Education Cutting Sheet Material With a Circular Saw

Simple question; How easy is it to cut plywood or chipboard with a hand-held circular saw? Is guiding one in a straight line easy or, will it require a rip-fence? A table saw, whilst I would like one, is not an option.

 

It's easier than using a jigsaw..

If you've got the money look at track saws

 

I've used a circular saw for all my material chopping. I tend to have a guide clamped on somewhere, if I fancied burning a pile of cash for something to use once a year, I'd look at either a track saw, or a a track that can be used with my existing saw.

 

You can get a good result following a line by eye, as mentioned above clamping a fence will boost this to an excellent cut.

If you're cutting 4x2 or the like you can run it against a rafter square for fast and easy perpendicular cuts.

 

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll look at buying a track saw.

 

This is my preferred method.

 

Very easy, mine has a laser which you can use to track a line, or you can nail in a guide bit if wood and run against it.

 

Get hold of a long piece of wood, clamp it in place as a guide rail, I do it all the time in lieu of a table saw or tracksaw.

 

That's what I did - a length of skirting board and a couple of clamps. You can just screw the skirting to the sheet if the screwholes won't be seen.

 

If you need a straight line, you need a straight line - clamp a guide.

If you just need a cut, eyeballing it can do a pretty decent approximation to a straight line.

But bear in mind then you're not leaving behind a straight line either. Just remember that the universe hates you, and the next thing you're cutting from the same sheet will need a straight line, and in trimming off the non-straight edge you'll remove too much material to use what you wanted to use the rest of the sheet for.

So as a general rule (ha) - guide, all the time, every time

 

Thanks for the further thoughts. Still deciding what to do and, in any event, I won't be doing the job for some time. Furthermore, I have found since starting this thread, that B&Q sell MDF in sheets that might not need to be cut down.

 

I believe B&Q will do a fair few cuts for you for free, if that solves the problem? I've not used the service myself but I know people who have and they've spoken highly of it.

 

most home centers will do 1 or 2 cuts free and then charge a fee for every cut thereafter, though if you do that you will still have to cut it cause all they will do is eyeball it on a panel saw and cut it as fast as possible +- a mile so you have to keep that in mind for your project

is +- 1/8th an inch going to kill your shed wall, probably not, will it make a mess of your bookcase, 100%

 

Check this out

 

ya thats what i did with some scrap plywood, my no name china express saw was like 29.99 at horrid fart, whats a track saw cost? cheapest one i see at amazon is 114, so 1: I couldnt find one for under 200 5 years ago, and 2: how much you going to use it ... I made my wife some bathroom shelves and a nice printer / cameo stand in the last 5 years, oh and I used it once to install a screen door on the front so I had to trim that

so 3 times in a half decade, even 114 ... that 40 bucks a pop to get a track saw

 

I used that for a kitchen worktop a couple of times, so long as you just want a straight cut they do it, it was free and perfect, great service, my measuring unfortunately wasn't as I didn't realise my walls were flat so whilst it was the perfect size for what I measured I couldn't get the wall to wall worktop in as there was a centimetre difference top to bottom Doh..

 

Either draw a line and follow it or clamp on a piece of guide wood is the cheapest option.

About avoiding ripping:

• the good side of the material should be the underside. Set the depth of your circular saw to just go a few mm through the material.
• The more teeth your sawblade has the cleaner the cut will become.

 

It's scarier and the guard is annoying but yeah, very hard to mess up a straight line with a circular.

I had one with a lazer guide on before I stopped using it.