A step-by-step guide to making your first table saw cuts. TABLESAW BASICS.

let's say you've been watching woodworking videos for a while now and you finally decided to dive in and you went out you bought your first table saw and now that you've got it out of the box in you set it up it looks a little intimidating hi welcome to woodworking for mere mortals a channel dedicated to empowering beginning woodworkers to learn woodworking without any fear my name is Steve and in this video I want to take you through all the steps you'll need for making your first cuts on a table saw I'll assume you already have a saw so this won't be a buying guide I'll cover the most common beginner questions in this video but feel free to ask anything else in the comments I try to answer as many as I can but I also encourage other experienced woodworkers to help me out and answer whatever you can I actively monitor by YouTube comments in order to keep it a helpful judgment-free friendly space there are no dumb questions when it comes to using power tools especially a table saw and before we get started if you're looking for a comprehensive step-by-step no-nonsense approach to learning woodworking check out my online courses over at the weekend woodworker comm you'll be able to build your first project this weekend no experience necessary and while you're there be sure to download my free guide to setting up a shop for under $1000 you probably already have a general idea of what you can do at the table saw and why I consider it the most important versatile tool in any modern power tool based home woodworking shop most any cut that a table saw makes can be made with other tools such as a circular saw or a bandsaw but a table saw makes them faster easier and with far more precision accuracy and repeatability really about the only kind of cut you can't make on a table saw is a curved cut a table saw is really a very simple tool it's basically a more powerful upside-down circular saw mounted to a table and instead of moving this saw through the wood you move the wood through the saw which gives you better control as a side note there are people who have made their own table saws by mounting a circular saw under a table but unless you're an experienced woodworker try this there are just too many safety considerations and making it accurate is pretty tedious it would be a terribly frustrating a potentially dangerous way to begin your woodworking hobby my saw is an older porter-cable saw given to me nearly ten years ago by a bunch of viewers it's developed quirks over the years but it still works great and it's a good example of a very basic saw everything I show you on this will be very similar to just about any entry-level table saw you might have this saw may look big but really the saw is just this middle part these two sides are extension tables all table saws will have a motor that spins a blade the blade is held onto a post called an arbor with a nut make sure you install the blade with the teeth facing toward you and don't over tighten the nut just get it snug the blade will spin towards you if it's fun the other way the wood would just shoot out the other end there's a lot of different types of saw blades but I pretty much use a 50 tooth combination blade for everything the blade can be raised and lowered with a crank at the front of the saw allowing you to cut wood of different thicknesses there'll also be a mechanism for tilting the blade so that you can make beveled cuts mine has a crank to do that the gauge to read how many degrees that bevel is is not very accurate on mine so I use a digital bevel finder for making accurate bevel cuts the most important thing here is to make sure that your blade locks in accurately at 90 degrees to the table that's where you'll mostly have it set and you can just check that with a square your saw will come with a riving knife the riving knife is the most important safety feature on your saw it prevents kickback never cut all the way through lumber without it in place your saw will come with a blade guard maybe similar to this one as a new woodworker use it it's there to prevent wood from dropping on the blade or your hand from skimming across it I rarely use one myself I've laid out my specific reasons in a separate video called why do so many people remove their table saw blade guards click on the link in the description again as a new woodworker you should use every safety accessory that comes with your saw once you've installed the blade and the riving knife you'll need to drop in an insert plate this creates a narrower gap preventing would cut offs from dropping down into the housing and I'll give you a good cleaner safer cut never operate a saw without an insert plate installed and make sure that it's flush with the top of the table most saws will come with a dust port in the back I hook up a shop back into mind but there are other dust collection options removing sawdust at the source will make cleanup a lot easier and keep your shop a lot less messy plus there'd be a lot less dust floating around the air table saws come with two methods for supporting wood when making a cut on the table there will be a groove on each side of the blade called a miter slot it's used for a miter gauge a miter gauge is used to support the wood when making cross cuts usually against the grain of the wood like the name implies you can rotate it for making angled or mitered cuts most miter gauges that come with saws look something like this if you want you can upgrade to something fancier like this one that have you ever sent me a while back it's a little bit much for my saw but man is it accurate and I use it all the time the second support accessory is a RIP fence this will have a clamping mechanism that lets you position it as close to the blade as needed and it's used for making rip cuts those are cuts that go along the length of a board in the same direction as the grain most saws I'll have a ruler to help you set the distance between the RIP fence and the blade mine isn't even close to accurate so I always just measure each cut with a tape measure whenever you're cutting all the way through a board use either the miter gauge or the ripken never both at once and never attempt to freehand cut aboard without any support plug your saw into an outlet put on a pair of safety glasses and hearing protection make sure there's nothing on the table of obstructing the blade and flip the switch on get a feel for how the machine reacts when powered on and the noise it makes the noise from a saw could be a little jarring the first time you hear it even with hearing protection in place go ahead