Stupid tablesaw ripping question...

[OscarG]

I want to cut repeating 15cm boards off a piece of ply.

I thought ok, just set the fence to 15cm and get on with it, but it seems wrong to me to have the larger part of the wood on the left, with the skinny bit next to the fence. Is it not normal/safer to have the wide bit next to the fence?

I've tried looking at beginner guides on youtube but didn't find anything that answered this.

So.. if you wanted to cut 15cm strips, would you do A) or B)?

Sorry if this is spectacularly dumb but as a newbie to using a TS I'm mildly terrified of it and want to be ultra careful.

Cheers!

 

[dzj]

Cut the sheet in half, or a multiple of 15 + a few cm, then go with fig. A.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

If you go with B you have to reset the fence for every strip.

 

[custard]

Firstly Oscar, full marks for the diagram!

The thing that often gets missed in these table saw questions is that ripping on a table saw is a skill, you only get competent with lots of practise. An experienced sawyer wouldn't hesitate to go with plan A, furthermore the results would be clean, accurate, and free from scorch marks.

But the fact that you're asking the question suggests you're not that man. So if width consistency better than one millimetre isn't critical go with plan B, but if width consistency needs to be bang on then accept some wastage and go with dzj's suggestion.

 

[skipdiver]

Having a small workshop i do what dzj suggests. I break down the sheets outside on trestles before moving to my table saw. Custard is also correct about practice and i spent 2 years in a caravan manufacturers machine shop, using a tablesaw, bandsaw and cross cut saw all day every day. What seems a simple process is anything but and takes a fair degree of knowledge to achieve accurately and safely.

 

[OscarG]

Cut the sheet in half, or a multiple of 15 + a few cm, then go with fig. A.

Yeah I started to do that, using B), cut 2 roughly to just over 16cm, thinking I'll trim up afterwards. Then I thought that was perhaps a wasteful/slow way of doing it.

 

[OscarG]

If you go with B you have to reset the fence for every strip.

Indeed, that's what got me thinking it must be wrong.

 

[OscarG]

Firstly Oscar, full marks for the diagram!

The thing that often gets missed in these table saw questions is that ripping on a table saw is a skill, you only get competent with lots of practise. An experienced sawyer wouldn't hesitate to go with plan A, furthermore the results would be clean, accurate, and free from scorch marks.

But the fact that you're asking the question suggests you're not that man. So if width consistency better than one millimetre isn't critical go with plan B, but if width consistency needs to be bang on then accept some wastage and go with dzj's suggestion.

Ha cheers fella!

I'm better at diagrams than cutting stuff!

As a general rule, is it good practise than the larger piece goes against the fence?

 

[memzey]

I’ve always though that the longer edge should ride against the fence, which seems not to be the case in either of your scenarios. To add; as a rule, if I’m making multiple cuts of the same dimension I’ll have the piece I wish to keep against the fence. This helps to ensure repeatability and therefore consistency between the parts.