May 1, 2013 is Safety Day in the woodworking world thanks to the efforts of Marc at the WoodWhisperer.com . Every year he asks his fellow woodworkers to contribute a blog post and/or video to the effort and help make woodworking both safer and more enjoyable for all involved. This is my contribution - I hope you find it useful and perhaps a safer way to work.In my very first video and blog I ever posted - part 1 of my 11 part series on building a workbench, I showed you how I cut up the rough lumber using a circular saw. Well, I nearly lost a finger - it wasn't really that close but this was mainly do to a poor cutting setup/clamping and rough and twisted wood.
This scare, which you'll see again in the video at the end of the post, pushed me toward another approach to making rough crosscuts AND rough ripping.
I no longer crosscut with my circular saw, joint, plane and then rip on my table saw. Instead, I use my jigsaw and my bandsaw and rough cut all the wood in its rough state. I find this to be MUCH safer, quieter, less dusty and allows for better use of wood. I like to make these cuts with a 4" long 6 to 8 tooth per inch blade with a lot of set. I do not know the model number on Bosch blade but find the most aggresive blade you can so the cutting goes fast. This longer blade will also cut through 8/4 and larger stock with ease.
After laying out the cuts I want to make, typically in caulk, I start by making crosscuts with the (Bosch) jigsaw. I will clamp the wood to my bench or assembly table and support the offcut if its large enough. Because of the controllable cut with the jigsaw, you can get away with just holding the offcut if its small enough but I recommend using a support whenever you can, especially on large or heavy pieces.
Once all the crosscutting is done, I take the parts to the bandsaw and rip out the parts. There is no need for the fence and your really don't want to use it anyway since none of the edges are jointed straight. I really like my Woodslicer 3/4 (teeth per inch) Skip Tooth blade but anything in the 3 or 4 tooth per inch range should work great.
