Working with large sheets

DesertRatTom said:

I worked this out several years ago. First, I bought a 4x8 sheet of insulating foam, 2 inches thick. I buy either Baltic Birch in 5x5 sheets, or higher grade ply and have the store people load it on my truck. I have three 2x4s spanning the truck bed. When I get it home, I back the truck up to the garage door, place the foam up just behind the bed, the pull the sheet just shy of half way out. Then I grab the end and pull it straight out fairy quickly so it misses the rear bumper and lands pretty close to centered on the foam. Pulling it fast lets it "float" down parallel to the ground, avoiding damaging corners.

I used to use a battery driven circ saw with a straight edge to cut the sheet up while still on the truck, but it was hard to reach all the way across. Then I figured out how to handle the sheets onto foam and that was much better. Later on, I bought a track saw (Triton), which lets you make a scribe cut so you don't get chipping. I cut very carefully and try to keep the factory edges. I use a big square to line up the track, but sometimes I cut leaving a little extra width, so I can cut to exact size on the table saw, which is not in the garage. To me, track saws are underpowered. But conventional circular saws can wander and most of use are a bit careless about making sure the blade is 90 to the saw's base.

I for a short time did the unloading directly onto saw horses, but it was annoying having to rearrange them for support as the piece got smaller and smaller. That's when I switched to the foam directly on the concrete floor. Don't let your saw cut too deep or you break the foam. But you can use tape to keep them solid and in one piece. Mine folds because my finished garage is a tad short for storing it standing up. Track saws use a smaller than normal blade, so a fairly shallow cut still gets the proper tooth bite on the wood.

I have never liked the results of a jig saw. Too hard to control, too easy to have the blade go out of vertical.

This works for me really well. My wife used to be able to help move the sheets onto the saw horses, but that ended a few years ago.

Lot of answer for a pretty straightforward question. Hope this helps.

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krazeeartist said:

3/4" x 4' x 8' Red Oak.

I'm pretty much alone here. Is there any way that I can cut down these sheets by myself?

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mtlakejim said:

Look at those roll around adjustable height hospital bedside tables I have in another post. You can roll those up behind your truck bed and slide the sheet onto them. Then use a straight edge and circular saw or better a trac saw to cut the sheet up. The bedside tables are just about the ideal size for that type of work (long but narrow). And yes they will support the weight of one sheet of 3/4 (but I wouldn't go any heavier than that).

Another option if you have the room is a panel saw (like what the big box stores use to cut up panels). You can DIY one for considerably less than what you can buy them for. We are in the process of building one in our shop now. But we have a large storage area and handle heavy Melamine sheets on a regular basis.

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CharleyL said:

Though the styrofoam works good for many, I have leg injuries and metal knees that make it very painful to work on my knees at floor level. I also hate breaking up sheet stock on saw horses, because pieces fall to the floor, especially when cross cutting.

So I built a "Cutting Table". A frame of 1 X 4" of about 30 X 70" with 2 X 4 cross pieces laid flat and flush with the top of the 1 X 4 frame where needed to allow attaching Banquet Table Legs bought from Northern or Harbor Freight, plus one additional across the center. The entire frame is held together with biscuits and glue, so the only metal in the frame is the short screws that attach the legs. Over 1" of the depth of the top of the table has no metal in it at all. The legs fold up inside the recess below the 2 X 4's and inside the 1 X 4 frame and I store this table inside my shop, on it's edge and against my sheet stock where it consumes less than 4" of space. I can cut a panel in any direction with my circular saw blade set for the material thickness plus 1/8 - 1/4" with no fear of damage to the blade. The kerfs in the table caused by this are never a problem, and if they should ever become objectionable or weaken the frame I'll just remove the legs, make a new table top and add the legs to it. I can make cuts in any direction with the stock roughly centered on the table. There is no breakage as I complete the cuts, and both the stock and off-cut remain on the table at the end of the cut. I can then remove the off-cut and re-center the stock on the table for the next cut.

I use straight edge clamps and a circular saw for breaking down sheet stock outside my shop and then final cut the pieces on my Unisaw in the shop. The shop is too small for managing full sheets, so this works best for me. I have added a piece of Lexan to the shoe of my circular saw with a hole to allow the swing guard for blade protection and the front of this hole is cut to perform a zero clearance function where the blade teeth rise up through the workpiece. There are also channels in this piece to match the shape of the extrusion on my straight edge clamps, so the saw stays on track for perfectly straight cuts. Since I built this before track saws became available, and it works so well for me, I have seen no reason to replace it with an expensive track saw.
My straight edge clamps were purchased from Peachtree Supply www.ptreeusa.com in case anyone is interested. This sheet break-down method has been working well for me for about 15 years.

Charley

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krazeeartist said:

3/4" x 4' x 8' Red Oak. I'm pretty much alone here. Is there any way that I can cut down these sheets by myself?

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johnjory said:

Is it plywood with an oak veneer or is it really solid oak.

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DesertRatTom said:

I worked this out several years ago. First, I bought a 4x8 sheet of insulating foam, 2 inches thick. I buy either Baltic Birch in 5x5 sheets, or higher grade ply and have the store people load it on my truck. I have three 2x4s spanning the truck bed. When I get it home, I back the truck up to the garage door, place the foam up just behind the bed, the pull the sheet just shy of half way out. Then I grab the end and pull it straight out fairy quickly so it misses the rear bumper and lands pretty close to centered on the foam. Pulling it fast lets it "float" down parallel to the ground, avoiding damaging corners.

I used to use a battery driven circ saw with a straight edge to cut the sheet up while still on the truck, but it was hard to reach all the way across. Then I figured out how to handle the sheets onto foam and that was much better. Later on, I bought a track saw (Triton), which lets you make a scribe cut so you don't get chipping. I cut very carefully and try to keep the factory edges. I use a big square to line up the track, but sometimes I cut leaving a little extra width, so I can cut to exact size on the table saw, which is not in the garage. To me, track saws are underpowered. But conventional circular saws can wander and most of use are a bit careless about making sure the blade is 90 to the saw's base.

I for a short time did the unloading directly onto saw horses, but it was annoying having to rearrange them for support as the piece got smaller and smaller. That's when I switched to the foam directly on the concrete floor. Don't let your saw cut too deep or you break the foam. But you can use tape to keep them solid and in one piece. Mine folds because my finished garage is a tad short for storing it standing up. Track saws use a smaller than normal blade, so a fairly shallow cut still gets the proper tooth bite on the wood.

I have never liked the results of a jig saw. Too hard to control, too easy to have the blade go out of vertical.

This works for me really well. My wife used to be able to help move the sheets onto the saw horses, but that ended a few years ago.

Lot of answer for a pretty straightforward question. Hope this helps.

Click to expand...

Pagan Wizard said:

This video shows how you can safely, and inexpensively break down full sheets of plywood by yourself.

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John Lennon said:

I could not see what saw you had, may have missed it. But if you have a table saw this could be a consideration.

Search the net for video "DON'T buy a Track Saw Build this instead!" by Izzy Swan, planning on making it for my table saw as I to work on my own. And its fairly easy to make.

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