Cutting 2x2's with TS55

[Vaskerville]

I have a brand new TS55 but I live in Africa in a place where all the wood is rough - you have to either hire somebody to cut things to working size (although the quality is always suspect) or you have to do it yourself.

The wood arrives in more or less different sizes - which is a bit frustrating. Some are very close to 2x2 but still need a little trimming.

The Festool rails, obvioulsy, are much wider than the wood and I've been searching around the web but haven't found anything - is there a reliable technique for ripping long pieces of wood into 2x2's? I'm thinking of a jig idea or something along these lines...not sure how to fix the rail to a thin piece of wood.

I hope I've explained this well enough.

Cheers

 

[Theshipstore]

I would just lay a second piece of the wood under the guide rail for support and them make my cuts. This should work real well for you

Sal

 

[ajones]

I have a brand new TS55 but I live in Africa in a place where all the wood is rough - you have to either hire somebody to cut things to working size (although the quality is always suspect) or you have to do it yourself.

The wood arrives in more or less different sizes - which is a bit frustrating. Some are very close to 2x2 but still need a little trimming.

The Festool rails, obvioulsy, are much wider than the wood and I've been searching around the web but haven't found anything - is there a reliable technique for ripping long pieces of wood into 2x2's? I'm thinking of a jig idea or something along these lines...not sure how to fix the rail to a thin piece of wood.

I hope I've explained this well enough.

Cheers

I have heard that New York is a jungle [scared]

 

[Vaskerville]

I would just lay a second piece of the wood under the guide rail for support and them make my cuts. This should work real well for you

Sal

Yes, but, the wood arrives in all different sizes. I could search through them all and try to find something the same but I was wondering if anybody had ever come up with a kind of jig solution for this kind of problem.

 

[Vaskerville]

I have heard that New York is a jungle [scared]

I've only ever posted two threads here in the past and there are some really odd responses - have nothing much to do with things.

My home in the US is in NY. But, I am currently living in Africa. Good enough for you?

 

[ajones]

I would just lay a second piece of the wood under the guide rail for support and them make my cuts. This should work real well for you

Sal

Yes, but, the wood arrives in all different sizes. I could search through them all and try to find something the same but I was wondering if anybody had ever come up with a kind of jig solution for this kind of problem.

Well I would see the table or bandsaw as a solution and then a thicknesser,but being in Africa you may not have access to such things.

 

[ajones]

I have heard that New York is a jungle [scared]

I've only ever posted two threads here in the past and there are some really odd responses - have nothing much to do with things.

My home in the US is in NY. But, I am currently living in Africa. Good enough for you?

I dont give a monkeys where you live, its what passes for a sense of humor here in the UK.  (see what i did there ..monkeys africa) [huh]

 

[Chuck Kiser]

I have heard that New York is a jungle [scared]

I've only ever posted two threads here in the past and there are some really odd responses - have nothing much to do with things.

My home in the US is in NY. But, I am currently living in Africa. Good enough for you?

Don't take it too personally, It was meant as a joke. Your location shows NY but you stated you live in Africa. It just rang funny.

 

[Vaskerville]

I have heard that New York is a jungle [scared]

I've only ever posted two threads here in the past and there are some really odd responses - have nothing much to do with things.

My home in the US is in NY. But, I am currently living in Africa. Good enough for you?

Don't take it too personally, It was meant as a joke. Your location shows NY but you stated you live in Africa. It just rang funny.

It's not always easy to tell though - it just comes off as strange and is clearly off topic. I'm all for jokes though...

Anways, think I'll need to do some out of the box thinking on this particular problem (or use my really crusty table saw, bleck).

 

[tbellemare]

How long are the work pieces?

Tom

 

[LostInTheWood]

I know nothing of Africa or your location there, but I just gotta know why does the wood come that way? 

What about other sizes?  Since you have the TS55 you can just order, say, a 2x12.  My guess is that the rough cut 2x12 should be true enough to lay the rail on it and cut your 2" pieces.    Now at least you have one dimension consistent.  Then you lay those over on the cut sides and trim the rough 2" to exactly 2".    And since they are all the same, when you lay them over you can lay the rail on a set to keep it stable as you cut.

 

[Vaskerville]

It's actually Mauritania - one of the poorest nations in the world. The wood comes very rough and they have little tools and/or skills to cut things. I'm told, much of it is cut by hand here (no kidding). Some places you can find things cut nearly the same but it's never all the same.

Additionally, we have rather poor wood to choose from. You can find a type of redwood from Senegal but this wood is not always ideal. Forget finding any other hardwoods or even remotely quality plywood or mdf.

I am leaning towards something like a 2x12 (although they won't all be the same 1.5 inches thick) and then cutting things up - I can't think of any alternatives either.

Recently, we went to a local woodshop and ordered some wood cut to particular dimensions. Asked them to plane it, etc. What we got was not good - and we were told this is one of the best places in town to order finished wood from. That's how it goes here...

And all I want is a big stack of 2x2's so I can build a bunch of very simple modular furniture.

