The trick is to get a straight edge on one side so that the board doesn’t kickback. I’ve done this by pin nailing a piece of plywood with a straight edge to one side- so that it hangs over about an inch, and then run the other side through the blade. And the plywood up against the fence
Other than that, and watching out for nails it’s safe. I also have some magnets that I roll over the board to make sure there are no nails.
I clamp a 4' level to my fence, and just run the concave side next to the level. That way the edge of the board is always against the "fence" and you get a straight cut. Limitation is boards have to be under 2', or your board won't always be in contact with the level.
I've also used double sided tape and taped boards to the level and ran them through with the level riding the fence. Works well for longer board but takes extra work for each board.
Stumpy Nubs has a great easy method. I use mine all the time as I don't have room for a jointer and it works really well. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwUixCEgJck](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwUixCEgJck)
Not quite the same method, but here's a jointing sled that is easy to build, and should work fine for this purpose. You might want to make it a little wider than shown, since your board is fairly wide. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrYjc3G1vgo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrYjc3G1vgo)
How are you going to flatten it?
You have options. First run an edge thru a jointer. No jointer? Use a hand plane. No hand plane? Make a simple sled from a scrap of plywood. You can use toggle clamps attached to sled to hold wood so just the edge hangs over to get a straight edge cut. You can also hot glue or Brad nail the wood to the sled.
Or a track saw to get a straight edge.
If it’s fairly straight you can do pretty well , however if it’s got a bow or bulge, it can be risky to just run it thru the saw.
https://preview.redd.it/x8weeeo2gb9d1.jpeg?width=4284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ecb3858ab90506a8688cb34814db58eb0ba6654d
This is the sled I use for this stuff. I use the match-fit clamps and I have a runner for the miter slot on the bottom. I have widened the slots a bit in the first 4 inches so that I can use the same clamps to attach it to my fence and use it as an auxiliary fence. It also works as a tapering jig, and you can set up the adjustable fence to work like Norm Abram's panel sled (put the adjustable fence far forward). I have a separate plywood strip that I can clamp using match fit clamps to the saw table and that will provide outfeed support for boards that are longer/wider than the sled. IMO, this design is superior to the toggle clamps and/or just a piece of plywood without the miter runner, as this can be used with effectively any size board. (I have used it to square the ends of 2ft+ wide slabs).
As someone who has no jointer or hand planer, making jigs from MDF has been my solution. Also, just using a long straight edge to make a guide for a circular saw to cut about 1/4" off to make straight edge on the board has worked. That way you have a flat edge to run against the fence.
A planer will get your wood smooth but often not get it flat. A jointer, powered or hand plane, will do both.
Take a board and put it in a vice, then two or three swipes with the plane and you are good to go. Quick, easy, safe, cheap.
Only issue is I have 100+ boards to cut, I think for me the waiting time would add up too much. I really like the toggle clamp jig idea someone suggest above
Follow this method by Stumpy Nubs, works really well and is incredibly easy to set up. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwUixCEgJck](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwUixCEgJck)
You have a riving knife in place - I think that's MORE important than a guard because it goes a long way to prevent unexpected kickback (the big danger).
Your problem is your board isn't flat, it will rock. So even WITH the riving knife, the source of danger is the board rocking DURING the cut and suddenly pinching the blade. ESPECIALLY the piece that will be between the blade and the fence. The "free" piece, the offcut outside the blade and the fence, not so important.
When you prepare to make a rip cut on a table saw - that's what you should be thinking every time. Is there a situation where the BOARD will change in the portion between the blade and the fence? The main culprits here being a) sudden stress relief caused by the cut and b) board isn't flat on the reference surface.
The best suggestions you are getting here is to clamp it to a ripping sled of some design. It IS worth it to build one, because that will help you with lots of other things, such as cutting tapers. If you don't want to do that (I highly recommend it, though) a second option would be add a featherboard pushing DOWN stiffly right at the fence about centered where the blade is. That would help alleviate the rocking. Only push sideways when you cut, let the featherboard push down (so as not to introduce rocking). This would be done by ANOTHER featherboard pushing against the fence, but in front of the blade - before the cut. Use a push stick and do NOT stand inline with the cut.
I don't know what you guys are seeing that I'm not, but this does not require anything to cut - the edge isn't perfect but there is no way that it's going to cause kickback.
If you run that against a fence there is a definite chance of kickback if the edge is wonky. Also, might want to test for nails with a handheld metal detector first. They have them on Amazon.
