A track saw as a jointer for thicker lumber
luke_o
| Posted in Tools for Home Building on
Hi everybody,
It seems to me like a lot of the track saws are pretty comparable out there. I know that I’ll want to be able to use mine for truing up the edge of thicker boards in my shop because I don’t want to spend the money on a jointer yet.
Has anyone done this with like 1- 1/2 or 2″ slabs of wood successfully? Do you think this would be too much for a battery track saw? I know festool makes that huge tracksaw but I’d like to keep this under $1,500 at this point haha…
All I can find videos of are ripping plywood sheets, but just want to make sure a good track saw can handle the thicker stuff.
Thanks!
Replies
Don’t know about the battery versions, but I use my Makita tracks saw to rip 2” white oak just fine. I more often use it to rip thick softwood, but with a dedicated thin kerf rip blade the oak is no problem.
I have cut solid doors with my Makita and they are up tp 1&1/2 inches sometimes with no problem.
I like the Makita because it is the same track as Fesstool. I have DeWalt clamps because they are one handed.
I use the Dewalt clamps too. If I remember right they were the best deal. I also drilled a couple of tapered screw holes in my long track for odd cuts where I couldn’t use clamps, but needed them, like for cutting off the bottom 4’ of a T1-11 wall that rotted. I screwed the track to the wall and cut a perfectly straight line to replace the lower pieces.
If the face is actually flat then you could definitely do this. If the face is not flat then you may have to deal with additional issues, depending on how rigid your track is. Of course you'd probably just have to shim under the track here and there.
A table saw can also do this easily with either a sled or not. For the non-sled method, search "Diresta dining table This Old House" on YouTube. I've used many times the table saw jointing method shown there with excellent results, including when I built my 1.5" thick white oak dining table. Of course I always follow it up with a handplane but that's just me being snooty :)
Thanks you all, that's helpful!
That's what they're for!
I recently built a yellow cedar picnic table and joined 3" slabs with nothing more than a 10" Bigfoot and 3/16 X 2 1/2" aluminum flat bar as a straight edge. If the line is straight and your saw is square, it's all good. For reference, I've used the same flatbar for over a decade and my Bigfoot is 15 years old.
Buy aluminum flat bar from any welding supply outfit.
I've used friends' tracksaws, and I have only once found an advantage over clamping on aluminum flat bar, and that was for repeated cutting of angles.
Track saws have several advantages. First, in most cases you don't need to clamp the track. The non-slip stuff on the bottom works great. This is a lot faster if you're doing repetitive cuts. Also, I have several lengths of track, from about 3.5 feet to about 6 feet. They attach together to make longer track. The short one is great by itself for trimming doors. Combined, I have about 20 feet of track. I drilled and countersank screw holes in each, and I've used that combined length to trim the bottom of barn siding. My track saw comes out of the truck multiple times a week.
Absolutely. I use my TS75 to true up 8/4 rough lumber all the time. Run 'em through your planer first... and then rip away with whatever length of track you need. Depending on species of wood you're ripping, you'll probably find its a bad idea to try and make full depth rips. It will overwork the motor and probably trip the saw. Take it in smaller depth bites...same approach as you would use routing deep dados. If you're worried about any run out from multiple passes, then rip a little wider and then take final full depth cut whereby you're only taking off half a saw blade or so to finish. That will give you an absolutely true and clean edge (with the right blade). Making that half blade final pass reduces blade resistance and heat vs. plunge cut. Another finishing option for a step cut is to use a portable planer (Festool's HL850 helical bladed cutter is a gem to use) to run a final pass down edge with edge guide for reference.
I've wanted to get a joiner for over 25 years now...but still keep wanting. I've always ended up determining that I don't really NEED one...and probably not worth the space they take up.