 

[Tinker]

I buy my wood rough cut (evidently not as rough as what you get).  most of it i run thru my planer.  However, there are the times it might have a twist or cup, or both on same board.  for those, i go the neanderthal way.  i get out the trusty hand planes and wok the wood down so it is flat on one side. In your case, without access to a power planer, you would need to plane both sides until even, flat and parallel. 

when I was in high school (many moons ago)  i did a few projects in our house.  All i had for tools were hammers, handsaws, a smooth plane and a jack plane.  I would set up a couple of sawhorses in the middle of our kitchen, nail the ends of the board i wanted to plane (nails would be countersunk so not to damage plane iron) to the horses and start cutting away.  I used a couple of flat sticks, or anything flat, for sighting the boards as i planed away.  It can be quite surprising how even and flat you can get a board using that method. Of course, today, when I do that, I use clamps to hold the board.  If board is small (short) enough, i use the MFT table with the adjustable flat clamps and lock into place from the ends and sides.  A few wedges here and there so the board does not go up and down, and voila!  flat board in no time.

In your case, cut a couple of short sections of your uneven 2x2 and plane to even thickness and you have the start for a planing jig.  I have been to many seminars (landscaping: both the theory and answer are the same whatever you are doing).  A question often comes up:  what is the most important tool?  I always raise my hand and reply "observation and imagination."  give it a try
Tinker

 

[jonny round boy]

A question often comes up:  what is the most important tool?  I always raise my hand and reply "observation and imagination."  give it a try

Surely that's two..... [poke]

 

[Vaskerville]

I buy my wood rough cut (evidently not as rough as what you get).  most of it i run thru my planer.  However, there are the times it might have a twist or cup, or both on same board.  for those, i go the neanderthal way.  i get out the trusty hand planes and wok the wood down so it is flat on one side. In your case, without access to a power planer, you would need to plane both sides until even, flat and parallel. 

when I was in high school (many moons ago)  i did a few projects in our house.  All i had for tools were hammers, handsaws, a smooth plane and a jack plane.  I would set up a couple of sawhorses in the middle of our kitchen, nail the ends of the board i wanted to plane (nails would be countersunk so not to damage plane iron) to the horses and start cutting away.  I used a couple of flat sticks, or anything flat, for sighting the boards as i planed away.  It can be quite surprising how even and flat you can get a board using that method. Of course, today, when I do that, I use clamps to hold the board.  If board is small (short) enough, i use the MFT table with the adjustable flat clamps and lock into place from the ends and sides.  A few wedges here and there so the board does not go up and down, and voila!  flat board in no time.

Obviously, I'm trying to reduce the time it takes to do things. I'd love to plane things by hand but we're talking alot of wood.

I think I'm going to pickup 2x12 and spend the likely obscene amount of time it will take to find wood of the same thickness. Then, I'll use my TS55 to rip the 2x2's and then I'll use my power planer to finish things off.

I have a bunch of oddly shaped almost 2x2's already and I wanted to find a fast way to trim things (which is why I was curious about a jig) but it would have to be one at a time. I think I'll just use these pieces for the random bits.

 

[MarkF]

You need one edge straight on each piece of stock for this to work so do this first.  Then support the sawguide on a piece of 2X12 about the same length as your sawguide and leave 2" open under the splinterguard edge to butt your stock into.  Clamp the sawguide down on each end of the 2X12, butt your stock into the 2" space under the sawguide, rip, repeat.  Have a few scraps of 1/4" plywood/wedges/etc to shim for any variance in stock thickness. 

 

[Sam Murdoch]

This my sound sacrilegious but perhaps just countersink some screw holes in your guide rail so that you can screw it down to your wood stock of any dimension. You will of course then need to clamp your wood into some sort of vice or use long enough screws to fasten through your wood into a solid base so that as you run the TS55 along the rail you are not flipping the assembly to the ground. All the options sound like a nuisance but maybe a combination of the suggestions will serve you well. We all do what we have to do  [crying] Good luck!

 

[Vaskerville]

Festool makes a parallel guide that attaches to the TS55 (and TS75) that make this as simple as can be.

 

[MrMac]

this is a fascinating problem! I wonder if you would almost need an alaskan mill? you know, that thing/frame with a chain saw attached? or some sort of portable milling machine.  The wood mizer would be great for handling the trees, and then when you get the square stock you could process it with the TS55.

It's not cheap though!

good luck

Laurie.

http://www.lauriescustomfinishing.ca

 

[mouppe]

I had a similar situation to this a couple of weeks ago and I came up with a method that worked really well and was repeatable.

You clamp one 2x2 on 3 sides using festool clamping elements or some other horizontal clamps (this is the fence). It is important that the clamps lie below the top of the wood. Then you butt up another 2x2 next to it and clamp the ends. The two pieces of wood should be the same height. Then lay the guide rail on top- clamp the guide rail so that it remains fixed for all your cuts- and make your trimming cut.

After making your cut, loosen the clamps holding the trimmed wood, and insert the next one. When all pieces are done, you switch the wood that is the fence with an already trimmed piece and make your last cut.

In the sketch below, the guide rail is represented in blue.

Crappy picture, but there you go! (Apologies for the M&S pyjamas in the background!!!)

[attachimg=#]