Double side tape a straight piece to one side.
Or, you can run a straight/square piece between this piece and the fence. As long as they stay together during the cut there won't be any problems.
Yes you can run it through, tack a thin board with at least one straight edge to the top so it’ll ride against the fence so you can cut the other edge straight then remove the straight edge board and rip to size. Looking at the end grain it’s not 1/4 sawn and doesn’t look like sapele
It might be cottonwood, which is sometimes used in pallets. Compare this to the 10x endgrain photo at https://www.wood-database.com/eastern-cottonwood/.
https://preview.redd.it/7c2yr8xclb9d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=be09463fb1425ac995d1791bd382c6ae2fbe214a
Here’s the grain, any ideas what it may be? Thanks for any input!
No; if you zoom in on the end grain you can see that it doesn't really have annular rings, no early/late wood. It's some sort of tropical hardwood from an area that doesn't have seasons.
Assuming you don’t have a power jointer, just get a jointer plane. You can even do it with a jack plane. You can do it with a circular saw and a straight edge, but especially for shorter boards it’s just better to use a hand plane. But don’t just do the edge, also smooth/flatten the side that will be on the table saw. Make very sure you have a smooth flat surface and straight edge. Anybody who tells you anything different is inviting you to experience the joys of binding, kickback and kick-up. Which reminds me, please use eye protection.
It’s fine. The problem is that you risk curving the board if not all sides are touching the fence while you rip because it’s not edged. If you want a straight cut best bet is to clean one of the edges first.
How straight of an edge is needed to safely use just the fence? I just got a table saw and until reading this would have assumed the board sitting on the saw was more than straight enough as it appears much straighter than most 2x4s at my local home Depot.
Never mind the table saw safety precautions, where are you and where are you finding chunky sapele pallets? Or anything other than whatever the cheapest local softwood is (pine analog)??
I've made loads of plant boxes and a few log stores out of salvaged pallet wood and I have set aside \*two\* boards which when cleaned up appeared to be something other than basic softwoods.
I got lucky. It was from heavy duty pallets out of Peru. They’re much thicker and bigger than normal pallets.
I specifically searched for hardwood pallets and found these. From what I’ve researched it’s not exactly normal finding this
I'm curious where you found them, I'm also building a small stash of an as yet un-ID'd Asian Red Hardwood from pallets I can find behind a place that does high-end import car work once in a while.
Every single table saw manual and tutorial says don't cut rough lumber on a table saw. Do people do it anyway? Yes, but it's not a good idea. It's too unstable. You really should have the edge on the fence jointed and the bottom face flat and 90°. If the edge on the fence is too "bumpy" then when you're pushing the board through the blade, the blade could "grab" the board and do stuff. Before you know it your hand could be dragged into he blade.
Make an out feed table and a push stick. Don't overthink it. I'd shave a side and spin to use that on the fence for the final cut. If you're unsure, watch more videos of people cutting stuff on the tablesaw.
I'm not sure why more people are not saying this, but the lack of straight edge does not appear to be the only issue here. It's hard to tell from the pictures but it also appears to have some degree of warp/cup. This will be unsafe to run through a table saw unless you can get a flat surface to mitigate that risk. Then you can worry about the edge.
A jointing sled, as others have mentioned will help mitigate the risk of kickback some, even with the warp. But you'll still wind up with a wonky piece at the end.
So, this is gonna depend on what you want to do with it. To me, the top and bottom look pretty rough, so I'd try to make sure there are flat and even with each side. I don't have a planer, but I've used a basic router flattening jig and that would work here as well. After that as others have said, you can make a jig to make sure one edge is straight and then flip it around. After that you may also want to make a cross cut so the ends of the board are square the side.
However, this also assumes the wood is decent. A lot of palette wood has lil bits of debris like sand and what not that can more easily wear down your too blades. So be aware of that as well.
Are you expecting kickback because the piece was cut against the grain? I could be asking my question incorrectly, I’m just referring to the perpendicular lines
I don't know what you guys are seeing that I'm not, but this does not require anything to cut - the edge isn't perfect but there is no way that it's going to cause kickback.
One of the most important things to do when salvaging wood is use a metal detector. Hitting metal is not good for the blade and is dangerous for anyone near the saw as they can be thrown out by a blade spinning at 5000 rpm.
[https://a.co/d/04OUPRKb](https://a.co/d/04OUPRKb)
Jointer sled, get one straight edge, flip and cut the other.
