Any ideas on a home made wall saw ?

[JFC]

Many of you may have the same problem as me , when i want to cut an 8x4 sheet i need to move machines out of the way to do it . Id love to have a wall saw but the cost puts me off .
Seeing Scrits post on old machinery got me thinking (again) about mounting a circular saw on some kind of guide .
Can we build a forum wall saw ?
Let me rephrase that , can we build a safe forum wall saw :lol:

 

[wrightclan]

Many of you may have the same problem as me , when i want to cut an 8x4 sheet i need to move machines out of the way to do it . Id love to have a wall saw but the cost puts me off .
Seeing Scrits post on old machinery got me thinking (again) about mounting a circular saw on some kind of guide .
Can we build a forum wall saw ?
Let me rephrase that , can we build a safe forum wall saw :lol:

I think "American Woodworker" had plans for one about a year or so ago? My Dad knows someone who built one one and likes it. You mount a handheld circular saw into it. Not sure if it would meet British HSE legislation; but I'll try to see if I can find the article.

Brad

 

[DaveL]

JFC,

Ian Dalziel has already been there and done it. :shock:

You need to take a look at Good Woodworking #143, Ian built an Iroko frame and mounted a saw on a plate that moves on tubes.

Steve Maskery in the same issue showed how he cuts sheets up on the frame that fits on the rafters, using a cutting guide.

 

[Scrit]

OK

I've been thinking about this for a while. To get the quality of cut the saw needs to run in some sort of guide which will run smoothly. It is possible to get hold of a type of low-cost linear bearing which runs in steel Unistrut (the U-channel used by electricians, heating/ventilation engineers, etc to support their stuff in commercial buildings):

One of the people who do this stuff in the UK are Tyco, but the bearings I seem to recall are sold by Hepco (may not be right there, but I have a supplier and data on file somewhere). With Unistrut and linear bearings it should be possible to build a Y-axis "ladder" to support a carraige which in turn holds a decent-sized portable circular saw. To get the scoring action it might be worth looking at a negative rake blade, such as a mitre/chop saw blade. Haven't figured out how to do variable depths yet, but I'd suspect just use the portable saw's depth of cut adjustment would do. The entire Y-axis carraige would need to run in the X-axis on two more Unistrut linear ways which in turn would need to be supported on a bed angled somewhere between 10 and 30 degrees off vertical. And I reckon it would need dust extraction and the ways would need to face downwards and incorporate wipers to stop them from clogging up. An alternative might be to use something like a low friction "dry" bearing such as the Pacific Simplicity which runs on ground steel bar. They are good in dusty environments, but cost more (still cheap as linears go, though)

Might be nice if the saw could be mounted on a turntable so it could do vertical and horizontal cuts

As you can see, I have given this some tought in the past

Scrit

 

[JFC]

Ok its been done but lets see what the forum can turn up to make it better . I was thinking of using a clamp and guide with its saw holder plate but Scrit seems to have thought about it for longer than me
Should we put a price limit on this ?

 

[Dave S]

Shopnotes 88 also has plans.

Dave

 

[wrightclan]

Plans and hardware available here. These aren't the plans I referred to earlier, but there's a few out there.

Brad

 

[JFC]

That only seems to cross cut . Needs to rip aswell , but if you locked the saw in place and had rollers on the bed you could push the work through . Then you would need a good 20' of free wall space . I can see myself googling all night on this one .

 

[wrightclan]

That only seems to cross cut . Needs to rip aswell . I can see myself googling all night on this one .

If you alter the dimensions of the saw (i.e. make it taller) you could rip or crosscut depending on the direction you turn the board. But as you say, keep googling, and you'll find all kinds of ideas. Take the best ideas from them all, and give us all plans for the ultimate panel saw for pennies. :lol:

Brad

 

[Scrit]

The way I was thinking is much more like a Holz-Her wall saw - they can long rip as well as crosscut. To achieve that you need to be able to rotate the saw through 90 degrees and then lock the carraige in the Y-axis plane. Another thought about scoring is have a 2-position (dual height) carraige - shallow cut taken backwards with an ATB (alternate top bevel) blade then drop to full depth for the main rip cut.

Cost savings? Ignore the X-axis (rip axis) and just have the Y-axs carraige, but thesupport shelf at the bottom could have rollers inserted to roll the sheet through beneath a locked carraige. Lock cost low-friction rollers? Use skateboard wheels - v. low friction, ply wheels (therefore non-marring) and cheap.

Scrit

 

[Scrit]

If you alter the dimensions of the saw (i.e. make it taller) you could rip or crosscut depending on the direction you turn the board. But as you say, keep googling, and you'll find all kinds of ideas. Take the best ideas from them all, and give us all plans for the ultimate panel saw for pennies. :lol:

Brad, I feel there is a finite limit as to how high you can go. You need to raise a sheet maybe 250 to 400mm off the floor to accommodate the linear motion gubbins, frame base (feet), etc. Add 2440 mm plus some "wiggle" room and you are at the limit (or beyond it) of many small shops. And you won't even begin to touch an MFC jumbo at 2,8 metres x 2.0 metres.

