Make This Circular Saw Track Saw Guide....With a Circular Saw!
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- čas přidán 16. 06. 2024
- This is the simplest and easiest beginner-friendly circular saw track saw guide you will find. This video explains why you need it and how to make it!
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About this video:
Breaking down plywood is an issue for most hobbyist woodworkers. I've done it on my table saw, but it's a 2 person job and even then it's a pain. The best I’ve found is to use a circular saw and some sort of straight-edge. So, I'm showing you how to build one yourself, as I build mine. I'll also explain the other options out there, their problems, and why you really need this jig. - Jak na to + styl
Here's a great jig that turns your circular saw into a do-almost-everything tool and there's a free plan available: czcams.com/video/i3zRJ8i6GEA/video.html
I was thinking on the second side you could do a 45° bevel
The saw can still veer to the right where there is no fence so this is still not as good as a track right?
My dad was using these back in the 1950's but with a piece of 1/4 inch paneling (smooth / finished side up). The lighter weight of the paneling made it much easier to handle and the smooth surface made the saw glide more easily. He also made a short one (4 feet) for cross cutting plywood.
With a thinner base like that, you could stiffen it a bit by using a wider fence board.
I used this principle to make a double sided guide
One side suits my circular saw and the other side suits my router.
Whichever side I use the other side leaves room for clamps and I can use the router to clean up edges and/or cut grooves - I usually use 18mm mdf so the router guide was cut to suit an 18 mm router bit.
Great idea!! I love economy of tools!!
Can you share a link or guide on jig, I am new and trying to get one done
I’ve been using these for 20 years. It has saved me so much time and the cuts always look great. I never make a cut without this guide.
I watched your build for the crosscut rip station first...I should have started here. I made a comment and asked a question that is answered here. Thanks, your videos and FREE plans are a big help for a 71 yr old trying to rebirth his woodworking skills. Well done!
really easy and practical track saw guide.
Thank you mate, tomorrow I'll make one with some scrap pieces of plywood I've got somewhere.
Really good and simple to make. Was going to buy one but now I think I’ll make one. Thanks for the advice!
I really like this jig, easy to build and use, thank you for that. Cheers Wiz
THANK YOU! Your circular saw guide is the only one that takes into account the clearance needed for future clamping!!!!!
I’ve been making these out a quarter inch vinyl/melamine for years easy to make easy to use and you can usually make them out of scrap around the shop! Gets the job done quite well!
Simplicity itself, great. Your explanations are clear and concise, much appreciated... thank you.
Thank you for clear and helpful video! I have some work tops to cut, and they need to be straight cuts - so this is just the video I needed. I like the way you don't have to measure the distance to the blade and square up every time. :)
Thanks for sharing information about this man I will make my own
This will be perfect for me when I build my TV cabinet! Thanks for the great idea!
Thank you for posting this video, it is extremely helpful and I will refer back to it in the future as a "circular saw guide" guide lol! II purchased some 2X8 and 4X8 wood, but had no idea how to rip it down to size to remove the curved edges, but this is perfect!
This is simple and brilliant. Thanks for the instruction!
Thank you so much for this tutorial - greatly appreciated.
Great idea, very well presented too . I’ve never been accurate with my circular saw and always use something as a guide. Well done ! Love the name , Out of the woodwork.
I had an idea to build this very thing, having seen the cost of plunge saw guides and the fussiness of the clamp down guides. I'm glad to see I wasn't completely off base.
This is absolutely ingenious! I made my guide following your example from some old IKEA desk pieces I found in a skip =) just chipboard with laminate but the laminate made it all perfectly straight and smooth, perfect for the guide to slide across! Thanks so much for this fantastic idea mate, it's saved me having to buy a guide myself (or even a table saw!)
Brilliant. Thank you!
Awesome, thanks for the information on making this. Very helpful. Peace and good fortune and good health to you and your family.
Thanks!
hmm... I need to make a couple of these. I've always used a straightedge but sometimes the start of the cut isn't exactly as good as it could be since the saw hasn't had a chance to let the straight edge "guide it" until I get a few inches into the cut. I think that when I make these I'll pull the starting edge of that top board back a couple inches (so it's protruding off the bottom sheet a bit) to let the saw have something to ride up against before the whirly bits start to do their job. By the time it gets to the other end of the sheet the blade will have already cut through before the saw runs out of guide.
I was looking which straight edge guide to buy, your guide makes me change my purchase decision and went ahead to local store to have them cut to sizes.
I needed to trim an 8 feet panel only by 1 1/2 inch and had no idea how to do it til I see your video.
Will also do for sure for a 4ft guide.
Thanks for precise explanations and instructions!
