I am about to lay a new floor in the loft and it will require a lot of chipboard cutting; what's the best method?
I am aware that chipboard is rather nasty towards the blades... I am considering using the jigsaw rather than the circular saw maily because the blade of the latter is more expensive.
Any useful tip?
Thank,
Alex
I've used circular saws (18V battery operated at that) for cutting moderate amounts of chipboard (boarded a loft with one) and not noticed the blades getting any worse.
Its impossible to get a true vertical cut with jigsaws IMHO and the horizontal straight lines wander if the blades hits a hard chunk in the chipboard. I would have thought there was no competition, especially if you use a tunsten carbide circular blade.
rusty
A tipped circular saw blade - ie most these days - will be fine.
Clamp a batten to the chipboard to get a straight cut. Set the depth of cut only slightly more than the thickness.
You need TCT blades, If you use ordinary ones you can see the cutting speed drop across a single sheet.
A cheap hardpoint handsaw is as good as anything, when it gets blunt, chuck it out or save it for cutting thermolite blocks.
Alex
Chipboard will knock seven bells out of HSS jigsaw blades. If the circular saw has a carbide tipped blade it will last for ages even on chipboard. Cheaper to use the circular saw - and easier to make straight cuts.
Dave
Or make yourself a T square with a couple of bits of 6mm ply. You don't need to clamp that, or check squareness. Stick a small piece on one side of the top of the "T" to keep the square in postion (arkward to explain, but obvious when it comes to it). Might sound like a lot of hassle but saving half a minute on every panel adds up to quite a long time in most lofts. The T square is a must-have accessory for the circ saw, so it'll come in handy. Oh, and, as others have said, forget the jigsaw. Forget the handsaw too unless you're applying for the role of tarzan.
Yes - I simply use my now redundant drawing T Square - which I made at school - to square the batten which I fix with quick clamps.
But any other method which suits you is equally viable.
Fine if you're only working with one sized panels, but might be more trouble when cutting the sides rather than ends. And of course, not every cut will be at right angles when finishing off a run, etc. But a good tip.
Absolutely.
Only really needed for cutting curves, or where a circular saw is too big.
quite.
COuldnt figure out what you mean about the T square tho.
NT
Hi Richard
perfect. I have 3 made up in 1', 2' and 4' for various jobs. Offcuts of laminate flooring are great!
Dave
Thank you all for the many useful tips. It seems I need to buy a TCT blade (I didn't know anything about it) and get moving on.
Thanks.
Hi Dave
Yes it is such a simple and useful accessory that turns an ordinary circular saw into a precision tool.
I currently have two, both 4ft long, one is for straight cuts and the other is for cutting long mitres.
I like your idea of using laminate flooring to fabricate a jig. The next one I make will be 8ft long for the rare occasion when I need to trim a long piece from 8x4 stock.
I have never felt the need to add a tee piece. I find two pencil marks sufficient especially when trimming doors when the edge is not an exact right angle.
My view is that everyone who has a circular saw should have a Sawboard, once used always used.
Richard.
Hi Richard
Another thing I knocked up from laminate is an offset guide. Useful for cutting odd angles & stuff.
Clamp a batten to the bench, clamp a piece of laminate flush with the batten. Then make two cuts, one with each edge of the saw against the batten and each from opposite directions. These are stopped cuts.
You now have the exact offset from either side of your saw and a kerf to work with.
I hope I've made that understandable
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