One nice feature on Holz-Hers and ithers is that there is one or more flip-down "shelves" at different heights on the saw. This means yopu don't do your back in doing repeat narrow rips as they can be done at a more convenient height once the initial cuts are out of the way

Happy googling!

Scrit

 

[wrightclan]

If you alter the dimensions of the saw (i.e. make it taller) you could rip or crosscut depending on the direction you turn the board. But as you say, keep googling, and you'll find all kinds of ideas. Take the best ideas from them all, and give us all plans for the ultimate panel saw for pennies. :lol:

Brad, I feel there is a finite limit as to how high you can go. You need to raise a sheet maybe 250 to 400mm off the floor to accommodate the linear motion gubbins, frame base (feet), etc. Add 2440 mm plus some "wiggle" room and you are at the limit (or beyond it) of many small shops. And you won't even begin to touch an MFC jumbo at 2,8 metres x 2.0 metres.

One nice feature on Holz-Hers and ithers is that there is one or more flip-down "shelves" at different heights on the saw. This means yopu don't do your back in doing repeat narrow rips as they can be done at a more convenient height once the initial cuts are out of the way

Happy googling!

Scrit

Yeah, I know. But by the time you start engineering a homemade saw that will be up to the standard of an industrial vertical panel saw; and you make it capable of easily switching axes accurately, I'm afraid you might be encroaching the price territory of a commercially available unit.

Somebody please prove me wrong--I mean that somebody please do!

 

[Fecn]

Shopnotes nubmer 4 also has plans for a shop-built panel saw.

Fecn

 

[engineer one]

jason, i guess almost everybody wishes for a tool like this,
but in fact either in front or the rear, you need 8 feet to put
the board onto the saw, unless you can push the support to one end.

i would wonder whether there it is sensible to consider your saw as being
on the outside of a panel store, i mean if you need and store more than one sheet at a time, you need somewhere other than the floor to store it
else you are always stepping over it. getting it in and out of the store
needs the 8 foot entry egress space.

iwonder whether it is possible to adapt the triton top to such a thing
maybe a job for barry burgess. seem to remember that the triton
table has a turn table available for the saw, or am i completely
off the wall there?? what ever, you need then a carriage which
at the top will be say 2000 mm high, and the bottom as scrit says
about 300 mm off the floor. how about black iron, or scaffolding
pipes and their fixings. you would need two horizontal ones
and the vertical ones around the "turntable".

like the rockler design you could use mdf planks, and then have
fold down slats to hold the narrower pieces.

i noticed in my last rockler email they have some new
black iron pipe connectors, wonder whether they could be
modified to work.

you would need to run the saw cable above the machine, and have
it in a situation that it does not become too loose when the saw is
at the top, and too tight at the bottom. you also need safety ties on the
turntable, and also to ensure that the wood does not fall off after
cutting hence scrit's idea about slanting the support backwards.

the depth of cut really only needs to be 35 mm since rarely are
we dealing with sheets thicker than 30 mm. i am not ignoring worktops
but one tends more often to work with those in situ. but you do need
a locking plunge action. even the small mafell would do this.

i am sure that there are more than two turntables out there in the
market place, but whether they are only for routers i am not
sure. somewhere my memory bank points me to a canadian system
that was supposed to allow you to cut different angles for narrow
stock, but might work if slightly modified.

paul :wink:

 

[JFC]

Thats the point isnt it , we build a wall saw that can do both .
Its nice to know that while most are asleep im not the only one trying to build a wall saw :lol:

 

[engineer one]

ok jason, now i get it you really want to buy the big legacy, and
are thinking how can you adapt it so it cuts sheets too :lol: :twisted:

well i am off to the land of nod, but will think more in the morning.
i think though we need to adapt the shopnotes model.

paul :wink:

 

[Ed]

It's 3:15am - are you still working on that saw Jason?


The new addition to the family (not a new power tool!) is playing havoc with my sleep patterns... she is only 72 hours old.

I'll be dropping the ladies off in Ashford for a couple of hours tomorrow so if you are around tomorrow I could do with a cup of tea and a biscuit!

I'll bring over shopnotes 88 with the wall panel saw plans - might spark a few more ideas.

Cheers

Ed

 

[mailee]

JFC, You may find this article useful. I came across it when I was thinking of building one. It looks to be the best design I found. :wink:
http://www.shopnotes.com/main/sn88-toc.html
This one shows a video of it in action:
http://www.shopnotes.com/main/onlineextras.html

 

[JFC]

Awwwwww Congratulations Ed ccasion5: :tool:
Im in the workshop all day today or i wont be far if im not .
Just give me a call before you leave to come here and ill make sure the kettle is on .

 

[JFC]

Mailee , that looks like the one doesnt it . I wonder what the costs are for the tracks ? Ill know more later if Ed remembers the shop notes :lol: