Circular Saw Crosscut & Rip Jig || Free Plan

This is my beloved table saw it was sad and  neglected and i restored it and gave it a home as   important as this table saw is in my shop it's not  required to build impressive projects in fact not   every aspiring woodworker has one so i'm building  this station around a much more accessible tool   the circular saw go to the link down below to  get the free plan so you can build this too for the base you'll need a piece of two  foot by two foot plywood and you can buy   that exact size at the home center my piece  is two by four so i need to cut that down   so now i'll make those measurements and then  i'm going to use a circular saw guide if you   want to know how to build this i've got a video  that shows you how the link will be down below so now i'm going to take some 2x2 red oak pieces  which is more of a hardwood it's more stable it'll   last a little longer and i'm going to make the  front and the back fence now you could find two   by twos at the home center and funny enough  some of them are whole pieces of wood that   they've milled from the middle of the tree and  others they took two one by twos and laminated   them together to make a two by two which i think  is kind of funny actually but the point being   if you can't find these two by twos because  they usually don't have a lot of them in stock   you can either order them online and have them  delivered or just take a one by two like they did   with this one and cut two pieces and glue them  together that works perfectly fine so now i'll   measure and cut one of these to 24 inches  and the other one to 19 and a half inches before i go to attach the front and the back  fence and build the rip fence i need to cut   the dados for the t-track if you don't have a way  to cut dadoes either with a router or a table saw   you can skip this part and i'll show you an  alternative way to build this without t-track   it'll still work great the t-track just is  a little more secure and allows for more   adjustability i'm going to cut my dados with a  router and because the router will round over the   ends where the t-track needs to be squared i could  just cut it a little bit longer and then there'll   just be a little gap there that's not filled in  but to get a good fit and finish i'm going to   cut it to length of the t-track and then square  that off with a chisel just to get a good fit i'm attaching both of these fences with wood  glue now the front fence will get lined up   flush with the edge of the plywood and  the back fence flush with the back of   the plywood and i'll go ahead and clamp it  into place but then i'm going to measure from   each end and make sure those measurements  are the same and adjust as needed it's not   critical that i get these perfectly parallel  with each other but the closer i do get it   the smoother this fence will slide back and  forth and it'll clamp down a lot more evenly i've got the slide base and this right side  rail cut to length now this rail is an inch   and a half wide and one problem i have is  once the saw is lowered down to the depth   it needs to be for this station an inch and a  half is just going to be a little bit too tall   so i need something closer to an inch and an  eighth so it will clear underneath that motor   so the way we're going to do that is to take the  offcut from our 1x6 and i'm going to rip an inch   and an eighth off of this with the circular saw  since this is so narrow we can't clamp it down   while we cut it so to do it safely i've got to get  a little creative so i'm going to take a bigger   piece of plywood and actually screw this down  right in the corners to that piece of plywood and   then i'll be able to clamp the plywood down and  then i'll take the slide base scoot it up against   that piece clamp it down and put a straight edge  on this so i can get a really nice straight cut so let's try that again see what i did i made them three  quarters of an inch for some reason   let's do it again that didn't take long   that was educational so we finally got the piece  that we need now let's make sure that it fits   take the circular saw down to the depth and we got  plenty of clearance this base is not quite wide   enough for the circular saw to fit with both rails  into place so i'm just going to attach the left   one for now once that dries we'll make the cut  attach the rail to that second piece and then we   can go through the process of squaring it up and  attaching the whole assembly so i need to attach   this slide base and it's got to be square with the  front fence square is a square angle at 90 degrees   so between this front fence and this base this  needs to be a perfect 90 degree angle right here   i'm going to use a couple of different tools to  measure this the first is a framing square which   has a 90 degree angle here on this corner so i  need to register this side against the front fence   and then if i push the base up against this side  they'll be perpendicular and at a 90 degree angle   with each other so we'll just get this into place  the base i just want it to be flush over here with   the end of the back fence and then flush in the  front and the back but it's more important that   it's square to the fence all right that's looking  good just want to make sure there's no gaps all   the way down and that the framing square  is pushed firmly up against the front fence   all right that looks really good so i'm going to  hold that into place and carefully bring in my 12   inch speed square a speed square has a shoe here  and it's going to work the same way as the framing   square where one side registers against the  front fence and then it's got a 90 degree angle   and this side just needs to have no gaps with  the slide base so i'm holding this into place   i'm going to carefully push that  over and that looks really good okay now that those are in place i want  to double check that i didn't move it   nope still looks great now i'm  going to drive a screw on each   end to hold it in place while we  make the cut with the circular saw now it's time to cut this into two pieces  i've double checked it's square with the front   fence everything looks good i've dropped  the saw down just below the work piece   we'll start behind this work piece get  the saw going and then push through the cut while we're waiting for that part to dry let's go   ahead and permanently attach this so  we've got the screw holes to guide us   but we'll still use the framing square in the  speed square to make sure that we're all lined up before i attach this piece i'm going to  sand everything down to make sure the saw   slides back and forth smoothly and then to  align this it's not going to be that bad since   this base plate is such a long reference area i  can just butt it up against that make sure it's   flush and then i'll clamp at each end and then  double check that the saw moves back and forth   smoothly and that it doesn't have any  play in it and then i'll glue and clamp   this piece to permanently attach it and  then we can move on to building the fence so i need to measure and cut the rip  fence to the distance between the   front and the back fence so i'm  going to push it up against here and then i need a piece of 1 by 2 that is the  height of this thickness here plus the thickness   of the 1 by 2. i need two of those then i need  a piece that's seven inches long these aren't   critical measurements right here so i measure  that from there and then four and a half inches   i like to make a little x on the opposite side  of the piece i'm keeping to make sure i don't cut   into this piece i'm going to let this dry for  about an hour and then i'm going to cut these   on our new cutting station i'm lowering the blade  down until it touches the plywood and then i'm   just going to lift up the base just a tad bit  to make sure that it cuts all the way through   my work pieces now i'm going to lift it up hold  the blade guard start the saw and then gently   lower it down until it cuts into the plywood  and then go ahead and push it through the cut when i assemble this rip fence i need to make  sure that it's parallel to the slide so i've got   a cut off here that's tall enough to act as a  reference and then i can slide the rip fence   up against that and now it's parallel to the  slide i'm going to assemble these other pieces   separately to each other so that once they dry we  can bring them over and attach them to the fence   while they're in place and before i do that  i want to mark where the t-track needs to be so i'll get these glued up and then cut  the t-track and put it on the rip fence and   on both the front and back fences and then once  these pieces are dry i'll attach them to the fence   put the clamps on and then  we'll be ready to try it out tommy from the future here if you are not  using t-track before you glue this part up   we need to go ahead and set up the tightening  mechanism on the back side of this piece we're   going to drill a hole with a 5 8 forstner bit  and actually glue a nut down in there and just   like a cooking show i've already got this started  but what i did was drill with a 5 8 forstner bit   the depth of a 5 16 nut and the head of a 5 16  bolt you need to drill at least that depth and   it's about half an inch so go at least a half  an inch maybe just a 16th more than that so i   just took some ca glue and glued the nut to  the bottom of that hole so after this dries   thoroughly the bolt is going to go in this  side until it sits just under the surface   of the block and since this handle just wants to  turn up and down on the bolt we need a way to stop   it in place so that we can turn the bolt itself so  we've got a nut here and we'll put the handle on   i want this far enough on that some threads stick  out the top so that we can then put on another nut we'll tighten both of these down all right so now  our handle will tighten and loosen that bolt so as   it rides along the front and the back fence if the  bolt head is below the surface then it just slides   back and forth normally but as you tighten that  and the bolt head starts to protrude and push away   from the fence and you do that on both ends you  create a friction fit and it keeps the fence in place the last piece is a guide to make repeatable 45  degree miters and i want to make this removable   in case we need this whole area to cross cut  a wide piece of wood it's tempting just to   throw the speed square up there and mark this 45  degree angle but if we do that we're referencing   off of this plywood edge and not where the  saw is actually cutting and this slide is up   off the plywood a substantial amount so it's kind  of hard to reference against that and then mark   down here on the plywood where the guide needs  to lay so we're going to have to improvise and   do something similar to what we did with  the fence and extend this reference area   with that same scrap piece of wood and i've  got this little angle finder i realized with   this little angle finder that 45 degrees is just  slightly off from where it's marked so i double   check that with the speed square get it where i  need it we'll make sure with this piece that we're   pushing it up against the slide that there's no  gaps and that it's straight up and down 90 degrees   and flat against the plywood then we slide this  gauge up there to reference against this piece   and then i'll mark 45 degrees and to extend  the line i'm using the straight edge from my   combination square i'm going to put the  pencil right on the line and then slide   the straight edge up to it and then we'll  extend that line so now