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My very first .

These are made from 1/4 inch ????? oak (Sorry seniors moment ) . Finished with 50/50 blo and spray clear estopol. (TASMANIAN OAK) Marg

I have 2 Granddaughters (same Mom). They are as different as night and day. The oldest plays field lacrosse. One tough sport. She lives and breaths "Lady Blue Knights" so I made a plaque for her and the coach. I had to come up with something for the other and I made the other for her passion.

They are capable of cutting straight and relatively smooth, but so is a table saw. Both require good alignment. Frankly, I would be inclined to see if the TS issues could be corrected first. With the right blade, proper alignment of blade & fence, the TS can produce cuts that won't even require sanding. The upside is that you reap the same benefits on every other project you use the TS for. A bandsaw is also very capable. I have both in my shop. I can go to my TS and make a good, clean cut with minimal prep. With the bandsaw, I would probably need to change the blade (currently has a resaw blade installed = rough cut), adjust the tracking, reset the guides, set the tension, etc. This is far more fiddling than I need to do with my TS. OTOH, if you are looking for an excuse to buy a bandsaw, it would be a violation of forum protocol for me to discourage you.

Made this one for the grandson who is right into Jiu Jitsu.This will give him somewhere to hang his medals. Cheers Peter

Two methods that I use - 1. As you make a through cut all the way around. the lid isn't held the same distance away from the rest of the box , and the blade can make an uneven cut. Install spacers and tape o hold them in place to keep the saw kerf held open the correct space. 2. Set the saw blade to not quite cut through the box sides, After all four sides have been sawed, then finish the cut with a sharp knife. In either case, if the box and lid end up with edges that aren't perfect, glue some 150 grit sandpaper to a piece of smooth surfaced and flat plywood. Temporarily attach this plywood to your bench with the sandpaper facing up, and place the un-even box edge face down on the sandpaper. Use mostly a figure 8 motion to sand the edge of the box and lid to sand the edges flat, keeping even downward pressure as you do this. Inspect the edge frequently, and rotate the box occasionally as you sand it. You should end up with a perfectly smooth and flat box edge. If you apply too much force to any one area, you will not have a perfect fit between the box and lid. Keep the downward pressure as even as possible and rotate the box frequently to minimize this. I keep the piece piece of plywood with the sandpaper on it stuffed between my work benches when not in use, so I can pull it out and use it again the next time that I make a box. Almost every box needs the edges of the box and lid sanded at least a little to get them flat and smooth no matter how you cut the lid free. Correct orientation of the box to the lid is important too. I always put a piece of blue tape on the front of the box and the lid so I know how they were oriented before being cut apart. The grain will all match this way too. Charley

In Progress at this time. First 2 layers off the Hegner. Yes this will be a Great looking Cross. Will show later...........Danny :+}

We had more than 100milliters of rain in the last 3 days so spend some time on the scrollsaw. Now that I have installed the new Pegas blade holder on my EX I find that it is so nice to work with the saw. I did not realized that the knots was there when I glue the pattern on " it say I RIDE A not Pride LOL

Will a bandsaw cut cut straight and smooth? Yes,it will cut straight. Smooth...not completely. That is why I use a the sand paper glued to MDF. The other way to sand is with a flat sander, sand flee, v-sander (all the same thing). I did the box in the picture with a bandsaw and homemade flat sander.

I use my band saw to cut the top off of the thousands of boxes I have made over the past ten years. 1/2" blade cuts it straight but does leave saw marks so I then sand them lightly with my stationary belt sander or my hand held orbital sander. I have a GO555 grizzly with riser.

No on drum sander. Please. Not enough surface area to support the drum You will get dips in front and back. A large disc sander is perfect. A belt sander can work as well but I prefer the disc. A bandsaw can absolutely cut straight if tuned properly and a good blade is used.

That's what I'm thinking as well. If the blade has some run out or the fence is off slightly, the cut can be uneven. Solving the root problem is the goal, but a few passes with a well tuned and sharp block plane will likely work wonders as well.

