Track saw track flexing

[Windows]

I decided to use a track saw for cutting a groove in multiple passes. I finished with the saw and started cleaning up the bottom with a chisel then decided to go back to the saw to get a bit that I had missed the first time. I hadn’t considered that, in this circumstance, I wouldn’t get a repeatable depth. Because the rail was now only supported by material on one side, it dipped into the channel and my new cut was deeper than it should have been. Not a huge problem on this material but could have been a pain in other circumstances.

Hopefully the kind of mistake I’ll only make once, but I thought I’d post so that someone else might have the chance of making this mistake zero times.

 

[9fingers]

Might be better to obtain/make a router base to run on the track for such jobs.
Bob

 

[AndyT]

Or a plough plane!
(Unless your name is Bob )

 

[Windows]

I’ve been using electric tools recently for social reasons, but a plane would be a more natural choice for me. I was using the saw instead of going straight for a router or plane because I needed the sides of the channel to be 45 degrees, so once I’d cut the edges, I figured I might as well keep going with the tool to hand.

I did actually do something similar (cut away the supporting material) with a router fairly recently. I was making a recess just slightly smaller than twice the diameter of the router base, did the thing where you leave material to support the router until the end, removed it, then realised that I needed to go deeper, and soon learned that I don’t have steady enough hands to keep the router level when it’s only balanced on one small part of the base.