Very helpful and money saved :)
Tommy you are so easy to understand you don’t make it complicated
Tony
Enjoyed this video. Thanks for easy to follow instructions. I made this jig today.
Great to hear!
Thanks mate, need to build one. You’ve simplified things.
such a great job of showing all the considerations-being able to clamp, not impeding the motor, what surface to use. under it....
Thanks. Starting to do some DIY woodworking and a fence like this will definitely help.
Great to have you in the hobby Dan!
I must say that you are a great teacher
A brilliant video! I think now I'll just upgrade from my mini circular saw to a full size rather than getting a plunge saw as planned. Thank you!
Great advice and very well explained.Thanks
thank you very much these plans are going to help me in my future projects
I was thinking of buying one but there to expensive to justify the times I'd use it...you've given me some ideas to make my own..👍
One improvement you might consider is to glue 100 to 120 grit sandpaper to the bottom of the guide. This will allow you to simply place the guide on your cutting stock and eliminate clamping it in place.
Better cheap and convenient for the job, thank you.
I use a guide similar to this one. I leave off the clamp down side and use self adhesive sandpaper underneath to keep it in place. Makes cutting much faster.
Good process. I'd suggest using profile aluminum (80/20) as the fence and just run bolts flush to bottom on the ply platform guide. That way you can just swap out the ply if and when it gets damaged or worn. Thanks for producing the vid.
Another excellent idea IMO. I think I will combine that with @Danny L's idea and attach your suggestion to the floorboard. I'm not too keen on something 15" wide and 96" long. That will be a bit awkard for my little old and fragile hands and arms. *Thank You* for sharing your fence idea. It is much appreciated. 👍
@TsunamiKitten I have used an aluminum angle as a fence and it works well.
┘. Horizontal part screwed to the wood base, vertical part is in contact with the shoe of the saw
Thanks for this video. I have some 6x2 timber to tidy up before making a door to my shed. It's quite knotty so planing the edges isn't the best option, this type of jig will be just what I need to use my circular saw to skim a bit of each edge.
Glad it helped, Gavin!
Great video thanks!
thank you for showing where I made mistakes. gonna redo my guide asap
Wow... surprised I only just found your channel now. Well done. Subscribed.
Great video. Making mine tomorrow and getting rid of my aluminum angle that is such a pain.
Thanks a ton
So I made mine today and spent all day cutting thin strips just for fun. Accurate from end to end. Only diff I made was glued fine sand paper to bottom and zero slipping. Thanks again
Thanks for just using the circular saw. So it’s really beginner friendly!
No problem!
I agree but due to my lack of any discernable woodworking talent, free handing that long cut is going to make the edge look like the straight line of a one legged drunk. 😳
amazing video, probably going to make this one weekend
Thank you for sharing
thank you your idea is the most simplest one
Clearly explained 🙏👏✋👍😎
I use one of the aluminum straight edges with a clamp which you show right at the beginning of your video. I have piece of wood about 10 inches long with a width exactly that of the distance from the cut line. I mark this piece of wood as a template and keep it with the saw. All that is necessary is to add the width of this piece of wood to the cut line on the wood I am cutting. I have had the template for years and I get consistently quick accurate cuts.
Very good video, thank you for sharing! This come in very handy.
Thanks
My dad also made his own with paneling, one for 4 ft and one for 8ft cuts. Works great! And a whole lot cheaper.
Nice one!
Love it
Pretty straightforward.
The easiest way. Thx, sir.
Thank you very much for the excellent video, very instructive, and the only one I have seen so far, which with just a few euros, achieves exactly the same as others with higher expenses.
I also praise your creativity.
Just, brilliant.
Tommy I like the track saw guide you made I made one taken your guide I would like to see some wood joints please I like timber work but I’m not very good at the joints
Thank you
Tony
Embarrassed I didn't think of this myself. Thank you!
Excellent friend
Well done!
THANKS TOMMY!
This is really a great way to cut plywood in a straight line. Bought a metal fence like the one you showed in the video but for the same reasons you mentioned it was not working for me.
Looked around on Amazon but these saw tracks are very expensive and look quite complicated to use, and no instruction video whatsoever.
Definitely going to make a track like you showed in this video.
BTW: noticed that there is no tearing on the top part of the plywood after sawing !
Bro, thank you
Thanks for the video. A couple suggestions.
1) If you want more clearance under the motor so you can cut pieces thicker than 3/4" you could use a 1/2" x 96" (1/16" thick) aluminum angle (available at the big box stores for about $12 for 8 ft). An even shorter alternative is a tile edge trim with edge heights down to 1/4" ($10 for 8 foot). The appealing thing about tile edge trim is that they have a 2 1/2" wide base with cutouts that give more support and you don't have to drill and countersink holes in the bottom leg of an aluminum angle. They also come in stainless steel edge trim ($34 for 1/4"), which would be stronger than the aluminum and so less likely to bend if you get aggressive about keeping pressure against the rail.
