www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk

I am trying to do a project for a friend who is into crafts, and they need a load of wooden cubes cut. 2x2 is fine for the size, so today i tried cutting these to size, but came across a couple of problems.

They need to be exact, even slightly out and they won't be even when lined up. I do not own any fancy table/mitre saws yet so i cut these with a hand saw, but to cut perfectly vertical seems to be an everlasting challenge for me. I seem to be cutting at a tiny bit of a slant, which then means sanding it back to shape but then........ah you know........it just ain't working!

Any tips for getting a mm perfect cube from a strip of wood? I know this sounds the most basic of jobs, and theres only one cut to get a cube from a bit of 2x2, but it just needs to be perfect.

My friend was quoted £30 for 50 blocks 4cm x 4cm x4cm, but i did my sums today and can do it for £6.50......if i cut the damn things good enough!

Hope this makes sense.

Calv.

so you cant do it for £6.50m then
i was going to say get a cheap chop saw for £25 but then that would be over budget.
personally i dont think you will do it as it takes alot of skill to cut that straight. not only that, to avois splintering the underside you will need to turn the wood as you cut.
sometimes i do jobs that people think are expensive. a friend or a father always say i could do it for half that. they soon disapear when i say gpo on then.
credit to you for not disapearing.
though i think you probobly wish you had now.

i would start by asking if 44mm would be good enough !!!

then with chop saw length stop and lengths of 2x2 you can knock up 5 to 10 a minuite

i converted srveral lengths for people with learning difficulties they wanted 50 cubes so they could sand the edges and paint bright colours then build with them

so in my wisdom i made an additional 20 double and 30 triple blocks to add to the building fun


how do you get a price of £6.50!!!!!

48x50 =2.4mx£2= £4.80 is that £1.70 for your time!!

The first problem you are up against is that 2" by 2" PAR is not that size so if you cut 2" lengths the square will not conform. Even allowing for the reduction in planing it often has an inconsistent thickness over the length due to warps and riding the guides in the multi cutter head machines.

The proper way to do this is to face and thickness the timber from sawn through planer thicknesser machines. This will give accuracy and like the others have said a chop saw will allow accurate cutting of the block.

Nothing is easy chum.

DWD

big-all wrote:

how do you get a price of £6.50!!!!!

48x50 =2.4mx£2= £4.80 is that £1.70 for your time!!

First off, had i have been able to to do this, it's for a friend so i said i'd do it for nothing. So nothing for my time.

2x2 at my local shop is £2.25/metre, i can get 22 blocks from a metre.

£2.25 divided by 22 = £0.1022.....call it 10p per block. 50 x 10p =£5.00

So in fact i think i did get my sums wrong, but i can do it for a fiver instead of £6.50.

Does that read right? I had such a day of this yesterday it's frazzled my brain!

Thanks for the advice everyone, it was actualy reasurring to read that this maybe is'nt as simple as it sounds.

Calv.

yes but you need to realize 2x2" planed [smooth] is around 44mm x44m plus the saw blade of around 3mm=47mm x50 =just under 2.4m

2x2" is the stock size before the planeing and planeing removers around 6mm

Ah i see....cheers for that!

Calv

Where do you live Calv, if you are near me i'd be
happy to help you out.

You could pick yourself up a tenon saw and a mire box, or even one of the £10 mitersaw, the one with the 4 posts, that holds the saw true.