CMU School of Drama


Friday, March 07, 2025

Eliminating erratic cuts on the ripsaw

Woodworking Network: Ripsaws have long been a workhorse in the rough mill, ideal for dimensioning and enabling woodworkers to obtain straight, uniform sizes of lumber. If your machine is not producing quality cuts, here are some possible causes and solutions to the problem.

1 comment:

JDaley105 said...

When I clicked on this article initially, I did not have the correct definition in mind for the word "ripsaw". I assumed based off my previous knowledge that a ripsaw referred to any saw that would perform the action of ripping a board. Since ripping is just cutting along the grain, I assumed that the article was referring to a table saw specifically, but that the tips would work for any saw that ripped boards. When the article started making reference to chain motors and pressure amounts however, I realized that a ripsaw was its own special type of saw. Having never heard of it before, I've become curious exactly who the target audience of this article was. As I have never really heard of a ripsaw, I assume that it is used in more factory type situations, where you need to easily churn out a bunch of boards as fast as possible as easily as possible. As such, your common carpenter likely wouldn't have access to this machine, and especially not your standard DIYer. And anybody running a factory would likely call someone instead of trying to fix it themself. Really an interesting thought experiment.