bennybbc

Shane, your best bet is to buy the right tool for the job. You'll get different answers from different people as to what the right tool is and you still have to be able to afford the tool, have room for the tool, and it should be as versatile as possible to get the most for your money. I have a shop full of floor mounted tools as well as power hand tools and the like but the newest tool I have that's getting lots of use is...
http://www.eurekazone.com/ The EZ Smart guide system will do everything you've described faster, easier, and far safer than any table saw in the world and combined with the right accessories it will do a lot more than what you need. I have no financial interest in the EZ Smart but I wish I did. I see a lot of people on the various forums with problems just like yours and they don't have all of the standard tools, or the tools they do have aren't quite up to par. The EZ Smart Cabinet Maker system will allow you to easily cut up all of your panels perfectly square and all ready to assemble in just minutes without having to carry the panels around from the back to the front of table saw. Just check out the link I posted and you'll be surprised. There is a huge archive of photos showing many different applications and techniques and quite a few great videos. The videos aren't the fastest download but they're not too bad and they're worth it. There's a link on the Eureka Zone home page for the EZ Smart forum. You should check it out. Dino, the owner and inventor of the EZ Smart, is on there just about every day and the forum is full of great people willing to give lots of advice and helpful suggestions. You'll see a lot of claims made on the EZ Smart website and from what I've seen they're all true. It's far cheaper than getting any quality table saw or panel saw and for most applications, it's better. The EZ Smart won't do everything a table saw will, such as dados, but I prefer to use a router for dados whenever I can anyway. The EZ Smart has an attachment for that too and it's very versatile. Sorry for the hardcore sales pitch but, as you can tell, I'm very enthusiastic about this product and just about everyone who buys one loves it too.

Bruce

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ShaneB

Now you've really got me going. I cannot figure out how to make the zero clearance insert either. My saw has a square insert and all of the zero clearance inserts on the market for Craftsman are oval. It also has uneven screw holes so I would have to rabbet out space for them and I just figured it would be too difficult to get the thing to lay in the slot flush with the table. I'll have to read back through your reply to see if I can figure your method out. I must have a slightly different saw than you because minde doesn't have the dust collection.

Thanks again!

bobj3

Shane
Hold on for a bit and I will take a snapshot of both items.

Bj

__________________
PodCast videos
RWS on YouTube

http://www.routerforums.com/86898-post1.html
Besure and click on the Up Arrow key ▲ on the Youtube video, you can select other youtube videos on router tables
http://www.woodworkingonline.com/?s=dovetail
Machine Cut ▼
http://www.woodworkingonline.com/200...cut-dovetails/

http://www.woodworkingonline.com/woo...podcast-store/

http://www.woodshopdemos.com/menu2.htm

Bob J.

bobj3

Shane

Here you go this should help.


Bj

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__________________
PodCast videos
RWS on YouTube

http://www.routerforums.com/86898-post1.html
Besure and click on the Up Arrow key ▲ on the Youtube video, you can select other youtube videos on router tables
http://www.woodworkingonline.com/?s=dovetail
Machine Cut ▼
http://www.woodworkingonline.com/200...cut-dovetails/

http://www.woodworkingonline.com/woo...podcast-store/

http://www.woodshopdemos.com/menu2.htm

Bob J.

Hamlin

Are you wanting to only cut these on a table saw or with a circular saw? Also, are you using the "factory" edge as a guide?

Even though factories make these cuts, don't always rely on them for being "true" and square. Find the center of your sheet, measure from center point to each corner. You might be surprised to what you will find.

Bob and Mike have giving you some very good idea's to work with. I lean more with the panel saw system. As Mike listed, Shopnotes, Woodsmith and I believe a few other woodworking mags will carry such plans on their web sites. You will find that if you decide to make your own panel saw, it's cheaper if you build it yourself.
Just to touch up on what Mike had stated earlier, SUPPORT!! What you decide on what to make and use to cut plywood, make sure you have plenty of support. If you can clamp down your work piece, do it.
Just my $0.02 worth.

__________________
Ken

"A VETERAN"
"Whether active duty, retired, national guard or reserve - is someone who, at one point in their life, wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America", for an amount of "up to and including my life". That is HONOR, and there are way too many people in this country who no longer understand it." -Author Unknown

ShaneB

Benny,

I checked out the EZ system and it definitely looks and sounds great. The website is completely confusing though. there are so many different products that I can't even tell how it differs from a straight edge (I realize that it must be different). What EZ system equipment would I need to accomplish square repeatable panels for cabinets? Your enthusiasm is great. It seems that everyone who touches this thing gets the bug from the sound of that forum!

