"A system with a few knobs set up by someone who knows what they are doing is always better than one with a lot of knobs set up by someone who doesn't."
Thanks for the reply.
Why not just turn your work piece 9o degrees and make another parallel cut, which would be 90 degrees to the first?
Again, not actually having used a table saw before I dont see the advantage of a panel jig.
Is it maybe because you dont have to constantly adjust a fence? Simply place your panel in the jig, and line up your cut mark to the blade?
I am kinda thinking the jig is a permanent "fence" so you just adjust your panel whereas cutting everything with the table saw fence requires constantly moving the fence for each cut?
Do I have a good understanding, or am I way off base?
with the fence, the panel is the one that is sliding while on the jig, it basically "in place". This really helps out with making angled cuts as the fence is completely useless for that. Also, the other HUGE advantage is that if your panel is out of square in the first place, you can't really do much with the fence, while on the jig you just draw a line and make a cut along the line. It also supports the panel which is something that if you're using a table saw is really good as you NEVER want a panel hanging to one side and catching the back of the blade. Kick back sucks.
I can see the advantage of having the whole piece supported.
As for angled cuts, isnt that what the mitre gauge on the table saw is for? Simply adjust the mitre, and use the fence to hold you angled cut line in place?
If the panel jig is for 90 degree cuts how would you do an angle cut with it? Screw the piece to the jig to hold it in place, and slide it through the saw?
bean438 wrote:I can see the advantage of having the whole piece supported.
As for angled cuts, isnt that what the mitre gauge on the table saw is for? Simply adjust the mitre, and use the fence to hold you angled cut line in place?
If the panel jig is for 90 degree cuts how would you do an angle cut with it? Screw the piece to the jig to hold it in place, and slide it through the saw?
It is, but if you happen to have one of angled one that slides on a single rail, has a guide of about 10", and is really hard to set correctly, it becomes nearly useless. With the jig you simply align the drawn line to where the blade will cut (which is extremely simply as the jig itself is already cut and you know exactly where it will cut).
And yes, when I did my braces, I would just hold the piece down with my palm and went really slow. Or you could clamp it if you liked.
However, after my 3rd pair of titan, one of the rails fell off and I now I just have a panel that I salvaged which makes terrible cuts and has to be clamped down every time as it does not have the push bar
It's hard to describe how much better, faster and easier the panel jig is. Yes, you can do much of it with the miter guide and the fence. But not nearly as fast nor as accurately. My saw has a sliding table, so my jig doesn't get much use any more. But when I was running the antique delta the panel jig practically never left the table.
The single most important virtue of the panel jig is you don't push the workpiece through the saw anymore. You push the jig. Your hands stay clear of the saw blade. Save your fingers, you will need them for cab building, making music, and whatever else you like to do with all 10 fingers.
So far I'm getting very good results with my handheld circular saw. The used table saw I was looking at would have been a renovation project itself. My first 18" Tuba 30 is turning out all square except for the baffle being installed 1/8" off square...that was my fault.
Donny Collins Built:
Two 18" Tuba 30's 3012 LF
Two 26" Tuba 30's Lab 12
Two OmniTop 12's DL 2512 (Melded Array)
Presonus Studio One DAW
Harrison Consoles MixBus 32C DAW
doncolga wrote:So far I'm getting very good results with my handheld circular saw. The used table saw I was looking at would have been a renovation project itself. My first 18" Tuba 30 is turning out all square except for the baffle being installed 1/8" off square...that was my fault.
As Bill notes, you can build a good box with just a circular saw and jig saw. It's quite a bit more of a pain to build one quickly though. For my current Jack build, I cut all my panels just a bit large, then squared them with the panel jig and finished everything to the same height using the table saw fence. Rapid repeatability is the advantage of a good table saw.
