Using a Vertical Panel Saw

Many woodworking projects call for sheet goods like plywood, melamine, MDF, plastic laminate particle board and if you're like me, you're probably looking for an easy and accurate way to get those sheet goods cut down to size in your shop. So what I wanna do today is talk to you about machines like this. These are called Vertical Panel Saws. They make it very easy and accurate to get sheet goods cut down to size. So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna show you cross cutting here on the Vertical Panel Saw.

In order to get set up for that, the first thing I wanna do is get a stop locked in place here. That's gonna let me very accurately slide my material in so that I get repeatability. I can make as many cross cuts as I need to. Next thing we're ready to actually get our sheet goods in here and show you just how easy it is to use the machine. To set up for a cross cut.

Got my stop where I want it to be. Now, slide the plywood in under the saw and track. And kiss it up against that stop. Now, to do the cross cut, what I'm going to do here, green for go. Ease that saw all the way down through my sheet goods.

Makes cutting these sheet goods real easy. Nice cut quality. Now, the other thing we can do with these panels saws is rip. So let me get the sheet goods out of the way, and then I'll show you how we can reconfigure this thing for rip cuts. Setting up to rip on a Vertical Panel Saw is easy to do.

What I'm gonna do is pull the saw down to the dimension I wanna cut which is 37 inches and lock the head in place. Then there's a couple of index pins here. When I released those, I can pivot the saw. It's gonna lock back in. Right there.

When we make these cuts, the rip and the cross cut that I already did on a vertical panel saw. You're gonna do that with the bed side towards you in order to optimize the surface finish on the face side of your sheet. So now we're all set here and ready to go with this cut. That takes care of ripping and cross cutting these big sheets. Easy way to handle them.

The other thing I like is that look at how well protected that blade is. So it's difficult if not close to impossible to get my hands in there someplace where it's dangerous for my hands. Now, one thing to think about here is what we really have is a big sliding miter saw. So the next thing I want to show you is how you can use a setup like this in order to cross cut your dimensional stock as well. You saw me cross cut the Oak Veneered Plywood.

Now let's have a look at cross cutting a piece of solid Oak using the Vertical Panel Saw like a big miter saw. What I've done here is I use the panel saw itself in order to square up my sheet goods here. I've got this clamped in place so that once I cut this, it would stay right in the position where I cut it. What that tells me is that this cut edge is right off in the blade of the machine. So now, when I wanna cross cut my solid Oak I can put my cross cut mark right on that edge.

Cut through that very easily and accurately So in addition to that other stuff we did handling sheet goods on the Vertical Panel Saw. You can see that like a big sliding miter saw, it's also a good way to cut dimensional lumber. So next thing I want to do. Get my sheet stock off of here. And we'll have a look at just how easy it is when you're done with the machine to store it.

Here's where we're at on storing this machine when you're not using it. I've already taken the back support off. That comes off. Tool free slips right out of these brackets. The wings that are help support in my sheet goods here on the front of the machine.

Couple of bolts out of there and the wings pop right off. Now, couple neat things here. One is that with the wings off, this machine will actually fit into the back of a truck. So if you need to take it out in a job site, you can do that. Also with the casters on the bottom, I can bring this up off of the kickstand that supports it on the back side and I can easily roll this around my shop.

So a lot of options there that when you're not using this makes it very easy to put this machine away. So like I said, what I wanted to do here was let you know what Vertical Panel Saws are all about. Make sure that you are aware of this tool category to make handling sheet goods and solids as well, easier to do in your shop.