Once squared on the edges, you can figure what to do woth the faces. Planer would be ideal, router sled wpuld work - but you'll likely end up with less than 3/4 for the final product.
Glad to see you’ve sorted the riving knife out - I use a 4-8” wide piece of plywood (at least as long as your board), and use carpet tape / double sided tape to tape the rough board on top, overhanging the edge a little. You just run the whole thing through, ensuring you cut just the top rough board and not the plywood. It allows you to use the smooth edge of the plywood to push the piece through to get one straight edge. This works well for boards that don’t have straight edges.
The reason to not run the rough edge along the fence is it may not be completely straight and the roughness could potentially cause an off cut to become caught between the blade and fence, resulting in kickback.
Many pallets wood is treated to prevent insects traveling from location to location. You should make sure you investigate where your pallet came from and if it was treated before you use it!
The trick is to get a straight edge on one side so that the board doesn’t kickback. I’ve done this by pin nailing a piece of plywood with a straight edge to one side- so that it hangs over about an inch, and then run the other side through the blade. And the plywood up against the fence Other than that, and watching out for nails it’s safe. I also have some magnets that I roll over the board to make sure there are no nails.
I clamp a 4' level to my fence, and just run the concave side next to the level. That way the edge of the board is always against the "fence" and you get a straight cut. Limitation is boards have to be under 2', or your board won't always be in contact with the level. I've also used double sided tape and taped boards to the level and ran them through with the level riding the fence. Works well for longer board but takes extra work for each board.
Can you show me a youtube url where they show this as an example ?
Stumpy Nubs has a great easy method. I use mine all the time as I don't have room for a jointer and it works really well. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwUixCEgJck](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwUixCEgJck)
Look up table saw jointing sled
https://youtu.be/3jHoc5Jnftg?si=BmSolxV0zqgQRmaC
Not quite the same method, but here's a jointing sled that is easy to build, and should work fine for this purpose. You might want to make it a little wider than shown, since your board is fairly wide. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrYjc3G1vgo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrYjc3G1vgo) How are you going to flatten it?
You have options. First run an edge thru a jointer. No jointer? Use a hand plane. No hand plane? Make a simple sled from a scrap of plywood. You can use toggle clamps attached to sled to hold wood so just the edge hangs over to get a straight edge cut. You can also hot glue or Brad nail the wood to the sled. Or a track saw to get a straight edge. If it’s fairly straight you can do pretty well , however if it’s got a bow or bulge, it can be risky to just run it thru the saw.
I think I like the toggle clamp jig idea the best. I’m going to build one this weekend, should be fairly simple
https://preview.redd.it/x8weeeo2gb9d1.jpeg?width=4284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ecb3858ab90506a8688cb34814db58eb0ba6654d This is the sled I use for this stuff. I use the match-fit clamps and I have a runner for the miter slot on the bottom. I have widened the slots a bit in the first 4 inches so that I can use the same clamps to attach it to my fence and use it as an auxiliary fence. It also works as a tapering jig, and you can set up the adjustable fence to work like Norm Abram's panel sled (put the adjustable fence far forward). I have a separate plywood strip that I can clamp using match fit clamps to the saw table and that will provide outfeed support for boards that are longer/wider than the sled. IMO, this design is superior to the toggle clamps and/or just a piece of plywood without the miter runner, as this can be used with effectively any size board. (I have used it to square the ends of 2ft+ wide slabs).
https://preview.redd.it/18773x6lhb9d1.jpeg?width=4284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cdd17c843f2a457187c44b65ff9107bb7930b346 panel sled, w/outfeed support.
That looks great, thanks for showing me that I like it
https://preview.redd.it/jsimp1ihhb9d1.jpeg?width=4284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ea7a05133468188522542dcd2eb012032963ec0b As aux fence.
This is awesome
As someone who has no jointer or hand planer, making jigs from MDF has been my solution. Also, just using a long straight edge to make a guide for a circular saw to cut about 1/4" off to make straight edge on the board has worked. That way you have a flat edge to run against the fence.
There is a jointer plane on eBay right now for $42 plus $19 shipping. For the sake of all that is good and holy in this world, please buy it.
I’m not sure I need it. My method has given me results that I’m satisfied with. I have a planar just no jointer.
A planer will get your wood smooth but often not get it flat. A jointer, powered or hand plane, will do both. Take a board and put it in a vice, then two or three swipes with the plane and you are good to go. Quick, easy, safe, cheap.
