What do you use?

[bumpinaintEZ 10+ year member]

What do you use to cut out your boxes? The reason i ask is because i am using a circular saw but im having a ***** of a time keeping it straight, any suggestions on good ways to keep in line without veering...or do i just fail at this?

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[Steven206Seattl 10+ year member]

table saws are what 99 percent of us use

 

[BrianChia 10+ year member]

Use a fence. Any straight board and a couple clamps will do the job. The boot of the saw is designed to run along a fence.

 

[TIeclipseMOJO 10+ year member]

2x4 and C clamps

edit brian beat me too it

 

[2critical 10+ year member]

Practice or any of the above!

 

[bumpinaintEZ 10+ year member]

thanks guys, was workin on my box tonight and after messin up a couple cuts i quit. i'll pick up some 2x4s tommrow and give that a try. Here i thought i was just terrible at it. Wish i could afford a table saw:crap:

 

[fbi90909 5,000+ posts]

i usualy get my wood pre-cut at home depot. i do the measurments myself then tell them to cut.

 

[bumpinaintEZ 10+ year member]

i usualy get my wood pre-cut at home depot. i do the measurments myself then tell them to cut.

What's the fun in that?//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crazy.gif.c13912c32de98515d3142759a824dae7.gif That would be nice, don't think theres a home depot around here, and i had to do some searching for myself at menards, guy i talked to didn't know what MDF was.

 

[fbi90909 5,000+ posts]

well i too do not have a table saw, nor a circular saw. i do have a 20 dollar jig saw that has worked well for when i have to make circles.

lol i don't even own a drill.

 

[bumpinaintEZ 10+ year member]

Black and decker...thats my $20 jig saw haha. By the time im done spending money on materials and tools i might as well have had someone biuld the box for me.//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif good thing i'll never stop changing my setup...so eventually it will pay off.

 

[BrianChia 10+ year member]

there's any easy way to make a fence/jig:

Get a 2x4 and glue/screw it into a piece of 1/4" or 1/2" plywood or MDF, leaving a free end of just MDF that is about the width of the saw's boot. Then clamp down the sheet of wood and with the saw calibrated/aligned properly, rip down the sheet along the 2x4. Do the same thing on the other side, but cut along the other side of the boot (the narrower side). Now you can easily line up the fence with your cutting line since the blade will cut exactly where the edge of the MDF or plywood sheet is, and you can use either side of the boot to line it up.

 

[IDSkoT 5,000+ posts]

I normally cut off a small slither of the longest piece and use the straight edge as my guide... but, I don't have them fancy schmancy C clamps. I use the good ol' "Push up against the wall" technique... AKA push the flat end against the wall and run the saw against it. This requires two people. (One to hold/push the wood, the other to run the saw. Most of my cuts are straight (main word: MOST). I still put a nice cover of silicone around the edges just incase.

But, as someone said before, Home Depot cuts if you buy the wood from them. At least here they do. And they're surprisingly straight... it makes life easier; no stress cutting it and easier to move. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

I don't know if they do angled cuts, though. That'd be pretty raw. I wouldn't shop anywhere else. Even if they only had 1/2" MDF

 

[miker 5,000+ posts]

Make a guide.. Very easy. measure the distance you need, then measure the distance from the edge of the blade to the edge of the saw, put a 2x4 there and go. Your cuts will be prefect.

 

[Ken448 10+ year member]

both home depot and lowes told me to go away today LOL.. Was hoping to get a sheet cut and one guy looked at me like I had 3 arms or something!!

This is what I showed him, and from the look on his face, I think he was looking at pland to build a spaceship or something. Looks pretty self explanitory to me... And I know they cant make the smaller cuts, but making most of the cuts would save me a lot of time and crawling around!!

 

[bumpinaintEZ 10+ year member]

ill probably just use some of my scrap mdf like a long peice that still has a factory edge, use my clamps that i have...not c clamps but they shud work i think, i'll report back.....with pics?