Panel Cutting Machine

[Shu Manwill]

United panel cutting machines are used in the conjunction with our quilt machines. Panel cutters are designed to handle all quilted material produced by our quilter. Panel cutters are available in vertical and horizontal designs for fast, accurate high volume production.

I'm a complete amateur trying to turn an old 14 wide x 22 long single car garage into a wood shop. Nobody in my immediate family or friends does any serious woodworking, but I do have some family members/friends who have been in other trades for decades and are pretty handy, so I'm learning by researching and getting advice from them.

Lately I've been finding myself needing to cut full 4' x 8' plywood panels lengthwise down the middle for shelves or other things. I'm the type that usually likes to research myself silly to find the best possible solution before committing to something. In this case, it seemed to me that the answers online were pointing to a panel saw, though that may just be because I started from the perspective of "What do places like Home Depot do?" And I remembered they have large panel saws for things like this, and it seemed fitting since the word "panel" is in the name, it's obviously for cutting panels.

I'm working on a serious budget, so I'm trying to avoid spending 1k+ or even more on a pre-made aluminum frame panel saw. I looked around and saw that some folks have in fact built their own, such as this youtube video, or there are apparently kits you can buy such as here, or here. Though upon suggesting the idea of building a panel saw for this purpose, I was met with pretty strong resistance from 2 people, who both suggested their own solutions.

One family friend suggested that a panel saw is too large and unwieldy, requiring 16 feet to push a panel fully through, or otherwise too difficult/a hassle to make, and I should instead use my existing 4x8 workbench, modify it to the height of a table saw he could lend, and buy some infeed rollers and push a full 4x8 panel through a table saw, outfeeding onto my workbench.

This is my current method. Another family member of mine essentially suggested I should continue with my current solution, which is propping up the plywood sheet above my workbench with 2x4, clamping down, setting up a guide board, and using a circular saw along the length, though he suggested I should lower my workbench height to make this easier. (Currently, my workbench height is approx 40 inches. Would lowering to 36 really make this much easier?)

This is what places like Home Depot have setup for customers to use. Assuming I can build a safe, reliable panel saw for fairly cheap, it seemed to me this would be the best option. Note - I do not count having to put in time and effort to build a panel saw as a negative of this option, because in fact I'm trying to build as many projects as I can, though I would count expense as a negative.

Other Thoughts - I had the idea of making a panel saw with traveling x and y axes, in order to deal with the issue of needing 16 feet of space, though this idea was lumped into the bag of "too difficult".

So ultimately, the question is what is the best method to make the most difficult 4x8 panel cuts (which seems to me to be lengthwise, down the middle), with respect to the 3 qualities I've brought up: safety, practicality, and quality? Am I right in thinking the panel saw is the answer to that question, or am I being naive and is one of the other suggestions made to be a better solution?

Woodworking encompasses a lot of different project types to practitioners. By far and away, I believe the most important and versatile tool in any woodshop is a table saw. Cutting your panels in the area you have available is very doable. Take a look on youtube for countless videos showing converted garage shops all of which have kicked the car out and utilize the whole space for more important things!

One key to installing a tablesaw in a limited area shop is to make the tools and work surfaces mobile. Putting the table saw on wheels allows it to be easily moved to accommodate the work. I do not recommend using the roller supports as shown in your photo, rather work with input rails and an off feed table. The key to making safe straight cuts is having full support for the panel on both the in and output sides of the table. I recommend making a mobile bench to use for output that matches the height of the table saw so that it can be placed against the back to receive your panels as they move through the blade. A 3'x6' surface is desirable so that it can be used to support panels several feet on either side of the blade line. The table can also serve as your assembly and finishing bench. When not in use it can be stored against a wall leaving room in the center for other work. A smaller mobile tool cabinet can serve as a side table to support the panel as on the sides of the table saw. Support on the front (input face) cannot be a solid table since you must move towards the table with the panel as you feed it in and a table would force you to reach too far. I would recommend making two support rails that can clamp to the table fence guide. The type shown in the photo fold up to take very little space.

To step back and think about your goal of setting up a woodshop, I'm tempted to say that a tablesaw of some description is inevitable. One can do surprisingly good work with a portable jobsite tablesaw, though it's easier to have some beautiful hunk-o-metal cabinet saw.