bennybbc

Hi Shane, I agree that the website could be better set up because there's just so much info there. The products are all part of the EZ Smart guide rail system. The heart of the system is the guide rails and, other than length, they're all the same. For a guided circular saw there's a base that you either screw or double stick tape to the bottom of you right-blade circular saw. It differs from a straight edge because the base rides on, and is partially locked onto a ridge on top of the rail. And the edges of the guide rail has some ingenious plastic inserts that you place exactly on your cut line. They also prevent virtually all chip out on the left side of the cut. With a straight edge you have to space the guide away from the cut to account for the distance between the saw base and the edge of the blade. This allows for error. With the EZ Smart you just position the plastic edge right on your marks and cut. The cut is dead on with no calculating other than when you decide where you want your cut to be. But even better is the repeaters and the square that attach to the guide. There's a lot of detail to these, more than I'll go into here but basically the square automatically squares the guide rail to the workpiece and the repeaters are adjustable to allow for multiple cuts the exact same width without ever marking your workpiece as many times as you can push your saw with your arm. With the repeaters you can either cut with the rail on top of the, "Keeper side" or on top of the, "Waste side". This is possible because they are adjustable for the width of the blade. This might sound very vague and confusing if you're just reading it here but if you spend some time on the website, looking at the pics or watching the videos you'll get a better idea of how it works. Also, because of the special inserts that go into the bottom of the EZ saw base you'll not only get chip-free cuts on the left side of the cut but also on the right side of the cut. This is possible whether you're cutting with the saw on or off of the guide rail. There is also a product called the SRK and it allows you to attach your router to the guide rail. I don't have one but from what I've seen it's really a very handy and useful addition. The applications that Dino and the rest of the gang have come up with are amazing. You can also attach a hand held power planer to the SRK and there are other applications for other tools for the EZ system too. This system of tools isn't cheap and flimsy in any way. Everything is very solid and well engineered. The guide rails are double walled and when two or more are connected together they are dead-on straight and absolutely don't flex at all. Very high quality and heavy duty. I've never seen a post anywhere where someone complained about the quality, or really, complained about any other part of the system.

I really recommend spending a little more time carefully looking over the website. The forum is absolutely full of people willing, (and probably more qualified than me) to answer your questions no matter how basic they are. There are experts on there and there are people who have never owned one so everyone is welcome. Also, Dino is usually very willing to take your phone calls and answer any questions you have for as long as it takes. I've called him twice and both times he answered the phone and both times it was me that ended up ending the conversation. He was very willing to talk about it as long as was necessary. Dino is from Greece and has a pretty thick accent but he's not too hard to understand. He's a very experienced carpenter and woodworker and he's even been known to leave his shop in NJ and drive to see a customer he'd never met just to help him out with a project. The absolute BEST customer service you'll ever find.

If you have any more specific questions you should either call Dino or check out the EZ forum or feel free to contact me privately via private message or via email. bennybbc@gmail.com

Bruce

ShaneB

Thanks so much Bruce. Does the squaring device and the repeaters come with the guide rails and base or are they sold separately? Sorry for all of the questions, but you seem to have the answers!

Shane

bennybbc

No problem at all, Shane. Glad to help. The basic EZ setup comes with two 50" rails and the connectors to join them, a base plate for the saw, and two clamps that slide in a groove under the rails. These clamps work extremely well and if you were to upgrade the clamps they will even clamp an extremely narrow piece of wood. I don't have the specs in front of me but I believe they'll clamp a piece as thin as 3/8" or something close to that. Then you could rip a piece off of that super thin piece so thin you can read through it. There is an example of Dino doing just that in the photo gallery. Try doing that safely on any table saw! And your hand never comes anywhere near the blade and there's no danger of a kickback.

The square and the repeaters don't come with the basic setup but they can either be purchased separately or as part of another package. I'd recommend the, "Cabinet makers" package because it comes with one square and one repeater. You'll have to check the website though because I'm doing this from memory. There are several different packages available depending on what your needs are and if you're not sure what you want, or if what you want isn't listed you can call Dino and he'll be happy to walk you through what you need. Honestly, he won't try to sell you more than you need and if you're not happy with it he'll gladly take it back. In fact, he even will loan out the tools for you to try out for free and I think he even will set up a payment schedule if necessary. If I were reading this for the first time I'd think it sounds too good to be true and that he's just a high-pressure salesman. But it's not too good to be true and he's the real thing.
Buying directly from Eureka Zone, (Dino's company) will work fine and I think he might be having a sale going on right now for EZ Smart Forum members but it might have ended. Hartville tool, Amazon, Ebay and others also sell the basic system but I don't know if you can get the square or repeaters from anyone else other than the Eureka Zone website.

Feel free to ask anymore questions. You might have to contact me off line via private email because I may be getting banned from this forum. I hope not but it's not looking too promising.

Bruce
bennybbc@gmail.com

Hermit

ShaneB,
Check out http://eurekazone.com. They have a great system for cutting plywood. Check out the Smart Square/Fence attachment for the guide rails. Also click on the link for the Saw Mill Creek forum to find out what others think of EZ Smart Guide System.