Hi DIY-ers,
I have found some wooden planks and I wanted to cut them in order to do a storage seat box.
DIY manuals suggest to use a jigsaw to cut wood. To be honest, I have never seen a precise and good border made with a jigsaw, but maybe I was following a low quality jigsaw or a bad jigsaw-er, I dunno. :-)
The alternative is bringing the planks to a DIY shop and let them cut by a professional saw.
Or...are there other better DIY tools to cut straight lines?
Thanks. Stef
On Thu, 19 Jul 2007 12:24:16 -0000, Stef mused:
Cut the pieces slightly larger than you require and then sand\plane them back to a flat surface. You will not find a jigsaw that cuts straight lines perfectly.
Adequate circular saws are not that expensive now. Look up Sawboards on the FAQ. I suppose at a pinch you could make a sawboard to fit a jigsaw.
Almost any other saw is better at cutting straight than a jigsaw Most do not cut straight along the line or square through thickish material A good hand saw is better for cross cutting timber than a jigsaw
You can use a jigsaw to cut oversize then a router to square up A plane is fine for straightening along the grain but not much use for across the grain
a better option would be a circular saw hand held or better still a bench saw for ripping (cutting along the grain) hand held or better still a chop saw for crosscutting
A decent band saw would be ok as well
However all are also good at removing fingers etc so proper use based on knowledge and safety equipment is vital
According to the Plastic Surgeon who stitched the ends of my fingers together again he gets more work from circular saws than any other tool (And yes I did have the guards in place)
Tony
On Thu, 19 Jul 2007 13:46:44 +0100, "Newshound" mused:
I'd imagine that would be completely useless as you need to twist the base of the jigsaw to keep it reasonably striaght. You can't really effectively use any sort of guide with a jigsaw.
A circular saw? Reasonable ones cost no more than reasonable jigsaws.
In article , Stef writes
Cut with a jigsaw if you must!, but do it oversize and them clamp a good straightedge something like a level to the wood and finish the edge with a router...
Almost a clinically sharp edge;)
On Thu, 19 Jul 2007 14:22:48 +0100, tony sayer mused:
That would be what I might do, but a DIYer with only a jigsaw and a lack of knowledge on the use of it and the basics of working with wood is unlikely to have a router.
"Lurch" wrote
I recently had quite acceptable results using a jig saw against a straight edge. The jig saw was a cheap(ish) B&D model. Only cutting upto 10mm ply mind you.
Phil
All depends on the type of cut you want to do. A good old hand saw and a bit of practice, a circular saw, a table saw, a router...
Probably not you, unless you have a top end jigsaw they are very difficult to get perfect straight cuts with.
Having said that it might be worth trying some decent Bosch or Makita blades in the one you have to see if that helps. (only about £4 for a pack of five)
Yup, tis an option.
Circular saw is probably the easiest. If you are just cross cutting the planks then a sharp handsaw will do a nice job.
For cutting wood Bosch T101D wood blades are very good.
Practice a lot on some scrap and use little pressure in pushing the saw forward.
cheers, Pete.
Even with a top of the range Makita or Bosch and practice you won't cut a perfectly straight line with a jigsaw. They aint not designed to do it.
Thats what a circular saw is for. Even a cheapo will do a reasonable job.
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