Circular saw update

"The Medway Handyman" wrote

so basicaly it's on the left because that's the way it's always been, and everybody else does it like that.

wonder what the thorough research was, did they produce a saw in both left and right sided motor versions and see which one sold more,

Maybe someone should come up with a non handed circular saw, have the motor inline with the blade and drving it through a bevel box, like and angle grinder, same size soleplate either side of the blade etc.

Can't see why would you ever need to follow a line by eye. That really is asking for kickback. The main reason I imagine is to keep the weight of the saw on the workpiece rather than the offcut

That's where we came in. With the motor on the left, if the workpiece is wider than an arm's length it makes it rather difficult.

Sounds like it's just one of those things. Just as someone decided that all hens eggs sold in Britain should have brown shells. It didn't used to be like that (and in america they're white) and makes no difference to the contents. Iconoclasts unite!

Not half as difficult as trying to keep the base of the saw level when it's resting on fresh air

So don't do that then. If the work is wide enough that it'll support the motor side of the saw, put the motor side on the work. With the motor on the left this means having the work nearest you, with the motor on the right you have the waste nearest you.

Cutting large radius curves. Yes - it's perfectly possible, and boatbuilders do it.

Dave,

Have you come across worm drive saws? They usually have the blade on the left.

This article is about how in-line saws ended up with the blade on the right:

Interesting.

And here are pictures from the current Porter-Cable website of both right and left bladed CC's:

Something not that dissimilar from the worm drive concept of the original skil saw. Still a common layout in the US, but very hard to find outside.

well cut from the other side then!

I don't think that would work in practice, at least not unless the workpiece was clamped to to something very heavy. Often it's the operator's body weight or pressure that secures the bit you're worried about

Depends if you're left-handed, like me.

I'd need to be left handed to do that comfortably