Kreg Accu-Cut Turns any Circ Saw Into a Track Saw

Author

by David Lyell
page 16

In my shop, the track saw doubles as a second table saw – and if you’d like a low-priced alternative to a track saw, consider Kreg’s newest offering: the Accu-Cut Circular Saw Guide System. This jig uses set screws to attach a sled to the top of just about any non-worm-drive circular saw shoe (left- or right-hand blade) to allow it to perform like a track saw.

The kit includes two 24″ tracks that provide a 48″ rip capability when coupled. A “starting block” provides a steady platform for your saw before the cut begins. There is, however, no option to extend the track length to 96″ – for that, Kreg’s Rip-Cut jig, is a convenient option because they share the same sled.

The Accu-Cut’s “guide strip” forms a zero-clearance fit with the blade after your first pass along the track. When equipped with the recommended 40-tooth blade, I had virtually no tear-out on 3⁄4“-thick veneered plywood. But I did experience some slight flex between the saw, sled and track that resulted in a slight bevel. The Accu-Cut is suited for breaking down sheet goods, not for making finish cuts (arguably true for any track saw in most fine furniture applications).

Read the review in its entirety.

Website: kregtool.comReview: Read about Grizzly’s low-priced track saw.

From the October 2017 issue, #234

For further information log on website :
http://www.popularwoodworking.com/articleindex/kreg-accu-cut-turns-circ-saw-track-saw-3

Woodworking Projects

The Basics of Cabinet Making

Hearing that someone is a cabinetmaker tends to bring respect for the woodworking skills of the person described. That's as it should be, but the skills are neither arcane, nor impossible for the average woodworker to gain. After all, most of us feel anyone can make a good box and cabinets are really nothing more than big boxes. Size imposes some extra demands, and limits, but otherwise, cabinetmaking is box making enlarged.

Cabinetmaking as a skill set has so many facets that almost any woodworker with a decent level of interest, and a modest number of tools, can become competent in some part of the field. Overall competence takes longer, of course, but learning to make shop cabinets is a good scheme for starting on the acceptably easy end. After all, if you mess up, they're only shop cabinets. Or you can start with a simple rolling cabinet for tools, or other of life's necessities, such as a kitchen island or rolling kitchen or tool support cabinet.

Square It Up

Until cabinetmaking progresses into furniture making, the joints remain fairly simple: the hardest requirement is to make absolutely certain that all measurements are accurate and all corners are square. Basically, that means your first need in making cabinets is to go through your shop and make sure all tools are squared away. Check the table saw to make sure the fence is parallel to the saw blade, which you will already have checked to make sure it is parallel to the miter slot. Make sure, too, that each time the fence is locked it remains parallel to the blade. Check the verticality of the blade at this point. An engineer's level is excellent for this purpose, ensuring accuracy because you base everything on that 90° and the parallelism to the fence. Check the fence face, too. Check next for accuracy at a 45°. Make sure the fence face is 90° to the saw's table surface.

"Standard cabinet making is based on the right angle. If you get that 90° correct, measure other angles and distances carefully, and don't slop up the assembly, you are going to make some good, solid cabinets."

Repeat the process with the jointer fence, making sure it locks at 90° and stays there during use, doesn't sag away or creep), as it also must at 45°.

Another set-up repetition comes with your compound miter saw. Get it square and then check intermediate angle settings for accuracy.

Most good tools remain accurate for a considerable length of time after the original work of setting them up. Some will be obviously off in short order, but with others, you may not notice until you've wasted wood. Keeping a small engineer's square in an apron pocket is a good way to prevent problems. Check every few days to see that settings that claim to be square really are still 90° You'll quickly learn which of your tools are most likely to slip out of adjustment most often. Among these you'll find the radial arm saw and the compound miter saw.

At this point, you want to review all you've ever heard about getting smooth cuts with the various types of saw blades. Working with face frames calls for a top grade 24 to 30 tooth finish rip blade. Working with laminates and MDF and similar manufactured materials requires a superb laminate cutting blade, one that resists the abrasive action of the adhesives in the manufactured wood products and the resins in the laminates. Fortunately, most of today's blades are carbide tipped, because that is what you absolutely need for cutting particleboard and MDF, and for slicing laminates. Carbide teeth also last a lot longer in regular use than does high speed steel so that high speed steel blades are now used mostly in special circumstances (when nails or other metals might be found in the wood being cut, for example).