Hot glue works just as well, honestly… simple 3 minute wait for the glue to heat up and another 3 minutes to set and you’re good to go
Only issue is I have 100+ boards to cut, I think for me the waiting time would add up too much. I really like the toggle clamp jig idea someone suggest above
Fair, and for 100 boards it’s well worth it to make a jig with clamps.
Agreed, and it can modified later on down the road
For 100 boards is it worth getting a jointer?
Follow this method by Stumpy Nubs, works really well and is incredibly easy to set up. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwUixCEgJck](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwUixCEgJck)
PS: definitely not sapele
Kinda looks more like hickory
Cedar was my guess
I was thinking, what kind of millionaire makes his skids out of Sapele?
lol just imagine how heavy those pallets would be, but they would last forever
You have a riving knife in place - I think that's MORE important than a guard because it goes a long way to prevent unexpected kickback (the big danger). Your problem is your board isn't flat, it will rock. So even WITH the riving knife, the source of danger is the board rocking DURING the cut and suddenly pinching the blade. ESPECIALLY the piece that will be between the blade and the fence. The "free" piece, the offcut outside the blade and the fence, not so important. When you prepare to make a rip cut on a table saw - that's what you should be thinking every time. Is there a situation where the BOARD will change in the portion between the blade and the fence? The main culprits here being a) sudden stress relief caused by the cut and b) board isn't flat on the reference surface. The best suggestions you are getting here is to clamp it to a ripping sled of some design. It IS worth it to build one, because that will help you with lots of other things, such as cutting tapers. If you don't want to do that (I highly recommend it, though) a second option would be add a featherboard pushing DOWN stiffly right at the fence about centered where the blade is. That would help alleviate the rocking. Only push sideways when you cut, let the featherboard push down (so as not to introduce rocking). This would be done by ANOTHER featherboard pushing against the fence, but in front of the blade - before the cut. Use a push stick and do NOT stand inline with the cut.
Can I upvote more than once? This person knows their safety. Thank you for a great explanation.
I don't know what you guys are seeing that I'm not, but this does not require anything to cut - the edge isn't perfect but there is no way that it's going to cause kickback.
If you run that against a fence there is a definite chance of kickback if the edge is wonky. Also, might want to test for nails with a handheld metal detector first. They have them on Amazon.
I will be drilling out all the holes. I popped all the nails already but I feel better if I hand drill too knowing I fully cleared it of any debris
Double side tape a straight piece to one side. Or, you can run a straight/square piece between this piece and the fence. As long as they stay together during the cut there won't be any problems.
Yes you can run it through, tack a thin board with at least one straight edge to the top so it’ll ride against the fence so you can cut the other edge straight then remove the straight edge board and rip to size. Looking at the end grain it’s not 1/4 sawn and doesn’t look like sapele
 Here’s the grain, any ideas what it may be? Thanks for any input!
It might be cottonwood, which is sometimes used in pallets. Compare this to the 10x endgrain photo at https://www.wood-database.com/eastern-cottonwood/.
https://preview.redd.it/54rdel68lb9d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=17ba9bb2e274a0bee7be5018e348d9666a9a98d0 Here’s a sanded wet piece of
First thing that comes to mind is mango, but that seems pretty unlikely to find in a pallet
https://preview.redd.it/7c2yr8xclb9d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=be09463fb1425ac995d1791bd382c6ae2fbe214a Here’s the grain, any ideas what it may be? Thanks for any input!
Oak?
No; if you zoom in on the end grain you can see that it doesn't really have annular rings, no early/late wood. It's some sort of tropical hardwood from an area that doesn't have seasons.
Assuming you don’t have a power jointer, just get a jointer plane. You can even do it with a jack plane. You can do it with a circular saw and a straight edge, but especially for shorter boards it’s just better to use a hand plane. But don’t just do the edge, also smooth/flatten the side that will be on the table saw. Make very sure you have a smooth flat surface and straight edge. Anybody who tells you anything different is inviting you to experience the joys of binding, kickback and kick-up. Which reminds me, please use eye protection.
It’s fine. The problem is that you risk curving the board if not all sides are touching the fence while you rip because it’s not edged. If you want a straight cut best bet is to clean one of the edges first.
How straight of an edge is needed to safely use just the fence? I just got a table saw and until reading this would have assumed the board sitting on the saw was more than straight enough as it appears much straighter than most 2x4s at my local home Depot.