My first cross project 6 layers (5 and 1 background), painted MDF 3mm (about 1/8 inch), 7,5 x 9,5 inches, blades: NIQUA Top Cut #1 Pattern available at: https://www.etsy.com/shop/AlexFoxUA

Walnut, poplar, padauk

These are a few of my 4" x 12" signs I have cut. Most are cut from Red Oak. Duke

Posted this in the pattern request forum last night. @Dave Monkcame through with a perfect pattern. Thanks again Dave, the wife loves it. 8 1/2 X 13 using more of my re-claimed laminated maple. Jeff

That looks great Peter. He will be proud to hang his medals on there. Well done. Marg

Assuming the fence is parallel to the blade, using a featherboard to ensure the box is held tight against the fence might help. I have also seen it suggested that you should not cut all the way through on the table saw but separate the two halves with a fine tooth saw afterwards and trim up with a block plane. I'm no expert though! Rob

Nice work thanks for sharing

Nice work thanks for sharing

Very nicely done. Thanks for sharing this with us. DW

I used to make boxes and cut the lids of on my table saw. I now do it on a band saw with much better results. I made a MDF board with a cut up sander belt glued to it to sand the cuts. I find this a very quick and accurate method.

The only thing I see is you are too perfect, that is a beautiful box Dave, and I agree maybe a band saw might be a better way to go, RJ

Looks great!

Dave there are many ways to make a box and yours is very much acceptable. I believe you saw blade is not 90 degrees to the table and or not parrallel with your fence. need to check these. Most people when doing boxes the way you are actually use a bandsaw so that they cut the top all in one pass. When you keep flipping the box over to cut another side, if there is imperfections in the set-up they get multiplied. To smooth things out the best tool is a nice 12 inch disc sander

Dave, I also make different boxes, both square, domed, box joint and 8 sided (22.5 degree cuts) . On the joint box, I always leave at least 2 extra pins for the top. Depending on the width of the wood, I may end up with short pin and I'll mount the top on that side. I have a 8" HF band saw and cut it on the 2nd pin. I have a Kreg fence for even cuts. After various attempts to get the cut marks out and even, I decided to "lap" the lower and upper edges of the top and bottom where they mate. I have a tempered 1/4" piece of glass that I carpet taped with sand paper. I also use it for glue ups. I pencil mark all edges to be sanded and proceed to figure "8" sand. When all the marks are gone, the surface is perfectly even. It can be tedious and time consuming but the effects are always the best. I need to find some sort of oscillating table to make short work of this process. On my 8 sided boxes, I make sure that all the side pieces are exactly the same height. I sneak up on my 22.5 degree cuts until my miter is set for the rest of the cuts. On glue up, there can be a slight miss alignment but since the sizes of the pieces are identical, the lapping is minimal. Hope that helps. BTW, paintings by my wife.

Two possible thoughts; 1. If it's not an expensive saw, is the motor not staying solid? 2. To me, I have often found that the blade isn't perfectly aligned with the fence. To check this, run the blade as high as it will go. Feed a scrap into the blade enough to cut through the board top & bottom. DON'T TELL OSHA I SAID THIS!!! Go to the other side of the saw, push down hard on the saw & slowly and carefully feed into the same cut. (You could probably do this without the saw running, if you want to live to a ripe old age). If the cut gets wider, it's a fence out of alignment. BTW, You do excellent work Friend. jerry

"The problem I have is at times my saw cut is not perfect all the way around." I'm going to presume you are referring to the table saw cut, that separates the lid from the box. If that's not the case, then please ignore the questions posed below. Do you have similar problems with other cuts on the table saw? How are you guiding the cut? Wth the rip fence or a jig? What kind of blade are you using? What is the specific imperfection you are experiencing?

Very nice work, Peter !

You are going to be a favorite person around that school! Very nice work.

Well done. i hope you left a few spots to be FILLED in the future too.

really nice, I thought it was to hang belts on but I suppose if could be both, neat stuff

Very well done!

beautiful job

Great pattern and cutting.

Wonderful work all around !

Now this is just Super Fantastic.Love the wording and cutting.

Thanks Chris That is one cool looking piece Fab4

Thanks, I started to make such patterns just a month and a halff ago, my next ornament pattern will be a batterfly

That is so perfect in many way. Great cutting Jeff and great pattern @Dave Monk Marg

3 Very lucky people there. Well done Monti. Marg

We all love being here. It's home not just a Village. Marg

Those look great. Love the font.

they're all very nice

Those turned out great !....Nice cutting !

Nicely done Monti. Thanks for sharing these with us. DW

Terrible corners with a Harbour Freight saw and round blades... Also no clue about wood, so it's spray painted MDF: The sawdust gave me 6 weeks of bronchitis!

Great job! I also like the Pegas blades.

I like it Alex !...Another one I will have to do !

Only use Mobil 1 5-20 or your saw will throw a rod.