Get Ready

Check your blades and make sure they're sharp, free of gum and pitch, and ready to go. Measuring and marking tools come next. The tips here are handy for all types of projects, as well as for making cabinets, so you might want to file them away:

• Use the shortest tape measure the job requires (obviously, you're not going to use a 10' tape measure to work out cabinet dimensions for a 28' kitchen, but most of us don't want to be lugging a 33' tape measure to measure a 10' x 12' kitchen). If you use more than one tape measure on the job, measure and compare several distances with both tapes to see how they differ. Carefully note those differences and allow for them in use.


• Learn to make and use story sticks. Story sticks almost eliminate the need for measurements by any other means.


• Always treat squares gently. Get hold of an accurate framing square and an accurate try square and check their squareness often, resetting as needed


• Use a marking knife instead of a pencil when laying out cuts. Save the pencil for your story stick.


• Use a compass or a Contour Scribe to mark cabinets for installation against walls and molding. Use a rasp, scroll saw, or belt sander to shape to fit.


• Develop consistency in measuring and marking, including the transfer of measurements to tools when needed for making cuts. For example, if you're going to split your mark one time, do it every time. If you're going to cut to the left of the mark once, do it every time. Move your mark for corresponding accuracy, do not move your cut.


• There is an awe-inspiring range of tools for every cabinetmaking job. You don't need them all, but you do need some. Consider carefully what the job is going to force you to have on hand. Then make sure you have those tools.

Slicing The Sheets 

Most sheet material cutting can be done on a framework that includes several 2 x 4s, a couple of sawhorses and a chunk of 2" thick Styrofoam (or other plastic insulation board). Add a good quality straightedge or a cutting jig to a top quality blade on your circular saw, and you'll get cuts accurate enough for almost any cabinetmaking job, though the final cut is usually more accurately done with a table saw with a wide (50" or 52") capacity fence, and a large outfeed table. A standing, or vertical, panel saw makes it easier, as well as more accurate, but is an expensive tool for the hobbyist. 
Some Styrofoam, a shop built straightedge guide for your circular saw, and a top quality saw blade for all length cuts is all it takes. A little extra time and care is required when transferring measurements, but once the guide is clamped in place, accurate cutting is easy. Laminates can be trimmed with a laminate cutter and rolled into the contact cement using a J roller, both inexpensive tools. Veneer edge trimmers also work for laminates, so special power laminate trimmers, and the bits for them, are not essential (though they ease trimming work by a fantastic degree: the bits can be used in any 1/4" chuck router, too). 

When the time comes to put doors on your cabinet carcass (box), you'll probably find a need for more power tools. The doors themselves can be built on the table saw (including doing the raised paneling, if any), or they can be done with a table saw and a shaper, or a table saw and a router table. One of the latter two choices eases work considerably, and usually results in a better looking job (normally, using a shaper or router table gives a raised panel that needs much less sanding than does one produced on a table saw), allowing more professional finishing procedures. 

Standard cabinetmaking is based on the right angle. If you get that 90° correct, measure other angles and distances carefully, and don't slop up the assembly, you're going to make some good, solid cabinets. It's when we come to the extras, the special joinery for decorative or structural purposes, the pieces that move out and away from security as base or wall cabinets and into the furniture arena, that we see real complexity rearing its lovely head. That extra fancy joinery is not necessary, and can even be counterproductive when you're producing cabinets, whether for your shop, kitchen, bath or any other room in a house. For the most part, cabinets are joined using butt joints, rabbet joints, dadoed joints, and pocket screws, biscuits or dowels for extra strength, or speed (or both), in assembly. The beauty in most cabinets in the home comes from raised panels, wood grain and the general proportions of the cabinets themselves. When you start making furniture in addition to cabinets, then the dovetail joints, finger joints, mortise and tenons and other more complex techniques come into play. 

