pair of saw horses or similar - 2 battens of the whole length of the board so that when you cut it nothing falls away. The saw would nick the battens according to the depth set so they'd want to be scrap (ish)
When dealing with large sheets of material forget your workmate. All you need is four lengths of 4X2 laid on the floor with two either side of the proposed cut. Clamp your Sawboard where you want to cut then crouch or crawl across with the circular saw. Low tech but it works every time!
Richard.
Or do it Richards way - basically support the whole thing. Come to think it's when cutting large sheets that a hand held circular saw comes into its own but many other cutting ops better done with jig saw (good quality Bosch etc. cheapos to be avoided!) or table saw. HH circ saw fills a little gap but personally I don't like them much. And there are hand saws.
cheers
Jacob
Thanks for the tips Richard/Jacob - I think I was trying to make the process more complicated than it needed to be. I'm certainly happier to lay the board on the floor / across some sacrificial timbers on sawhorses rather than have a 2m sheet of MDF precariously balanced on a couple of boxes and me workmate. But it's also reminded me that I can control cut depth - to be honest I just thought that if you're cutting all the way through a sheet, leave the saw set to full depth - but it actually need only be 20mm to cut through. Is there any pros/cons to leaving it set to full depth (65mm) to cut sheet materials just 15mm thick?
Cheers
KB Oxford
I will add this to the FAQ in fact...
The short answer is that you need more stands / workmates / tressles / saw horses etc. (be they real or "improvised")
I am quite a fan of these:
You can get fold away trestles fairly cheaply (15 quid a pair).
Sometimes simply placing a plank on the workmate (or even gripping it with it) can do the job of supporting both the waste and cut bits.
These are cheap and easy - just add some 4x2"
Depending on the wood you may find you get less tearout from the top surface with a shallower blade depth since the exit angle of the teeth is further from the perpendicular.
Golden rule is to have the depth set to 3mm greater than the thickness. Much smoother cut, less tear out and safer. So for 15mm material set the depth to 18mm. Realistically 20mm given the accuracy of most depth settings.
Dave
I still prefer to hold it off the floor on a few scraps, and stand/kneel on the board while cutting.
Certainly a valid technique, although I don't like working on the floor myself (its a long way down to bend, and my knees don't appreciate the rest of me bouncing around on them! ;-)
Hi Jihn
Do we need one for vacuum cleaners? If so, let me know and I'll knock one up.
Dave
Sounds like a good idea - would not be the first time we have had the Dyson Vs Numatic holy war in these parts ;-)
Might be handy to have a section on collecting dust from power tools as well!
(perhaps even a dabble into cyclones! Feel free to nick anything of use from
Well volunteered that man! ;-)
(YooHoo Mr. Addison, another willing victim this way!) ;-)
Don't let him escape :-)
Phil The uk.d-i-y FAQ is at
For ply where you're cutting along the grain on the breakout face, another way is to cut only 1/2 way through that ply, then snap it by closing up the cut. Trim it off with a stanley knife.
I bought a Hitachi C9U 9.25" a couple of years ago. I had to return it as although it had an angle adjustment for bevel cutting in only went from about 40 degrees to 90 degrees. What's wrong with that you ask? Well, with manufacturing tolerances the 90 degrees stop on mine would not allow the blade to go past some 89.5 degrees. By the time I realised this I had binned the packaging and used it for a few tasks, so the shop would not exchange it without Hitachi's say-so, and it took me quite a few phone calls to get them to change their minds. Obviously one reason for having a power saw is to be able to make precise 90 degree cuts!!
In summary - make sure there is some way of adjusting the blade a fraction either side of the nominal 90 degree position.
Phil The uk.d-i-y FAQ is at
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