Hello all,
I am a novice at woodworking and want to start building small projects. I have a few tools that are of good quality but need some guideance. I have a good circular saw and straight edge and can make straight cuts all day long. I can not however make consistant square cuts with the tools I have. I can not afford a table saw or verticle pannel saw yet. Is their a jig or after market jig/accessory that I can buy to fit my circular saw to? I want to cut small and may be 1/2 sheets of plywood. Just need something to make a 90 degree cut to the straight ones I can make!!
Thanks for any help
Replies
use a speed square as a jig. Place you saw on the cut and move the speed square up to the base of your circular saw. HOld the speed square frim against the wood and the base will follow the speed square edge.
The speed square helps a lot and they come in a few sizes, however, for small work a jig saw with a speed square will work better.
For sheet stock you can make a jig for your circular saw that will help. Take a straight edge, mine is aluminum, attach it to a 4 to 8 foot piece of 1/4 ply, and run your circular saw up the ply against the straight edge. What you end up with is a jig for cutting sheets which can e easly clamped to your sheet stock at the cut line.
Don't by the $99 dollar table saw. They are difficult to kill and spouces don't ....well anyhow. Aslo, many have dados that are an odd size and don't accomodate aftermarket toys. Good luck
You might visit your local library or bookstore and look at some books on jigs and fixtures. There are a number of such books, some written just in the last few years, that show jigs/fixtures for circular saws to cut straight lines, right angles, et cetera.
I started with a bench saw table from Rousseau many years ago and the saw they recommended for it. Got their extension so I could rip to 50". Built many a cabinet on it. Their fence was always dead square and it sure beat a circular saw. Had to work around its limitations, and when the saw gave out I moved up to a contractor's saw, which I am still using. Cabinet saw would be better, but something to look forward to.
Turns out that another Knots member is seeking similar information, though for bigger projects. If none of the home-brewed gadgets help you, you might take a look at the recommendations in this thread:
http://forums.taunton.com/tp-knots/messages?msg=7289.1
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
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