Cutting Mitres

[Michael McNeil]

I've just had to resort to the ancient technique as there is no power in the house I'm working on.

Cut a piece of floorboard a little longer than your work-bench. Saw two perpendicular lines either end of the board, a few inches in from the stool. Point the saw toward the centre of the board at the required angles (45 degrees.)

Scribe a line parallel to the top of the board. Put a baton on this as a ledge to support the work and there you have a safe, cheap mitre saw. The two cuts want to be deep enough to give the saw guidance before you hit the work-piece. If you are cutting long stuff put the ledge at an ideal height to something that will support the other end. (Or make two saw benches.)

The simplest way to make another bench is to cut an old door in half and use it's hinges to join them and a piece of rope or a baton to stop them opening too far.

Always use a new saw as a used one tends to cut off-line. Unless it's a Jack saw. I never got one of them that cut straight. I think it was the supplier treading on them so he could sell more. Get a Sandvik (or Bacho) one.

[BigWallop]

[Michael McNeil]

isn't serious.

To start with you are restricted with the size of cuts you make. The blade is crap and the ammount of teeth you can use that contact the timber is about half the blade. This leads to uneven wear and getting a new blade is a PITB.

The board method allows you to nail stops or put easily recognised marks on it to do repetitive cuts at the same size and you can throw it away after use, leaving you with a perfectly good saw for other purposes.

I would suggest it is fine for picture framing where fine teeth are required for occasional use. But cutting 4 and 5 inch skirting? No Mr Wallop. You are not serious. (You had me going for a moment there though.)

[chris French]

In message , Michael McNeil writes

I think he probably is fairly serious.

I have the similar compound mitre saw from Screwfix, I have recently used it for doing the skirting (125mm as it happens) in one of the bedrooms. It did the job pretty well.

If you have rooms like mine then you often want a different angle than

45 degrees exactly..........

[jerrybuilt]

A new saw?? Are you talking about "hardpoint" saws? IMO/E these have lots of problems. Cheap ones are made by cutting the teeth "one way", then setting and hardening - they cut 'round corners (e.g. Wickes' special =A35 ones). You can tell this by gently passing a fingertip from handle to tip of saw along each side (not along the points). One side will feel "rough", this has the burr from the original cuting, and the saw will veer off towards this edge when used. These saws are almost useless. Pricier hardpoint saws are fine until you hit something hard with them, then they're (expensive) scrap. An ordinary re-sharpenable panel saw can be re-sharpened for little cost, and will stay sharp for ages when cutting timber - you can re-sharpen them when you need to.

Hard point saws? I've (generally) spit 'em!

[Danny Monaghan]

[e-mail] (Michael McNeil) wrote in news: [e-mail]:

On a DIY group - most likely!

[Andrew McKay]

As an aside I popped into the local Focus store today and noticed they had a bunch of what appeared to be meaty Rexon mitre saws for sale at £149 each. Seemed to have all the toys, such as a 300mm blade.

Anyone know if Rexon are a decent make?

Andrew

Do you need a handyman service? Check out our web site at

[Michael McNeil]

I'm talking about Sandvik. See, /\ Sandvik.

The trick with not hitting a nail or something that will ruin your saw is to use timber that is free of said faults.

ALL the trade use them for preference. If you are going into shitty timber you use an old saw. You keep three saws near bye. A tatty one for that sort of thing, one that is still good but failing and a new one for best (I.e mitring new skirting.)

Sharpening a saw is all very well if you know how to do it. I could get a fairly good edge on mine in the OLD DAYS in a few minutes. I doubt I could now -if I had such a saw. The files cost as much as a Sandvik so you gain nothing as you have to sharpen the saw so often that it wears the file out in about the same time you'd replace a S you know what.

Obviously sharpening a saw on a building site has gone a long time ago. For the very obvious reasons stated.

Don't let idiots near your saw as they tread all over them -that is the greatest cause of ruining a Sandvik. They last weeks. I have still got my first one for this site I'm on (in my 9th week there) and still using it for best work. They tend to last as long as the wrapper they come in if you look after both. When the wrapper becomes tatty, that's when to relegate it to next best.

I use my old Jack for cutting floor boards. A previous employer bought it me and it cuts straight, still -but I am not living in Ruthin now where there was very little choice and they were stored badly.

The mitre saw shown above is a good little toy. It does a very nice cut for a while but you can't use it as a compound can you. You can with the method in my first post. You can cut any angle up to 180 degrees.

AND:

You can fix it to awkward things such as bargeboards if you need to do some real fancy repairs. I've never seen it done of course, I just noticed the thread about that on my way in here.

You don't have to take my advice. It's just that I saw so much guff about buying a chop saw. If you must buy a mitre, saw get a chop saw and a g-clamp. But you don't really need one for occasional work.