Building bookshelves etc

Builders Depot - just as an example - will cut sheet materials to size. Take a tape with you, and check that the cuts are accurate.

Jeeze! :-)

Oops! Missed that typo. :)

Once saw an impressive 2 metre diameter diamond cutting disk that was used to cut an access way through several metres of reinforced concrete wall.

Try standing next to a 600MW turbo-alternator when it is running for a sense of raw power!

I'm not surprised with a 1Mw saw! :-)

Can they cope with metric sizes though ?

Look-up "saw board", "track saw", "table saw" and "sliding mitre saw". Speak to a timber merchant who deals with hardwood. Investigate Japanese pull saws for precision work. Research the importance of TPI for clean/accurate cuts.

When you say "rotary", do you mean a circular saw?

If so, these are quite versatile and capable of fine work - however to get the best from them you may need a few jigs to help.

Also for fine work you will need to swap the supplied blade (which is usually fairly coarse, designed to be a multi purpose blade) for a finer cross cut blade.

You can make sawboards in various lengths:

IMHO, pretty much useless for everything!

Yup probably. Anyone with a chop saw, mitre saw, sliding compound mitre saw, or table saw ought to be able to do the job.

Yup, say:

I generally just clamp a straight edge to the wood being cut. That and a battery circular saw with a decent blade seems to work very well.

On the chop/mitre saw - very useful, but I've not managed to set mine up to get a perfect 45° so not the last word in decent cuts.

bank job?

Owain

Yup that is ok, but has two downsides compared to the sawboard. The first is the quality of cut - the edge of the sawboard supports the fibres of wood on the top surface of the "kept" piece, reducing splintering when the blade exits the wood.

Also because the edge of the sawboard is *exactly* where the cut will be made, layout and positioning of the blade is very easy - clamp it right on the cut line. With a separate batten, you always need to allow for the offset of the blade from the edge of the soleplate.

(One trick that helps with this method is to cut a spacer that exactly matches that width. Then you can lay that on your layout cut line, and clamp your guide batten beside that. It saves extra measuring or calculation).

Some are easier to adjust than others. Usually best to start with the 90 deg cut first, and then tweak both 45s.

Previously I used a saw board but then treated myself to a Mak 36V tracksaw a while ago - 'tis worth almost every one of the considerable number of pennies it cost. Highly recommended!

Ah, good point, hadn't thought of that, thanks. I do have a suprisingly effective 1m aluminium sawboard I got from Lidl a while back - I'll press that into action more often.

Positioning the clamps is somethimes a challenge too.

Yes, or factor in the offset with measurements. I seem to be adding 43mm to everything nowadays :-)

On the roundtoit list . . .

Thanks for the above and the other repondents plus all the videos I have viewed during the last 24 hours. I now have enough to plan sensibly. Sorry about the 1000Kw typo. :(

Alan

Yup, a tracksaw takes the sawboard idea to the next level.

There are some cheaper options about now - Peter Millard reviews quite a few on his youtube channel:

I'll have a watch. I've been scouting about trying to work out what saw(s) to get for starting out in general carpentry. I think I've come to the conclusion that one saw won't do it all, and trying to line up a multi tool strategy.

The current leaning is towards a 165mm battery circular saw for general portability, and then a cheap mains saw for extra thick work. An alternative is a battery 185mm saw, but those are heavy and on a high voltage system (eg 2x18v for Makita, or Dewalt's Flexvolt) which makes batteries more complicated.

I quite like the look of the rear handle saws, but those are only in the heavy 185mm class. (US folks have worm drive saws which we don't seem to get, but there are some rear handled sidewinders)

One must-have safety feature is a blade brake (and also for reducing noise), and it seems very few mains saws have that, which pushes me towards the battery saws for general use. I'm not keen to buy into a battery system at this point, but it looks like I might have to.

Pondering...

Theo

I recently invested in a Makita corded track saw and have never looked back. The version I got was from Tools4trade for £403 but now sells at £433. I can highly recommend both.

Richard

Thanks John. I'm going to make one.

Bill

Without included track but: