Help cutting plywood

Discussion in 'Wooden Boat Building and Restoration' started by wudenbote, May 11, 2009.

  1. Anchy
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    Anchy Junior Member

    thanks for reply. I will be full of questions :)
     
  2. bntii
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    bntii Senior Member

    How many ports?

    A template and flush cut bit set in a router make quick work of it if you have a number to do.
    Use a spiral bit which cuts towards the side which can afford to have the bit of tear out which occurs.
    Don't cut through all in one pass and finish the cut on the top side.
     
  3. Anchy
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    Anchy Junior Member

    Thanks for advice, I am afraid that I will have to cut with jigsaw as I dont have a router at the moment, so I have to improvise. I did cabinet making in workshop before, did everything on machine, so I am not very experianced with hand tools but I am ready for challenge. I put battons all around windows so I wonder what shell I use between Ply and window rubber?
     
  4. Anchy
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    Anchy Junior Member

    boat is dutch cruise 10x3 metres, port is left side i think i have 2 ports (im new with boat terminology too
     
  5. PAR
    Joined: Nov 2003
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    PAR Yacht Designer/Builder

    Jig saws and circular saws rip out grain on the top of the cutting piece, while table saws rip out the bottom face. It's about teeth orientation. Table saws have the teeth rotating down, through the table, so the rip out occurs under the work, while jig and circular saws have upward facing teeth, so the opposite happens.

    The trick with low power saws, especially jig saws, is to let the blade do the work. The moment you try to speed up the cut with force, the blade will try to wander around. This is especially true when turning the blade in a curved cut.

    It's all about two things: knowing your tool (how fast it likes to cut and what angle it might want to dive too if pushed) and second good, sharp blades. Most jig saws will tend to wander in specific directions, depending on which side of the line you're cutting. For example, if your blade is cutting to the right of the line, you often have to cock the saw slightly to the left as you cut, to keep the blade on course and tracking down the line. If you don't the blade will tend to wander away from the cut line. Cutting on the opposite side of the line does the reverse and you need to steer the saw away from the line, to keep the blade on course.

    Go slow, use a sharp blade, don't force the cut and sneak up on the line, so you don't cut too much. With just a little practice, you'll become a pro in no time.
     
  6. Anchy
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    Anchy Junior Member

    Cheers for advices, this site is so good! I can make straight cut cool, use jig and test cut so i could cut spot on the line. problem will be curve around window but i have a jig for it too so i will let jigsaw do the work as you said. when i do that half a circle cut i will add extra mm or 2 and will adjust with japanese saw and sending it to match it perfect. Im not native english speaker so please excuse my explanation. would you advise me to glue 3mm ply straight to boat around rubber of the window or its cool what i did with battens around it and stick ply to it. as i said this is my first experience working on boat and all the angles give me huge headache. i got 50 teeth per inch blades so will change them frequently and im happy how clean the cut is.
     
  7. hoytedow
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    hoytedow Carbon Based Life Form

    What I do is to make a guide either straight or curved to shape from low quality wood clamped to work piece and let the jigsaw, router or circular saw slide along it. It is impossible to mess up the piece when using that method.
     
  8. Anchy
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    Anchy Junior Member

    Hoytedow, thanks, that is exactly how I am gonna use it. While i was studying I kept picking up peaces in diff shapes to use than in future as a guide. I wish that I have a router as its best for curves but jigsaw will do with fine blade, I also used the masking tape and cut the faced dowm marine to min. the rip.
    PAR cheers for the advice about diff rips on diff saws I forgot about it. I love work on boat and I think that I will learn loads doing it.
    Cutting panels in bow is nightmare, i try scribing it, using cardboard as guide etc by seems that is always wrong! all this rails and bows
     
  9. ancient kayaker
    Joined: Aug 2006
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    ancient kayaker aka Terry Haines

    To get a clean cut with either a jigsaw or a handheld circular saw use a zero-clearance baseplate; it's just a thin ply (6 mm is fine) plate attached to the regular baseplate with a slot that is a snug fit around the blade. This eliminates grain tearing. With a table saw again use a zero-clearance insert. This limits your cutting angle to 90 degrees of course, but once tried you will never go back.
     

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  10. tunnels

    tunnels Previous Member

    I worked with prefinished wood flooring for long time i Always used really fine tooth blades in my compound drop saw , ON
    long cuts if its a finished edge i mark with a pencil and do multipul fine cuts along a straight edge with a new sharp blade then use the saw and cut very slowly really close to the cut line .and finally finish with a fine sanding disc in my angle grinder !. prefinished woods are not easy to work with specially Bamboo !! Its very hard and is grainy and the woven bamboo is full of resin and takes the edge of a saw very quickly .
    Jig saw blades you need to find the blades that cut in both directions up and down !! they have vertually no set on the teeth and make a cut so sharp you could cut a apple on the cut edge , look throught the range of blades scroll cutting blades are what some are called but they are small find the bigger blades that have the same teeth pattern .
    http://www.angliatoolcentre.co.uk/d...ing-jigsaw-blades-pack-5-t101ao-pid23429.html
    These the smaller !!

    These look interesting if you can find
    http://www.starrett.co.uk/shop/jigsaws/dualcut/
    They have teeth going in two directions .
     
  11. troy2000
    Joined: Nov 2009
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    troy2000 Senior Member

    What he said....

    Paul covered the subject so thoroughly he didn't leave any room for me to put my two cents in. :D

    edit: well, I thought he did. But as I kept reading I saw a lot of other good advice in this thread, too.... I should probably amend my statement to say Paul covered all the main points I had in mind.
     
  12. Anchy
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    Anchy Junior Member

    To all advisers bih help and of course more questions

    Thanks again for advises and sharing your knowledge. The 2 photo im gonna attached now are first is the boat im working and second is how i decide to do window frame. Somebody advice to scribe but i find to be very tricky, so i did exact shape to fit widow in sacrificial ply and got frame on the top and with 2 screws in the middle of the window i got position of opening for window right. What do you think about that method. On that picture you can see that I started to glue some battens around window on which Im gonna screw 3mm marine ply (the one i hold in picture). I dont know what to use between my ply and window as it will be inch gap, or shell I take that battens out, send that metal around and :):)fix ply directly to it?
     

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  13. bntii
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    bntii Senior Member

    Me too - Hoyte have you stumbled on these yet:

    http://www.woodsmith.com/magazine/extras/158/using-router-guide-bushings/

    I use these along with a big stationary pin router to set up for all sorts of inlay and template work. They also can be used if you need to make a router template to install a bunch of ports in a timber/ply cabin house.

    Very handy for dropping solid timber trim rings into panels such as a teak surround in a circular floor hatch etc.
     
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  14. hoytedow
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    hoytedow Carbon Based Life Form

    I have seen them used but do not own any.
     

  15. bntii
    Joined: Jun 2006
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    bntii Senior Member

    Lousy photo but this is recent job which included a couple of trim rings cut out with templates and the router guides as mentioned above:

    floor.jpg
     
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