Never mind the table saw safety precautions, where are you and where are you finding chunky sapele pallets? Or anything other than whatever the cheapest local softwood is (pine analog)?? I've made loads of plant boxes and a few log stores out of salvaged pallet wood and I have set aside \*two\* boards which when cleaned up appeared to be something other than basic softwoods.
I got lucky. It was from heavy duty pallets out of Peru. They’re much thicker and bigger than normal pallets. I specifically searched for hardwood pallets and found these. From what I’ve researched it’s not exactly normal finding this
I'm curious where you found them, I'm also building a small stash of an as yet un-ID'd Asian Red Hardwood from pallets I can find behind a place that does high-end import car work once in a while.
Every single table saw manual and tutorial says don't cut rough lumber on a table saw. Do people do it anyway? Yes, but it's not a good idea. It's too unstable. You really should have the edge on the fence jointed and the bottom face flat and 90°. If the edge on the fence is too "bumpy" then when you're pushing the board through the blade, the blade could "grab" the board and do stuff. Before you know it your hand could be dragged into he blade.
Make an out feed table and a push stick. Don't overthink it. I'd shave a side and spin to use that on the fence for the final cut. If you're unsure, watch more videos of people cutting stuff on the tablesaw.
As others have said, a flat edge is advisable. In addition, run it slow, with constant pressure.
Do you have a jointer?
I'm not sure why more people are not saying this, but the lack of straight edge does not appear to be the only issue here. It's hard to tell from the pictures but it also appears to have some degree of warp/cup. This will be unsafe to run through a table saw unless you can get a flat surface to mitigate that risk. Then you can worry about the edge. A jointing sled, as others have mentioned will help mitigate the risk of kickback some, even with the warp. But you'll still wind up with a wonky piece at the end.
I would use a non-terminal velocity toothpick. Or, place a piece of scrap that length and cover the SpaceX project.
A man after my own heart. I’ve got that same saw, it’s awesome 👍
So, this is gonna depend on what you want to do with it. To me, the top and bottom look pretty rough, so I'd try to make sure there are flat and even with each side. I don't have a planer, but I've used a basic router flattening jig and that would work here as well. After that as others have said, you can make a jig to make sure one edge is straight and then flip it around. After that you may also want to make a cross cut so the ends of the board are square the side. However, this also assumes the wood is decent. A lot of palette wood has lil bits of debris like sand and what not that can more easily wear down your too blades. So be aware of that as well.
Yes it is but not with that micro jig and missing blade guard.
Are you expecting kickback because the piece was cut against the grain? I could be asking my question incorrectly, I’m just referring to the perpendicular lines
That is definitely not sepele
I don't know what you guys are seeing that I'm not, but this does not require anything to cut - the edge isn't perfect but there is no way that it's going to cause kickback.
You have a riving knife, you're fine. Be extra careful there are no nails or staples to dull your tools.
One of the most important things to do when salvaging wood is use a metal detector. Hitting metal is not good for the blade and is dangerous for anyone near the saw as they can be thrown out by a blade spinning at 5000 rpm. [https://a.co/d/04OUPRKb](https://a.co/d/04OUPRKb)
Jointer sled, get one straight edge, flip and cut the other. Once squared on the edges, you can figure what to do woth the faces. Planer would be ideal, router sled wpuld work - but you'll likely end up with less than 3/4 for the final product.
Also put the curve *towards* the saw table so it doesn't "rock" on you when you're sawing.
Glad to see you’ve sorted the riving knife out - I use a 4-8” wide piece of plywood (at least as long as your board), and use carpet tape / double sided tape to tape the rough board on top, overhanging the edge a little. You just run the whole thing through, ensuring you cut just the top rough board and not the plywood. It allows you to use the smooth edge of the plywood to push the piece through to get one straight edge. This works well for boards that don’t have straight edges. The reason to not run the rough edge along the fence is it may not be completely straight and the roughness could potentially cause an off cut to become caught between the blade and fence, resulting in kickback.
Got a jointer per chance?
Many pallets wood is treated to prevent insects traveling from location to location. You should make sure you investigate where your pallet came from and if it was treated before you use it!
I personally wouldn’t. Thats a bandsaw board (or it it with a hand-plane first)
As long as you truly mean rip and not cross-cutting with this setup you should be OK if you exercise the usual safety precautions.
Yep only rips. I have a miter for the cross cuts
No. Rip has a kickback risk