AScarpher photo
From Vince's drawing and the photo I put in the Photo files, you can
see what I am talking about.
At the left edge (and to some extent right)you can see the layered
core base. On the right, there is a black object exiting, and this
is the hose of a shop vac, that when turned on holds the edge of the
ply/feathers down, by pulling air through holes drilled through the
top edge. Just in front of the handplane, at the edge of the jig,
you can see a black line. This is where the feathered edge separated
from the jig with the vac turned off. A full sheet of ply seals all
holes, and if they aren't sufficiently sealed, just use anything that
will block them. You need a minimum of 4 x 1/4" holes to keep the
shop vac motor cool, so provide for those somehow. That is what
works for a small Shop Vac.
The two C clamps hold the piece of ply to the jig, and there are
supports for the rest of the ply just as Vince envisioned. The
Orange clamp holds everything to the underlying table.
The fence sticking out adds necessary support to the edge of the saw,
or you could just make the whole thing even wider than I did.
The presence of the plane indicates that the sheet was about 1/2"
thick, and needed a few strokes to fair the top edge.
One nuance I didn't figure out until after I built the jig, was that
I set the dropped angled ply piece at exactly 8-1. Which meant I
could only adjust the exact angle in one direction with shims. Had I
fudged it a little, I could have used the blade angling ability of
the saw to adjust for a perfect result. You might even want to set
the angle at 6-1, which would be strong enough for a lot of Bolger
things, allowing you to cut right through thicker ply. This should
be fine and would be brought up to strength when the sheathing was
put on. You could still get 8-1 with base adjustment, however the
lower ply fence/saw guide would have to be adjustable upward to
compensate for these two angles.
This system is extremely fast, and fully controls the edge of the ply
for near perfect results. You don't need to attach anything to your
tool, which means that it is instantly available for other uses.
I based it on a much fancier installation at the WEST factory, where
the unit was part of a full size table, the vac pressure did all
sheet holding, and the saw was permanently mounted on a sliding
bearing deal. That goes back to about '88.
see what I am talking about.
At the left edge (and to some extent right)you can see the layered
core base. On the right, there is a black object exiting, and this
is the hose of a shop vac, that when turned on holds the edge of the
ply/feathers down, by pulling air through holes drilled through the
top edge. Just in front of the handplane, at the edge of the jig,
you can see a black line. This is where the feathered edge separated
from the jig with the vac turned off. A full sheet of ply seals all
holes, and if they aren't sufficiently sealed, just use anything that
will block them. You need a minimum of 4 x 1/4" holes to keep the
shop vac motor cool, so provide for those somehow. That is what
works for a small Shop Vac.
The two C clamps hold the piece of ply to the jig, and there are
supports for the rest of the ply just as Vince envisioned. The
Orange clamp holds everything to the underlying table.
The fence sticking out adds necessary support to the edge of the saw,
or you could just make the whole thing even wider than I did.
The presence of the plane indicates that the sheet was about 1/2"
thick, and needed a few strokes to fair the top edge.
One nuance I didn't figure out until after I built the jig, was that
I set the dropped angled ply piece at exactly 8-1. Which meant I
could only adjust the exact angle in one direction with shims. Had I
fudged it a little, I could have used the blade angling ability of
the saw to adjust for a perfect result. You might even want to set
the angle at 6-1, which would be strong enough for a lot of Bolger
things, allowing you to cut right through thicker ply. This should
be fine and would be brought up to strength when the sheathing was
put on. You could still get 8-1 with base adjustment, however the
lower ply fence/saw guide would have to be adjustable upward to
compensate for these two angles.
This system is extremely fast, and fully controls the edge of the ply
for near perfect results. You don't need to attach anything to your
tool, which means that it is instantly available for other uses.
I based it on a much fancier installation at the WEST factory, where
the unit was part of a full size table, the vac pressure did all
sheet holding, and the saw was permanently mounted on a sliding
bearing deal. That goes back to about '88.