got a few bits of ply to cut next week. been borrowing mates tools so far, but not sure what his circular saws like so maybe gonna use it as an excuse to buy one of my own. looked at historic threads but theyre 3 or 4 years old now. what i have gained from them tho is to go corded and make myself a guide if possible from scrap bits of wood (altho an 8ft guide is maybe pushing it a bit)

so……what can i reasonably expect to pay for a decent corded saw for infrequent use, and which saws come recommended? ideally have some sort of mitre capability and be able to go through 4×2 on occasion.

also are 2 trestles and clamps the best way of going through 8ft long ply?

thanks

Pretty much the cheapest you can find will be fine. You don’t need guides, just draw a line and follow it. Easy to cut. Lay it o the floor with a spacer underneath an off you go.

re cutting – I’ve always found resting the sheets on stud sized pices of timber on the ground works best.the sheets stay flat and you don’t have to worry abotu supporting off cuts.

Also, adjust the depth of cut so that you just cut through the material.

I use a DeWalt plunge saw and saw guide rails but only really as I was fitting a kitchen and wanted to be able to cut faced panels accurately without splintering.

I would recommend a decent guide of some sort though, the home made ones are good but a pain to make. The aluminium bar ones seem to work best (or a saw that will fit a dedicated guide rail but that pushes prices up).

Most of the ‘name’ brands you’ll get from Screwfix will be fine.

Aldi had a mains-powered one for £30 last week, 190mm ø blade and adjustable angle for mitres. It’s done alright for me cutting wood for a door frame and then trimming the door. There might still be a few in stock if you’re lucky. Battery ones tend to need a few passes to get through whatever you’re cutting unless you go for expensive brands like Makita/Hilti.

I’ve got a Powerbase one, which looks uncannily similar to the Wickes own brand one, certainly does me; cheap, cuts well, adjustable angle and depth, laser guide.

I prefer a cheap(ish) table saw (like this) to hand held ones.

I have an el-cheapo Aldi one that has helped on countless DIY jobs. I dread the day it packs in!

Almost lost the tip of my thumb to it last year, but it’s been so invaluable over the years that I forgave it…

Bought a cheap Mac Allister from B&Q about a year ago. Used infrequently but won’t cut a straight line now.

I prefer a cheap(ish) table saw (like this) to hand held ones.

They’re difficult to use with 8×4 sheets of ply.

If you’re cutting 8ft lengths of ply, the clean edge of another 8ft length of ply makes a perfect cutting guide !

They’re difficult to use with 8×4 sheets of ply.

I’ve cut several with mine, they’re a little unweildly but not impossible. I’ve found a 2nd pair of hands helpful but not essential.

If you’re mainly working outdoors anything will do – fancier rail/plunge saws have the advantage of being much better to extract dust from so are much cleaner to work with indoors.

As above anything cheap will do…. but do a bit of homework on blades. The one in the saw will be a bit crap anyway but check its not a weird diameter (and bore) thats difficult to get decent price replacements for. So if you see a deal check the blade dims and flick through screwfix or similar and check theres a good choice of replacements available. – and that the price isn’t upsetting. And click as if to buy – some sizes will be listed but perpetually out of stock

Anything cheap will have its limitation – mostly bearing life. Once the bearings are on the way out the saw won’t follow a reference edge well

if you cutting 8×4 you need a decent bench, a sacrificial sheet of 18mm mdf ontop of some trestles is ideal, just set the saw to cut a couple of mm into the sheet.
ive a festool track saw for work but its over kill for a few sheets, id be looking at makita/bosch etc.
have you not got a bq local? some of the stores have a cutting service

thanks chaps, points noted and taken.

was in aldi yesterday and saw a fair few power tools but unfortunately no circular. and yes, i did think about using another sheet as my reference, and i spose once theres an offcut, that can then become my guide. and yep, good idea about cutting close to the floor on battens or something.

i think id always be using one outside, so extraction isnt too much of an issue.

ill have a shufty at blades, see what sort of sizes they sell. any particular make or material better for blades? HSS, tungsten tipped, that sort of thing?

thanks

EDIT:

have you not got a bq local? some of the stores have a cutting service

yep theres one in town but id be cutting ‘on site’ to sizes as and when i need them. plus the wood wont have been bought from them anyways, too expensive 😉

I’ve got a cheap Evolution that does the job and doesn’t produce too much dust with a vacuum hooked up.

I prefer to cut on the floor though, lay down a couple of bits of insulation or some 2x4s to rest the sheet on.

If you can spare the material, making something like this to use as a guide makes life much easier too: http://www.daileywoodworks.com/2014/11/04/diy-track-saw/

Those DIY saw tracks are really handy – gives you a splinter guard so that the edges of your cut are cleaner – especially cutting across the grain. Makes marking out and cutting much, much faster too. Make two – one the length of your board and one the width. Online tutorials for them always wind me up because the rambling buffoon demonstrating them always seems to take 3 times longer to explain them than they actually take to make. Screw two bits of wood together – run the saw along it… done.

You want blades with Tungston tips (TCT – they nearly all are anyway)

The one that comes with the saw will have a pretty small tooth count and will work better cutting timber and battens. A higher tooth count will give you cleaner cuts with plywood but its not too important if you’re not doing fine-finish work. Finer blades with more teeth give the motor more work to do so aren’t to good an idea with cheaper saws anyway.

Finer blades with more teeth give the motor more work to do so aren’t to good an idea with cheaper saws anyway.

that surprises me, id naturally think that thinner contact area plus more teeth would make for less work, but what do i know…

just trawling through a few now, looking for bang per buck. can i assume id want to discard anything with less than 190mm? looking at specs, that size seems to have a max cut of about 2″ at 45 degrees which means mitre cuts on 4×2 yep? pretty important for general ‘making stuff’, no?

that surprises me, id naturally think that thinner contact area plus more teeth would make for less work, but what do i know..

Sorry what I meant by by ‘finer’ was – more teeth – not narrower. You’re quite right about a narrower blade being easier for the motor – thats why a lot of cordless saws are fitted with a very thin blade.