i'm going to clamp   this in place temporarily just to make a test  cut and see if we've got our measurement right so as finicky as it is trying to mark that 45  degree angle we were able to get it right on   to attach all this i've got quarter 20 threaded  inserts they're about five millimeters long   and then i've got these quarter 20 knobs i've got  a quarter inch drill bit that i'm going to drill   through the guide with and just barely into the  top of the plywood just to make a mark essentially   and then the plywood gets a 5 16 hole for the  threaded insert and this clamp is in the way of   where the second knob needs to go so i'm going to  drill this one out and then take a marking knife   and make a permanent mark right up next to the  guide to make sure it doesn't move once i move   this clamp over for all the holes that i drill i  want to mark the depth so i don't drill too far   for this first one i'm just trying to make  a mark in the plywood so i know where to   then follow up and put this threaded  insert and so i know as i'm drilling   once i hit that tape that's as far as i need to go these threaded inserts only need a hole about  three millimeters deep so i'm gonna go about   halfway the thickness of the  plywood and put the tape there   and i'm also going to put just a dab  of ca glue to make sure these stay into place the bolts that came with these handles ended  up not being long enough to go all the way through   and into the threads so i just recessed the  holes with a three quarter inch forstner bit   if you're not using t-track obviously this groove  will not be here and this will be a solid piece   of wood and you can attach toggle clamps to it  i would suggest not getting this kind because   they don't have much depth beyond the surface that  they're sitting so this is obviously not going to   hold down a three-quarter inch piece of wood they  do make auto-adjusting toggle clamps and i believe   that there are a couple of different models  that would reach down to thinner wood like this   installing this clamp down hardware is  going to be really easy i've already marked   right in the middle of the t-track and then i'm  going to take my square and extend that line now i just need to find the  center of this drill a 5 16   inch hole and then i could put  everything together and test it out before i show you this thing in action i want to  talk about a couple of pitfalls that you could   easily fall into first you saw me install these  bolts after the t-track was installed and i had   glued these pieces in place i got extremely  lucky that this was just short enough that i   could slide it back and lift it out what you saw  me do a minute ago i trimmed off a little more off   the edge so it's a lot easier now but it almost  didn't come out so the moral of that story is   don't make it much longer than this gap  here or you won't be able to get it out   secondly make sure that these bolts are no longer  than an inch and a half thread length otherwise   they won't fit in here to get in the backside i  never even thought about this it never crossed my   mind luckily i had the right length and they fit  in there and it was no problem when i was doing   the 3d design of this fence i was convinced that  these little blocks would break off eventually   because not only is this a butt joint ingrained  to side grain which is not the greatest joint   in the world but you're also applying counter  pressure when you tighten this down to that weak   joint so inevitably that's gonna break well as  you can see in the previous clip this back one   broke off so now i've drilled holes countersinked  and driven a screw on each side and that'll add   some mechanical strength i'm also probably going  to need some different clamps eventually these   are great if you have a wide work piece if you  have something say like this width and you need   to cut it down the middle these clamps will not  work for that i know there's several options out   there i just need to try to find something that  will clamp as close to the fence as i can get it   to maximize the width of the work piece last  thing before i show you this station in action   is i really love the idea of this fence and i  think it's fine for this application but it's not   finished to make it completely user friendly the  biggest problem is is that it racks pretty bad   which means each end can move opposite directions  quite a bit so this just means that any time you   move the fence to a certain width that you  need to measure in the front and the back   and make sure those measurements the same so  that the fence is parallel to the slide and   my thought to fix that is maybe you could cut  a groove on the inside of each fence and then   have a guide made out of wood or metal that's  attached to the fence that rides in that groove   and that would keep each end sort of moving at  the same time that would have to be fit pretty   well to keep it from racking but it would at  least cut down significantly on how much it   would move around now it's time to see this  cutting station in action check down below   to get the free plan for this project if you  like this video hit the thumbs up and subscribe   i'd love to have you as part of the channel  thanks for watching and i'll see you next time do you

Channel: Out of the Woodwork

Views: 211,258

Rating: 4.8838582 out of 5

Keywords: Circular Saw Crosscut & Rip Jig Station, circular saw crosscut jig, circular saw jig, circular saw miter jig, crosscut jig, crosscut sled, crosscut sled for circular saw, circular saw rip jig, circular saw guide, circular saw station, how to crosscut with circular saw, how to rip with a circular saw, outofthewoodwork, out of the woodwork

Id: i3zRJ8i6GEA

Length: 22min 30sec (1350 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 07 2021