manual or powered compound mitre saw for floor

[macson]

I am about to lay a wooden floor (reclaimed pine). I need to get a compound mitre saw to cut the lengths correctly - the floor is 50sqm approx. Would a manual mitre saw do the job (it's on a boat and i would have to borrow my neighbours electricity which i'd rather not if poss) or is it going to take to long/hard work to do it manually - wood is

24mm (1") by 178mm (7") - In short would the manual compound mitre saw be adequate (quite a lot of cuts to do) ?

[Jay Pique]

I'd recommend going with a miter saw. It will be much quicker, and will also be a much cleaner and squarer (?) cut provided your miter saw is tuned properly. Make sure you take the extra 15 minutes to set up a proper workstation. That includes a table at comfortable working height (sawhorses with boards across them is fine), infeed/outfeed support and preferably a shop-vac to suck up the dust.

That said, you absolutely "can" do it by hand. What wood are you using? The harder the wood, the more difficult it will be with a handsaw. If it's ipe or lyptus I'd really be inclined to use power. Are you going to be putting trim above the floor where it meets the walls? (ie. baseboard or shoe molding) If so, you can be a little less than perfect with your cuts. Doing it by hand will be a great learning experience in the art of using a handsaw.

Good luck.

JP

************************************ Final opinion: Use electricity.

[Mike Marlow]

I'd probably do it with a circular saw. It will saw through any width board, is easily guided to a perfectly square cut with a quickly fabricated saw guide, is much more mobile so you can use it where you're working instead of setting up a saw 20 feet away and trekking back and forth. It's also a lot easier to use to cut notches, etc. which will be almost guaranteed in this type of project. But, that's just me.

[macson]

Thanks guys

[Brian Henderson]

Sure, it's possible for you to do it manually but your muscles will hate you for it. That's an awful lot of cuts to be made with your arm going back and forth, don't you think?