides to mark out the tapers.

Now a few observations on why I think this is a better method than it seems:

1. You are removing pretty much the least amount of material possible at every step. Although there will be a fair amount of work to be done after the glue-up, I am forced to remove much less than if I had first put the entire board through a jointer, then thicknesser/planer, and then ripped.

2. This makes it possible to just use your hand tools when they are most enjoyable and practicable to do so. Knocking off just enough in high spots so as to let a track lay on the board is not problem - it is getting down into the last few saw marks that makes you plane almost the entire board. On relatively narrow stock (38mm) that is not too bad to start out with, it is just a few licks with hand plane, testing, and final adjusting passes. Compare that to trying to flatten wide stock (where you have to keep checking for twist as well). Halving the stock before you flatten means you have to do much less to deal with cupping and bellies.

3. By squaring up the stock after the lamination, there is only one flattening/squaring operation, on the pieces as they are to be deployed. For those like me who never use plans it gives you the most options as things start to come together. It also means one operation - not two. Even if you use milled stock, it will never be perfect after laminating and gluing up.

I am not suggesting this is, of course, a preferable method in the sense of compared to what you may do with other machinery available.

It is however one way to manage larger projects, working from roughsawn timber leveraging just one piece of fairly portable machinery (albeit a very useful one) to get through the most repetitive task. Although I use a Festool MFT/3 table as a bit of a luxury, it could have been done by throwing foam mats on the floor (which is how I break down larger stock!) and throwing a track on top.