I have borrowed a co-worker's skill saw to use to make a little wooden stand for a computer monitor over the weekend. The saw has a rather rough blade that leaves the wood rather abused. I intend to make the stand out of 1" thick sheet of pine and wondered what kind of blade to buy (Home Depot probably) in order to not tear up the wood while cutting. Is there a standard scale of blade harshenss or some such? Thanks.
bp
I take it by "skill saw" you mean "skil saw" or hand-held circular saw. Lotsa things can cause such a saw to leave a rough edge, besides the blade- arbor end-play or out-of-trueness, and your lack of an edge guide would be my first suspects. The former are pretty simple to guesstimate; if bad enough, the saw will at best leave a rough cut face. For the latter, you'll have to devise an edge guide to clamp to the workpiece to guide the saw for a straight, square cut.
Hand-guided, such a saw is good enough for rough cuts of construction lumber, in competent hands, and cutting kindling.
If you look and listen here a while, you'll notice that any cuts such as you seem to want to make would typically be made with a miter saw of some sort, or a "radical-harm-saw" or a table-saw.
HTH, John
A fine tooth blade is best. Read the package and it will tell you what it is good for.
Keep in mind that a circular saw cuts with the good side of the wood on the bottom and the splinters, if any, will be on the top. Use a straight edge guide clamped to the wood for the straightest cuts.
And make sure you get a round blade. The square ones are a real bitch. And don't even ask about the triangular ones.
Get a carbide tipped blade probably a 60 tooth would work well even if you have to rip the pine length wise. If it is veneer you might want more teeth. The biggest thing is to cut with the back side up so the "tear out" or splintering from the saw will not be on the side that shows. If it is sheet material use a straight edge as others suggested. Measure the distance from the back side of the blade to the edge of the saw guide. Add that distance to the width of the piece you want to use and then use a straight board clamped to the sheet on that line for a guide.
CR
Get one that says it is a finish or cabinet blade. Another term used is planer blade. In general, the more teeth the smoother the cut but that's not necessarily true with a planer blade. Don't get a plywood blade and it would probably be best to not get carbide blade for pine. You can't judge the smoothness of the cut by looking at the blade.
Do not try to cut anything free hand. Measure and use a straight edge (metal or a piece of plywood or a board) clamped to the board you are cutting.
If the blade you have now does a half way decent job when ripping the easiest way to make the ripped edge nice is a few passes with a hand plane.
Most any blade you would be willing to buy will tear out some when cross cutting. Here are some things - any or all - in no particuar order that you can do to minimize it...
#2, 5 and 6 should get you a decent edge.
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