Learn to make the basic cabinets needed around a home and shop. Branch out from that point, making, as you desire, fancier cabinets, or move on over into furniture where artistry and craftsmanship can be far more demanding than simple cabinetmaking. 

More Woodworking Projects

• White Pine: Your next woodworking project
• Air Filtration for Dust Control
• Working with Maple on Your Next Project
• Working with Red Cedar for Woodworking Projects
• Using White Oak for Woodworking Projects
• Table Saw Tune-up
• Making Tools Mobile - Adding Casters
• Using Wipe-on Oil Finishes
• Using Cherry for Woodworking Projects
• Cabinet Making Basics
• Outdoor Projects - Springtime Ritual
• Face-lift for Old Doors
• Building a Birdhouse
• Handcut Dentil Molding
• Woodcarving on a Turned Bedpost
• Build a Knock Down Workbench
• Adding a Mobile Base to Big Tools
• Building an Auxiliary Band Saw Table
• Building a Panel Cutting Sled for your Table Saw
• Adding A Router Extension To Your Table Saw
• Adding A Pre-Separator To Your Dust Collection System
• Veneering with Contact Cement
• Painting Kitchen Cabinets
• Wood Finishing with Shellac
• Making Your Own Picture Frames

For further information log on website :
http://www.woodworking-news.com/woodworking-projects/cabinet-making-basics.shtml

Cabinetmaking

Cabinetmaking involves more than simply designing, building, and repairing cabinets. It encompasses working with a variety of structures such as doors, windows and window frames, and all types of furniture. Cabinetmakers use many types of materials in this work, including veneer, fiberboard, particle board, hardboard, plywood, adhesives, abrasives, hardware and metal fastenings. They must follow blueprints and designer specifications exactly to construct and repair these wooden articles. Accuracy is imperative as they regularly need to fit small parts and sub-assemblies together, to precisely make and install cupboards and cases and to operate woodworking machines to cut and form parts. Today sophisticated equipment, basic woodworking machines, and portable power and hand tools are used to perform many of the job functions.

Cabinetmakers must have a broad knowledge of wood, its structures and properties, and an assortment of cabinetry hardware and materials. A worker with training and education could start in production and work their way up to a supervisory or management position in the wood industry, as the skills are transferable to a number of other professions.

Main duties

Cabinetmakers perform some or all of the following duties:

• Study plans, specifications or drawings of articles to be made, or prepare specifications
• Mark outlines or dimensions of parts on wood
• Operate woodworking machines, such as power saws, jointers, mortisers and shapers, and use hand tools to cut, shape and form parts and components
• Trim joints and fit parts and subassemblies together to form complete unit using glue and clamps and reinforce joints using nails, screws or other fasteners
• Sand wooden surfaces and apply veneer, stain or polish to finished products
• Repair or restyle wooden furniture, fixtures and related products
• May estimate amount, type and cost of materials required.

Who do they work for?

• Self-employed
• Furniture manufacturing
• Repair companies
• Construction firms
• Cabinetmaking contractors

Sample titles

• Bench Carpenter
• Furniture maker
• Woodworking Machine Operator
• Cabinetmaker
• Cabinetmaker apprentice
• Custom wood furniture maker

Essential Skills

• Document use
• Numeracy
• Problem Solving
• Decision Making

For full Essential Skills profile click here

How to join the field

• Completion of secondary school is usually required.
• Completion of a four-year apprenticeship program or A combination of over four years of work experience in the trade and some high school or college courses in cabinetmaking is usually required to be eligible for trade certification.
• Trade certification is available, but voluntary, in all provinces and territories.
• Red Seal endorsement is also available to qualified cabinetmakers upon successful completion of the interprovincial Red Seal examination.

Salary

Between $13.50 and $29.00. Annual salaries between $28,000 to $63,000

For more information, contact:

Skills/Compétences Canada
294 Albert Street, Suite 201
Ottawa, ON K1P 6E6
Tel: 877 754 5226
Website : http://skillscompetencescanada.com/en/

For further information log on website :
https://skillscompetencescanada.com/en/skills/construction/cabinetmaking/