anyone ever cut coves on a tablesaw?

[Paul K. Murphy]

Make yourself a simple one of these. It doesn't have to be pretty, just effective.
Reproduce the width of the desired cove with the parallel ruler, and set the blade at the required height. Rotate the tool into position so that the tooth going down makes contact with one ruler, and the tooth going up makes contact with the other. That establishes your angle. Use that angle, and the appropriate offset to clamp your guide.
You must set at least one fence (guide), and many people set two. No matter what, you must set one so that the teeth push the workpiece into the fence (guide). DO NOT set only one on the side that the teeth are pushing away from. You will loose control of the workpiece; at least, it is likely you will. I watched a man cut three fingers from his left hand that way. He never had a left hand that worked after that.
Remove very small amounts of wood per cut. JGrout has mentioned a good strategy.
Aggressive blades are a plus, but not absolutely needed.

[srv52761]

Pirate said:

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I've also done it on the ras with good success.

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+2
Once to make raised panels and once for moulding.

I used featherboards top and sides to secure my work. On the moulding I used an oversized board to always have a flat section for the featherboards. Then I ripped the moulding off (again, on the RAS).

[EricU]

the video I saw had the fence on the wrong side -- behind the blade. I swear he mentioned the saw pushing the workpiece into the fence

[Paul K. Murphy]

The wrong side is a very bad idea; a very bad methodology.
I was perhaps twenty two years old. Mr. C_ was one of the partners where I worked. He could be pretty mean to me, being the kid, and he had just quit smoking. He was difficult to approach. I saw the cut he was making and understood completely what was GOING to happen. I didn't particularly care for the guy, but I didn't want him to lose fingers. I held my tongue and watched it happen.
As in most every kickback I've ever seen (a lot) it was fast. It makes a sound, Zzzzt, and it was over. I can still see him instantly clutching his left hand. I had been watching him.
He cut through the three fingers almost all the way. What was left was hanging by the remaining skin. For the rest of his life his left hand was half-clutched, immoveable.
When he returned some time later he set up on the wrong side again. His partner, Mr. B_ politely told him the hazards. He told him he was doing it the same way. They got into a "spirited argument" and Mr. B_ worked the rest of the day with a radio headset on his head. They weren't on speaking terms. Again, I held my tongue; watching. Mr. C_ knew he was wrong, but was too proud to admit it. I watched while he executed the cut with utmost care. He got through it by care alone and not proper procedure.
He was a fool.
He was not my mentor in the trade, and he knew it. That might have been the reason he treated me like he did. I think he knew that I was influenced by another old salt we all knew. A rival. Sometimes the trade makes for a small world. All the local cabinetmakers knew one another.
I don't regret not saying anything. Even today, I would feel regret if I believed there was any chance my words would have helped. What would have happened is a large helping of abuse from a man with greater stature than myself, a young boy.

[Isaw]

I've cut some just using a tablesaw blade.



Along the way I learned one can use a Craftsman molding head with quarter round cove cutters and reduce sanding a lot. Than I discovered CMT makes a cutter especially designed for making coves on the tablesaw. I haven't bought it as the Craftsman head works well.

[Steve N]

A pretty good video about coves on the TS, including an easy to make parallelogram for doing them, and instruction on how to use it for different profiles.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKiwTkX4EhE

[MSRiverdog]

I've done hundreds, my best results have been with an Amana 20 tooth ripping blade, take it slow, I don't use and have had no luck with ATB blades, too much sanding. Pic of my early setup with the guard in place before I put an Ircra 1000 on a dedicated fence. I use the Uni saw fence lock set to the back of the miter fence to adjust the width of the cut and make a point of pressure on the wood both down and into the fence. Use a push stick and block, that blade can wreak havoc with your hand. This has worked for me very well over the years although some say it's flat out dangerous.

[MstrCarpenter]

Lots of good advice here. I have learned that the time spent setting up an additional fence (behind the blade) is a lot faster than sanding out a little "oops" or mill a completely new piece. I usually use fences of the same thickness so I can screw a hold-down over the blade. Having a "hole" the perfect size to feed the blank through saves a lot of scraping and sanding. A thick bodied blade helps too.

Something that hasn't been mentioned is the wide variety of curves that can be cut on the T.S.. Try this technique to easily visualize the possibilities. Hold a CD, representing the saw blade, vertically at eye level and block your view of all but the top inch with a piece of cardboard; the top edge represents the T.S. top. If you're looking from directly behind the blade, with your eye at table level, you'll see it will cut a groove about an inch deep and a CD thickness wide. Now rotate the disk slightly on its vertical axis, which represents the angle the fence is to the blade. Try visualizing wide shallow coves and narrow deep coves by raising and lowering the CD, and rotating it more or less. If you kept the "blade" vertical, the coves are symmetrical. Now, purposely tilt the blade and you'll begin to see some coves that are asymmetrical; somewhat similar to French curves. Curves like this are great on furniture bases and crowns, handrails, and even raised panels to make the point where the cove meets the face more pronounced.

O.K.. I've taken the time to explain this lesson that was taught to me decades ago (see below), so please take the time to try it! When you actually see the possibilities, you'll want to try it. I promise it will be a lot easier to cut one of these fancy coves than it will be to keep the grin off your face when you proclaim that you cut it on the table saw.

Have fun, but work safe!

[MKepke]

I have cut a modest amount of coves on the TS. I prefer a molding head with thumbnail-profile knives - creates a pretty smooth cut.

What i really wanted to add though is there was a fairly recent episode of Rough Cut where one of the guys cut coves at a hard 90 degrees to the blade. That approach just never ocurred to me.

-Mark

[EricU]

not a lot different going perpendicular to any other angle. Really limits your depth though.