[Bob in St. Louis]

That's awesome. ^^^
But nothing gets rid of airborne chemicals (besides exhaust/ventilation). 

[mlundy57]

I rarely cut anything in the garage (not enough room for tools and room to work) and never cut anything inside the house.  Most of my cutting and edge profiling has to be done in the driveway. That's why I built mobile platforms for all my tools and why I can only cut wood on nice days.

Around here Lowe's and Home Depot do not carry Baltic Birch ply. The carry furniture grade birch ply but not Baltic birch. There is a big difference between the two. Baltic birch is almost void free.

I have two local sources that stock for Baltic Birch Ply and I can special order it through Lowe's if I drive to the wholesale distributor and pick it up myself. However, Baltic Birch ply costs three times as much as MDF and is more prone to tear out. That's why I build most of my cabinets out of MDF. I do take precautions though. I cut outdoors, use dust collection and wear a filter mask. In addition to the shop vac with HEPPA filter and a large dust collector I use a ceiling mounted HEPPA air purifier in the garage.

Mike

[Folsom]

If you don't have a good dust collection system, I definitely recommend wearing a mask. And I don't mean dusk mask. HEPA works or Organic Vapor level, for your face.

There's a lot of shops that have CHIP collection, not dust collection... it's a serious problem.

[Odal3]

Any favourite masks?

[Folsom]

I've worn this one all day and it's alright. There are very expensive options that would be good for a more full time situation, but this works pretty good.

[Odal3]

Thanks!!!!

Here are all the Freud track saw blades if anyone else is looking:
http://www.freudtools.com/index.php/products?c=Saw_Blades&shop=Woodworker&tool=Track_Saw

I ordered the 48t 160mm Thin Kerf Ultimate Plywood & Melamine Blade (LU79R006M20).

There is also another one with a negative 3 degree hook angle for double sided laminates, melamine & veneered plywood, but I didn't think I needed that...

BTW: For general cuts vs fine cuts, do you use different blades or do you use one for everything?

[Folsom]

I prefer to have two blades. One that I'll run through anything, maybe even some finish nails if I have to, and another for finish cuts... but finish cuts don't really exist on speakers unless it's hardwood enclosure. So if this saw doubles for speakers AND home projects, then sure, two blades is worth considering.

[Odal3]

Thanks for the info.

Got my new blade in the mail today, but they shipped the wrong one.    Fortunately Amazon will ship a new one free of charge, but I was excited to try it out. Oh well. 

[Odal3]

..and I ordered a few whiteside router bits to get started with. Amazon had the best prices that I could find.
plus some CMT for cleaning.

Do you use something to protect the tools such as BOESHIELD T-9?

[mlundy57]

..and I ordered a few whiteside router bits to get started with. Amazon had the best prices that I could find.
plus some CMT for cleaning.

Do you use something to protect the tools such as BOESHIELD T-9?

Boeshield will work. I use GlideCote

[Odal3]

Somehow I got talked into building stone retaining walls around some bushes in the back yard so haven't had as much time with the saw yet other than a couple of practice cuts. The new Freud blade is great!

I have been reading some wood working forums and watching videos. Sharing pictures of one's worktable seems to be just as fun and popular as speakers. If they could only pick some better music to have in the background 

Do you use sacrificial pieces underneath for the track saw or do you cut straight into the work top (MFT, etc.).

Any fans of parf dogs, etc. ?

[TomS]

Somehow I got talked into building stone retaining walls around some bushes in the back yard so haven't had as much time with the saw yet other than a couple of practice cuts. The new Freud blade is great!

I have been reading some wood working forums and watching videos. Sharing pictures of one's worktable seems to be just as fun and popular as speakers. If they could only pick some better music to have in the background 

Do you use sacrificial pieces underneath for the track saw or do you cut straight into the work top (MFT, etc.).

Any fans of parf dogs, etc. ?

I have a shallow kerf cross cut into the MFT and use that with the hinged track much of the time.

I recently bought Peter Parfitt's MFT drilling kit and made tops with it for the Paulk style workbenches, mainly for clamping. I always use a verity of dogs (Parf/Verity, Precision, Qwas), and they work very well, square enough for most things. You could use 1/4" or so sacrificial strips to preserve the top, though it really depends on what you're trying to accomplish.

[Odal3]

Thanks Tom. Learning something new every day in this thread. Where can I find more info about the Peter Parfitt's MFT drilling kit ? Tried to Google it but didn't find it.

[TomS]

Thanks Tom. Learning something new every day in this thread. Where can I find more info about the Peter Parfitt's MFT drilling kit ? Tried to Google it but didn't find it.

UJK Parf Guide System

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5usysrkgQBo

[Odal3]

That looks like a great a solution  - kind of like a big puzzle.

Finally had some time to take the saw out for a spin. I'm using my dual H frame build as practice. Pretty cool to get such accurate cuts so easy.

Learning lessons so far has been many but it's going better and better. Just need to figure out a faster and more accurate way to measure my cut than my current method with a tradional square and cheap measurement stick.

Next time it will be time for the router.

[Odal3]

Flush trimming went well, and making circular holes just kind of went ok. I used a jasper circular jig and it was easy to use.

I cut it in three passes with .25 depth each time. First two passes looked great, but the third pass wasn't completely flush with the other two cuts - it had a tiny step (slightly smaller diameter ) not enough to make an issue but need to figure out how I can do it better next time. I did set the cut depth on the last pass to slightly go into the sacrificial piece underneath which maybe has something to do with it. It happened on two different cuts.

The other thing I didn't get right was when cutting the last portion before the middle piece gets loose. My center pin was not long enough to get into the piece below so when I cut the last piece off, there was nothing holding the alignment any longer. I tried to be careful but still got a small "wobble"

I also found out that the depth stop of the old craftsman router I have is not the best - tricky to set and didn't hold the depth too well - it moved a little bit and I almost got myself in trouble one time when I didn't realize immediately how deep I plunged it down until I tried to move it. 

So I have been thinking of maybe getting a better router to help with that plus better dust control and soft start would be nice too. Any (non festool) recommendations?

[Peter J]

One thing you can do with Jasper Jig to make clean holes when taking multiple passes is cut the hole 1/16" undersize in stages and then trim to finish size in a single last pass. You already figured out the pin into sacrificial board thing, so no need to call that to your attention.