Post by bindi5000 on Sept 28, 2021 16:05:51 GMT -5
Hello friends,
I'll preface my message by saying I'm a terrible woodworker and am this close to giving up because everything I do goes wrong!
I decided to try and make some chunky poster frames and invested in some Beech, my first foray into hardwood. My local yard sold it in 3m lengths, roughly 300mm wide and 50mm thickness. I cross cut it in half at the yard to get it in my car. Without really thinking about it I just used my basic battery DeWalt circular saw and it did a fine job.
I got the wood home and wanted to "mill" it down to usable pieces, roughly 45mm wide and 20mm thick. I don't have a table saw and thought my MT55CC would find it a breeze.
I imagined trying to rip full depth was a bad idea so tried half depth and the saw immediately kicked back which of course is a tad scary.
To clarify:
- The wood was clamped to my workbench.
- The track was clamped to both ends to the wood.
- I let the blade get up to full speed before slowly plunging down into the face (i.e. not shoving it into the end grain side).
- Not anticipating kickback I was confident but gentle, I wasn't slamming it in.
Am I doing something wrong? Is there some other approach I should take? I imagine a cross cut is easier than a rip but I expected the MT55CC would annihilate the wood given half a chance so I was surprised. Luckily I didn't damage the track.
I ended up going 5mm at a time which seemed to work fine but took forever. I'm thankful for the positive stop on the depth measuring thingy!
P.S. My "milled" pieces have bowed and are going to end up matchsticks if I try and plane them to straightness. Perhaps I should have let the wood sit indoors for 5 years before cutting it, maybe it was always going to do that and I should have cut them bigger to accomodate, or maybe I should give this hobby up because I'm wasting so much money with my mistakes!
I'll preface my message by saying I'm a terrible woodworker and am this close to giving up because everything I do goes wrong!
I decided to try and make some chunky poster frames and invested in some Beech, my first foray into hardwood. My local yard sold it in 3m lengths, roughly 300mm wide and 50mm thickness. I cross cut it in half at the yard to get it in my car. Without really thinking about it I just used my basic battery DeWalt circular saw and it did a fine job.
I got the wood home and wanted to "mill" it down to usable pieces, roughly 45mm wide and 20mm thick. I don't have a table saw and thought my MT55CC would find it a breeze.
I imagined trying to rip full depth was a bad idea so tried half depth and the saw immediately kicked back which of course is a tad scary.
To clarify:
- The wood was clamped to my workbench.
- The track was clamped to both ends to the wood.
- I let the blade get up to full speed before slowly plunging down into the face (i.e. not shoving it into the end grain side).
- Not anticipating kickback I was confident but gentle, I wasn't slamming it in.
Am I doing something wrong? Is there some other approach I should take? I imagine a cross cut is easier than a rip but I expected the MT55CC would annihilate the wood given half a chance so I was surprised. Luckily I didn't damage the track.
I ended up going 5mm at a time which seemed to work fine but took forever. I'm thankful for the positive stop on the depth measuring thingy!
P.S. My "milled" pieces have bowed and are going to end up matchsticks if I try and plane them to straightness. Perhaps I should have let the wood sit indoors for 5 years before cutting it, maybe it was always going to do that and I should have cut them bigger to accomodate, or maybe I should give this hobby up because I'm wasting so much money with my mistakes!