Cutting Small Triangle on Miter Saw

[bubinga]

Hi There!  I am considering purchasing a Festool miter saw.  The main use would be to cut smallish pieces to be used in the manufacture of parquet flooring.  Would this machine be an appropriate choice for cutting pieces as small as 2 inch triangles (maybe a little smaller), and could it be used to cut many pieces safely and in a timely fashion. Has anyone done anything similar to this?!  Thanks!

 

[abgoto]

Yes, you can use the Kapex to cut small pieces.  To do it safely, you will need to make a custom hold down for your work.  A hold down is just a foot long piece of wood with a rabbet cut for the thickness of the triangle you are cutting. You can use the trenching feature of the Kapex to cut the rabbet. You could then use the clamp that comes with the Kapex to clamp your hold down.

 

[Michael Kellough]

When cutting stock to produce very small pieces the problem is keeping the small piece from being trashed by the blade as it is cut loose from the stock.

First you need add a sacrificial backstop to prevent the piece from being thrown through the gap in the fence. Much of the time that is all you need as the off-cut just falls over.

Sometimes the shape isn't conducive to the piece falling out of the way of the blade. In that case you can use a vacuum to pull the off-cut away from the blade as it is cut.

You have to position the hose and/or reduce the suction so the off-cut isn't distorted by the suction. If you have a large quantity of pieces to cut you can clamp a piece of rigid tube to the miter table after positioning it to act as a stop to set the dimension of the off-cut piece. If used as a stop you need to relieve the forward part of the tube to give the off-cut a little room to vibrate as it is cut without contacting the teeth again. If the suction is set right the piece will be pulled away from the blade just enough to clear the teeth.

You can use the same idea on a table saw to control narrow off-cuts.

 

[Pixel]

Hi There!  I am considering purchasing a Festool miter saw.  The main use would be to cut smallish pieces to be used in the manufacture of parquet flooring.  Would this machine be an appropriate choice for cutting pieces as small as 2 inch triangles (maybe a little smaller), and could it be used to cut many pieces safely and in a timely fashion. Has anyone done anything similar to this?!  Thanks!

in the shop use a bandsaw or on site a portable bandsaw or a fret saw.