and turn it on and off a few times especially get used to turning it off a lot of saws will let you stop it with your knee so you can do it really quickly even without cutting anything you should be getting a sense for the saws power don't fear that power but always respect it let's start with a crosscut for this remove the RIP fence and set it aside install your miter gauge in the left miter slot test to make sure it slides easily and that there's no place I decide it should have a way to adjust it if it's a little bit loose grab a scrap board I'll use a 1 by 4 for this example raise the blade up so that it's a little bit higher than the thickness of the wood there's some debate about this lately with some people contending that raising the blade up as high as possible will result in a better cut but I get perfectly fine cuts with the blade lower and I feel that the less of the blade that's exposed the safer the cut so let's say you want to cut this board to 12 inches long measure and make a mark at the 12 inch point I don't usually draw a line but I will here the important thing to keep in mind when making any cut is doing which side of the line to cut on rarely if ever do you want to cut straight down the middle of a line because you want to consider the kerf or the thickness of the blade and how much material that will remove since this is my workpiece the 12 inch piece that I want to for the project I want to make sure to line the teeth of the blade up with the outside of the line otherwise my board would be short about an eighth of an inch and that matters when possible I prefer to have the workpiece the part I measured and I want to use supported with the miter gauge but sometimes you need to support the cut off or waist side don't try to support a tiny piece of wood against the miter gauge where it would just be tippy use common sense once you've lined up your cut pull the miter gauge and board back together away from the blade in addition to the safety glasses and hearing protection put on a respirator mask now's when I want you to imagine your cut I do this for every procedure no matter how simple make it a habit imagine the cut you're about to make how are you gonna turn on the saw how will you hold the wood against the miter gauge where we position your body throughout the cut what will you do after the board is cut and most of all imagine where your hands will be throughout the entire procedure from the moment you turned on the saw to the moment you turn it off establishing this habit will become even more important as you learn to make more complicated cuts turn on your shopback or dust extractor if you have one and power up the saw with the board in place and firmly held against the biter gauge position your body to the left of the blade never make a cross cut in line with the blade if a cut off piece were to kick back at you you don't want to be in its path again with your riving knife in place kickback will be far less likely to occur slowly push the miter gauge forward and through the blade the first time you make a cut you might be surprised how easily it cuts after the cut is made pull the board away from the miter gauge with your left hand and pull the miter gauge back to the front of the saw and shut off your saw resist the temptation to reach over the blade to retrieve the cutoff piece just let it sit there until the saw has stopped you'll use the RIP fence for ripping boards cutting them lengthwise into narrower boards but you'll also find it handy for cutting plywood and other larger sheep goods a good rule of thumb is to use the rip fits for any board that's longer than it is wide making a crosscut for instance with the RIP fence could cause the board to twist and bind between the fence and the blade causing kickback again use common sense here when using the RIP fence your workpiece will almost always be against the fence and the cut off part will be on the other side of the blade this will give you complete control of the piece you're working on throughout the entire cut making cuts with the RIP fence will require to use either a push stick or a push block I always use a gripper from micro jig no this is it an add but I'll include a link for this down in the description it fully supports the wood through the entire cut giving me cleaner cuts and it keeps my hands safe a lot of people are more comfortable using push sticks which is probably what your saw cane with whatever you choose don't ever use your fingers for the complete procedure let's say I need a board that's 2 inches wide so what I'll do is measure two inches from my rip fence to one of the teeth on the blade like cross cutting and all other cuts remember to account for the kerf of the blade so obviously if I measured from the outside of the blade here my board would be too narrow as always do an imaginary dry run envisioning where your hands will be throughout the entire cut and how you'll position your push sticks or push block you want to position those push sticks or push block wherever you'll be able to reach them during the cut turn on the saw and set the board against the RIP fits for the first part of the cut you'll probably need to use your hands to guide the wood into the blade especially on longer boards push forward with your right hand and use your left hand to press the board toward the fence keep your hands at least six inches from the front and the side of the blade as the end of the board gets closer to the blade you'll need to grab the push sticks hook one over the end of the board pressing forward as well as downward continue pushing the board all the way through the blade completing the cut using the push sticks the Ripper push block will give you much better control and you only need one although it's handy to have two four long boards so that you can leapfrog them during the cut one tip I always like to mention when using a rip fins is to keep your eye focused on the fence not the blade when you're making cuts to ensure that the workpiece and the fins are in constant contact with each other for even more videos to help you get started using a table saw be sure to check out my table saws skills playlist thanks for watching everybody

Channel: Steve Ramsey - Woodworking for Mere Mortals

Views: 765,314

Rating: 4.9350982 out of 5

Keywords: woodworking, woodworking project, how-to, DIY, easy woodworking, steve ramsey, WWMM, Mere Mortals, The Weekend Woodworker, woodworking plans, Free plans, wood, making, building, makers, hobby, weekend projects, Weekend Woodworker, power tools

Id: tKtE0sTFi8g

Length: 13min 17sec (797 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 31 2020