2) Put 2 T-tracks in the bottom, one in front of the guide rail and one under it or just behind. This will allow track clamps to be used so that you can clamp without anything poking up above the surface. Also you can clamp closer to the cutline. This could allow cutting a very skinny board that isn't even as wide enough as the saw guide itself and so couldn't be clamped to the guide using the wide tab behind the guide rail. And even if you don't want to put T-tracks in the bottom, the track clamps are likely a good thing to use with this saw guide since the straight bar that normally slides in the track can instead be put on top where it won't stick up above the guide rail. Or if the bar is placed underneath its low thickness won't cause issues with it being thicker than the spacers strips of plywood or foam placed under the plywood being cut.
3) With T-tracks the wide clamping flange isn't needed. This then allows you to use the backside as a jigsaw guide with the same idea that the cutline lines up with the edge of the guide and the blade of the jigsaw slides right down the edge of the guide. A jigsaw guide can be especially when cutting only cutting part way through a piece or if you are cutting between two holes in the middle of a piece to cut a slot and want nice parallel sides or series of slots where you want the edges of the slots to all be in a the same line.
4) T-Tracks can also be used so that you don't have to have a single 8 foot guide, rather you could have separate 5 foot and 3 foot guides that can be used independently. And then when you need to make 8 foot cuts they can be joined together by sliding short (18"?) miter bars into the T-tracks across the joint and then locking them to the track. Storing two shorter guides is much easier than storing an 8 foot monster. Besides you will probably make a medium and short version anyway, so might as well use that to avoid having to make a large one.
5) Put two strips of self-adhesive non-slip tape on the bottom. Just like actual track saw guides, this allows clamping to be avoided in many situations where the tape provides enough grip to keep the saw guide from moving. And even when you still need to clamp the saw guide, the strips keep the guide from shifting as you put on the clamps.
Awesome!
Thanks!
this is a great video,,,,i made one a few years back and it works great,,,i made mine to cross cut plywood,,i use the same square and draw the same line across the plywood but i leave the square in place on the right side of the line then move the guide up to the square on the left and clamp it down,,,,,you cant get it any more square even using a table saw,,
I agree. I actually find this type of guide as accurate as my table saw for perfectly straight cuts. To get perfect, long cuts on my table saw, I need to set up a long infeed and outfeed table, and use guide rollers to keep my material tight against the fence. I only use my table saw for long cuts on panel-size material when I need a dead-on accurate bevel angle.
Great 👍
That so true it works for a couple projects but it doesn’t stay true over time
I was thinking. Would it be wise to have the fence/guide piece over hang each end the length of your straight edge...
That way you know, when your about to pull the trigger on the saw to start the cut, that your going into the material straight and the saw isnt going to kick or give a unstraight start, if you know what I mean.
Then at the finishing end
Your saw still has the fence there to guide it straight out of the end of the material.
For example. if your saw base plate is 250mm long. You would have a 250mm fence overhang at each end. Just to assist you in having a steady hand and accurate start cut & finish cut...!
Sorry about the mm's.....some of us Aussies are not much good with inches/feet measurement's. Im 54 and still cant work out inches and feet.
I’m American and have used feet/inches all my life, but wonder why anyone ever pushed this on us. The rest of the world is on metric. Working with 10’s, 100’s and 1000’s is so much more logical. But now I’m trapped at my age.
I liked your video as you used minimum tools. Most of the youtubers are professionals and their videos are for other professionals and that means those are absolutely not DIY. But this is. So thank you.
Lovely 👍
Do you think there's an easy way to build two 4' pieces and connect them to make an 8'? This way there are fewer, they are dual purpose and easier to move and store.
I made a short one of these. It worked well, but I left out the zeroing-step. That would made it perfect.
swap out the ply fens for a section of steel box section which will allow you to clamp down using the inside of the box. the benefits are you can make the guide thinner and will also mack it more ridged?
I made one of those for a router. Didn't like it much, instead I made a setup block that adds the requisite spacing. It's specific to the router AND bit combination, but OTOH it's just a small piece of 3mm melamine. I'll try to keep it with the router. Actually, I have two.
Would this be good enough to bookmatch slabs together with a clean joint?
Could you make it double sided? So you can cut with either side of the circular saw?
Hi thanks. Why not use a handle for addional grip and to carry it as well.just a thought.
Hello, just a idea...could you cut on the other side of fence to allow use of 2 different saws or maybe a different blade. duel use. use a different clamp type
Thank you so much for this tutorial. I can skip buying a table saw now!
