Hi Kevin, When I was doing any amount of frame construction and before God made power miter saws or before I could afford one anyway I used to make cutting guides or jigs. I would often dado a length of straight 2 by 4 stock just enough to fit a pair of cross pieces at right angles for a 90 degree cut into the face of the 2 by 4 with my table saw just far enough apart to drop over the 2 by 4 to be cut. This forms a sort of capital 'H' to drop over the wood to be cut then slide it to the point you want to cut plus or minus the distance from the edge of the saw shoe to the blade and clamp the jig there with a 'C' clamp. The cross member of the 'H' then becomes the guide, just keep the edge of the saw shoe against it and push the saw through.
You don't need to dado the cross member you could as easily run a couple of screws, I just liked the accuracy and security. I made 30 and 60 degree angled jigs for cutting the parts to make roof trusses, don't remember if I ever made any for other tasks. If the legs are left a little long the saw blade will cut a kerf you can measure to and avoid calculating in the offset to the blade. This does not of course overcome your measure problem but you can get yourself a 4 foot stick if you have a 4 foot chunk of sheet goods to work from. I have, on many occasions made myself a measure of a given length by measuring a series of shorter ones and tapping in a little finishing nail. This takes a little patience but you can use say a framing square to get 2 feet, tap a small finish brad in at the end of the 2 foot blade, move the square and line it up with the rear side of the brad so you aren't including the thickness of the brad in the measure then mark again. Depending on the project this can easily be plenty accurate and given the accuracy of the talking tape measure even when it is working you are only within a 16th, much coarser than the thickness of a brad. Hope these are useful ideas or hints. ----- Original Message ----- From: Kevin Doucet To: [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, December 03, 2008 3:32 PM Subject: Re: [BlindHandyMan] alternative to talking tape measure >you wrote >Would it be appropriate to cut some fraction of 24 inches off of >what you are cutting to get the right dimension? Ripping a thirty >inch width from a sheet of plywood can be achieved by ripping off 17 >and 13/16ths or so depending on the thickness of your saw blade. In this case I am not ripping. I am needing to cut several 60 inch lengths off of a 16 foot 2 by 4. >Otherwise you want a straight edge. Many make their own and of >course there have been many references to various ones on the list. I am using a circular hand saw and a 3 foot by 3 foot table to clamp to with an additional table to support the part of the wood hanging off. Can you help me understand how I could utilize a straight edge to accomplish what I want to do? >I often have a length of strapping I keep about which is cut off at >exactly 4 feet as a measurement extension. I also frequently lose it >and find myself making new ones but it is a way of significantly >extending the length of my rotomatic ruler. I suppose I should have >a thread added to an aluminum rod of four feed for that purpose and >some day when I no longer have any use for it I probably will get around to it. > >----- Original Message ----- >From: Kevin Doucet >To: <mailto:blindhandyman%40yahoogroups.com>[email protected] >Sent: Tuesday, December 02, 2008 7:56 PM >Subject: [BlindHandyMan] alternative to talking tape measure > >Hi, > >My talking tape measure has gone crazy and I need to find an >alternative way to accurately measure up to 6 FT. > >Also, as my accur-rip circular hand saw guide only allows for a 24 >IN. cut I am also looking for a way to guide larger cuts. > >Any and all help is welcome. > >Thanks. > >Kevin Doucet ><mailto:contactme%40kevindoucet.com>[EMAIL PROTECTED] > >confuse as says > >Blind man with unmarked forehead has large belly! > >[Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > > > >__________ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus >signature database 3661 (20081203) __________ > >The message was checked by ESET Smart Security. > ><http://www.eset.com>http://www.eset.com Thanks. Kevin Doucet [EMAIL PROTECTED] confuse as says Blind man with unmarked forehead has large belly! [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