So, if we accept my claim of inevitability, one possibility is to just buy a tablesaw now and have done with it. Personally, I'm not a fan of anything on the infeed side, but I'm a huge fan of having a big outfeed table. Your workbench would be excellent for that if it was a little lower. (You could fabricate some riser blocks if you have a hankering for a 40" high bench to do some kinds of work on.) Another 'food for thought' kind of idea is to google the Paulk bench. They're pretty nice and if you don't want a table in the middle of your workspace, they'll pack up nicely.

To your points, I respectfully disagree that sheet goods through a tablesaw are dangerous. Tablesaws are dangerous -- don't get me wrong -- but I can't think of anything innately more dangerous about sheet goods. (In fact, you've got more mass, so the tablesaw would have to work much harder to kick an entire sheet back into your face.)

Practicality-wise, it's true that you need space, but only for as long as you're cutting. For most people that means benches and saws on wheels. Cutting across a sheet requires as much as a 52" fence, which kicks your saw well into the 'cabinet saw' category. That could be good or bad.

Initially, it's not easy to get perfect cuts with an ungainly sheet on the tablesaw. If you can round up a helper with a bit of woodworking experience, they can push the sheet sideways against the fence while you push from the back. (This is only for when you've got a lot of sheet goods hanging off the side of the saw -- don't ask anyone to get closer than 2' to the spinning blade.) What I'll do is cut close to the line (imperfectly), then re-set and cut a perfect line. (You can also do the rough cut with a circular saw and a chalk line.) When you're only muscling the last bit of sheet goods, it's easier than you think. Plus, if you want, you can set up featherboards to help keep the stock securely against the fence. (Featherboards are an under-appreciated tool in some circles.)

Your circular saw with guide thing is excellent. If you stuck with it and didn't get a tablesaw right away, you'd have a lot more money to spend on other good stuff like routers. I know you mentioned that it was a bother to set up, and so on, but you can comfort yourself by remembering that you probably aren't spending all your woodworking time cutting down sheet goods. (You aren't, right? Please tell me you aren't.) If you get tired of hoisting it onto the workbench, you can throw a sheet of styrofoam or a few 2x4s on the floor and crawl around. (That certainly makes cutting down the middle easier.) Agree that quality is high, and will be even higher if you use a new, high-tooth count blade, and masking tape on your cutline to help with tearout on the top surface. (This matters more with veneer and crosscuts than rips.)

I see the appeal of a panel saw, but for the love of whatever deity you like, please stop thinking about this. It's a sledgehammer for a mosquito. I'm the biggest tool hussy I know, and never in a million years would I think seriously about a panel saw. Rips would be okay enough (with the burning/binding at the end of the cut being an issue unless you enlisted a helper to stuff shims into the kerf as you cut), but cutting across the sheet accurately will require an extremely precise set of slides, which would crank the price beyond sensible levels.

In general, if you have a large production shop, a panel saw or sliding table saw might make sense, otherwise a circular saw/track saw makes the most sense. However, what works best for any given person depends on several things:

1: If you only cut full sheets 5 times a year, it probably doesn't make sense to buy a panel saw, and a table saw is not the ideal tool for the initial cuts, although it is a good tool for other operations and to clean up rough cuts once you've broken down the full sheet into slightly oversized parts. Most places that sell large sheet goods will cut them for free or for a nominal fee. You can always let them use their tools to get the parts roughly to size, then cut to final dimensions yourself.

2: If it takes you more than 5 or 10 mins to set up and make a cut after unloading the plywood, you won't enjoy the process, especially if that involves rearranging your shop to accommodate the cut. And all that time will add up if you have to do this often.

3: A table saw alone doesn't necessarily have a huge footprint, but if you use it a lot you won't want to keep rolling it up against the wall and pulling it out all the time. A panel saw, while nice, also takes up a lot of valuable space--in your case, probably wall space which could be better used for lumber or several other tools. A circular saw or track saw takes up 1 cubic foot or so (more if you have a storage case for it), plus whatever space is needed to store your track/guide and a 4'x8' sheet of foam (possibly broken down into easier-to-store pieces).

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