Just watched this. Cool video- but how do you keep it straight over time? Meaning given moisture and storage, how do you keep it from warping given that length?
Plywood isn't like solid wood. It's stable as long as it doesn't get really wet. Mine is still very straight and I just keep it leaning up against the wall.
How would you use this to rip narrower boards? I feel like there wouldn’t be enough space on the workpiece to clamp it on to.
nice
Great job… what do you think about using plexiglass instead of plywood for the base?
I would worry about the plexiglass melting on the cut edge. I wouldn't think that the heat buildup from the blade spinning right there on the edge and the friction of pushing the saw over it would be good....but, it just needs to be tested!
I would cut the other side to fit the other side of the shoe. That way you can make cuts both directions.
CyberCPU Tech thanks for the comment. There's such a thin strip of metal on that side that it wouldn't be supported well enough.
@@OutoftheWoodwork thats when you add a strip to the other side of the cut for it to ride on. I do it all the time
@@OutoftheWoodwork if the base is equal each side of the guide strip, you can run the motor over the guide strip both ways.
I'm going to have the cuts made at my local home depot and on the other side ill set the width for my cordless saw
I made a guide but I sort of messed up the very start of the final cut, so the zero clearance edge is a bit wobbly right at the start. Is this to be expected to some degree, as the saw's plate has not yet got full contact with the fence?
you convinced me to buy a table saw
This is what I call a "quick-fix" but not what you want to use in a daily basis. I had built myself a couple of those jigs and it's indeed better than cutting free hand with a circle saw, but honestly I never got satisfied with the results and I always ended up with a meh face. Sure you can get a more or less satisfactory cut in a coarse job but you never should expect for a great results in a fine project. For long panel rips I found the ultimate solution buying a DECENT track saw. Trust me it worth every penny paid.
His Clamp is DeWalt ! Great !
Great!!! How about you cut the other side at a 45 angle, now you have 2 usable sides.
That’s a great idea
The other side of the fence is not square/straight in this example.
Hi Tommy, thanks for the useful guide. Would it be OK to make the guide out of OSB as I don't have any ply. Thanks again.
you could try, but OSB tends not to be flat or smooth, so that may give you trouble sliding the saw evenly across it.
@@OutoftheWoodwork Your quick reply is much appreciated, thanks for the advice .
Please what protective clothes and working gears can be used when working, because the saw dust can be a risk factor for nasal tumors?
This is where being left handed comes in handy. You can make this and not have to worry about the motor being in the way
Yeah, but we get covered in sawdust every time. 😆
Defo gonna make this. I can't cut straight to save my life even with a circular saw.
I made one using a section of Pergo-like floor laminate. It was then that I discovered that my saw blade has as much as 1/8” wobble. Is this normal?
This is the right way to do this. However you can use a sheet of thin wall board. Put the furring strip on one side, glue and screw it into place. Then put the edge of your saw up against the furring Strip and cut the whole length of the panel below. I have a Skill Worm Drive, and I've cut 2 sizes, one for an 8 foot legth and another for a 4 foot length..
Thanks for this guide, Tommy! Very helpful for complete beginners. Was contemplating the Kreg tool, but this seems to do the trick. The only issue I've run into is, somehow someway, my circular saw blade didn't cut completely plumb. It's like the material pressed it out a bit and so it flexed out about a 1/16th here and there. But NOT evenly, which is weird as well. Sighting down the cut, you can see where the edge angles out here and there. I found it helped to run the saw _backwards_ along the edge when I was done and it got rid of some of that. Still a little wonky.
My guess is operator error in making that first cut, but any other thoughts? As in, feel like maybe I used too much pressure on the tool and it canted OUT the blade a little? Used 1/2 ply as the fence and some discarded 3/4 sub-floor I found from construction going on next door...
Were you using a newer, sharp blade? That's really the only thing I could think of. If you keep pressure up against the fence on the track, the saw wants to cut straight if there's a sharp blade in it.
@@OutoftheWoodwork Hrrm. I've had it a for a while but rarely, rarely used it, so it's probably ok. I do worry that there was _downward_ flex. As in, I was doing this on top of a piece of junk ply between two saw horses (b/c I need the jig to build a proper working table !!). So maybe pushing down too much vs just sideways against the fence bowed out the blade
Blades can warp pretty quick from over heating. If you had a board under the wood you were cutting that’s just the kind of thing that will heat up the blade.
Awesome videos
Thanks!
Out of the Woodwork I’ve received 2 sets of plans many thanks looking forward to the next lot definitely a no! 1 Fan
@@toptotti70 😀
That bevel jig will be so helpful when cutting acrylic sheets once I’ve change my blade many thanks again Out of the woods