I’m after a circular saw to cut ply wood during a van conversion. Thinking one with a guide rail perhaps to aid straight cuts. Does anyone have any recommendations?

There is a evolution rage on screw fix for 60 quid which coupled with a 20 quid guide off eBay might do the trick. Only thing I’m worried about is whether the cut will be a bit rough as the teeth are large.

Recommendations welcome! Max budget with rail of 100 quid.

Rail/plunge saw is the ideal tool but not in budget unless Lidl/Aldi do their plunge saws again .
You can get non plunge circular saws that fit their system rails – Makita and DeWalt – all will be over budget without rails.

So yes guide clamp is good plan .

Can easily and reasonably cheaply get new blade with more teeth – watch out for arbor size – as those Evolution saws might have a strange size – Freud blades are good value from FFX.

Save money on the guide rail and buy some clamps, then clamp a straight edge to your ply for a guide.

A rail is great but you can get by with a straight edge or make a simple guide. The finish from the rage is fine. Plywood will need a light sand whatever the saw you will get a bit if splintering.

I’ve been really happy with my rage evolution circ saw and compound mitre saw. Got them both from evolution outlet on eBay for a massive saving. The circ saw actually ended up being free after a small fault.

A straight edge clamped down is usually all you need given the cost of an all signing all dancing alternative.

I bought a length of aluminium L section, 10mm x 50mm x 4mm thick, from a local metal merchant years ago. I cut it down in to useable lengths. Coupled with some G-clamps, saw or router guide.

The cheap saws work fine for DIY, check the arbor size as suggested, and buy a finer toothed blade.

If you do not have a “straight” edge then do consider something like these :

http://www.axminster.co.uk/progrip-guide-clamp

I have a pair of cheapy versions – long/shorter – brilliant – low profile so the saw motor goes over it very quick and easy to use .

Now use Lidl plunge saw with rail they were £60 earlier in the year – less than
half the price of the nearest equivalent.

You could make your own guide rails. [video]https://youtu.be/n-1XKctLrAU?t=105[/video]. And buy a fine tooth blade. works well.

Your investment should be proportionate to the amount of work you expect to do with the tool. If you’re just after something to do one job with, then I’d suggest it might actually be better to get a workshop to cut the pieces for you, that would save you a lot of hassle and you’d not end up with a redundant tool taking up space/ending up in landfill. For occasional use, then I suppose a cheap one would be ok, but not brilliant. Having used a number of plunge saws, I went for a Festool, and it’s significantly better in operation that equivalent Makita/Bosch/Dewalt versions I’ve tried. Expensive, but you can get good deals with rails.

Circular saws are potentially extremely dangerous, so I’d advise getting someone with experience to show you how to use one, before you delve straight in yourself. A plunge saw is a lot safer than a fixed type, for obvious reasons. You can make your own guide rails, but from experience, a dedicated rail system is much easier and more convenient to use.

Dust extraction is very important, especially if using stuff like MDF (always wear a mask). A vacuum cleaner hose attached to the dust port is the best way to help reduce dust, but circular saws produce loads of dust so be prepared for that. Splintering can be an issue, particularly with ply, so it might be worth using a sacrificial piece beneath the workpiece, to help alleviate this problem.

I bought a circular saw for cutting into and lifting the T&G chip floorboards (hateful, horrible creaky things) in our house for electrical amd plumbing improvements. It is terrifyingly noisy, dangerous and destructive. I’d rather be cutting bits off things with my angle grinder.

I went for a Festool, and it’s significantly better in operation that equivalent Makita/Bosch/Dewalt versions I’ve tried. Expensive, but you can get good deals with rails.

Since Makita and Dewalt brought out competing models (and since Festool got their knuckles rapped for price-fixing) Festool’s prices have fallen enough that if you were considering the others you might as well buy the festool.

For what the OP wants, and if you already have a circular saw then making your own guide rail is perfectly sufficient. A real plunge saw has advantages (better dust extraction and the ability to start and finish a cut part way through the sheet rather than cut from the ends) and is a bit safer (look at all those exposed teeth on the image above when you use like a plunge saw!!!) … The dust extraction is only a benefit if you also have a dust extractor though.

If you are wanting to buy something new look out for some keen deals on the Schepach festool-a-like. It has its drawbacks – often supplied with short rails – the rails aren’t swappable with Fest/dewalt/mak – there are limitations with setting the blade at an angle (the others will cut along the same line when angled but the Schepach doesn’t). But if you’re making light use then the prices are very attractive. If you know anyone with a B&Q tradepoint card then there are very keen deals to be had with them at the moment (£100+vat). With a bit of internet searching you can find ones with 1.4m rails for a bit more rather than their more common 70cm ones

I picked up a Scheppach PL55 plunge saw with two 700mm rails at B&Q (Cribbs Causeway, Bristol) for £108 last weekend on a managers special (it’s not on their website).

This saw also goes by other names (Grizzlyman in the US and something else over here). They seem to have slowly sorted out all the problems people have with them online (eg, the glide strips on the rails are now at both outside edges rather than in the middle).

Can easily and reasonably cheaply get new blade with more teeth – watch out for arbor size – as those Evolution saws might have a strange size – Freud blades are good value from FFX.

An important thing to note – Evolution saws are their own proprietary take on the circular saw. To get the multi material cutting capacity they run the blades at different speeds to standard saws, have different kerfs etc etc. Its not really advisable to put standard wood saw blades in them (I expect the arbor and blade dias preclude that anyway)

Part of evolution’s business model selling their machines so cheaply is they make their money from the blades.

I picked up a Scheppach PL55 plunge saw with two 700mm rails at B&Q (Cribbs Causeway, Bristol) for £108 last weekend on a managers special (it’s not on their website).

This saw also goes by other names (Grizzlyman in the US and something else over here).

Also branded as ‘Woodstar” here. The PL55 is the one I mentioned above. Theres also one with a smaller blade (possibly something like a PL45) that has a bit of a weird blade diameter that nobody else makes and could be tricky to get replacements for.

If its for one job… Lend one.. The cost of buying a specialist plung and rail outweighs the use…. Ask a joiner friend or hire one…. Personally ive had the festool range and yes its good kit but either A. Got pinched all the time (fes offer a replacement when stolen) or B ends up dying. The amount i use my tools (18 hrs a day 7 days a week) i buy makita now get a good deal via the company i work with and never had a issue. Lighter and imo more user friendly and innivative than most other brands. Hilti is the pros choice but thats overkill for what youd need.

I had a rage saw and loved it still going strong now after being used to cut 41×41 hd unistrut day in day out and even m10 and m12 rod. But as i said. Hire or lend one… Case of beer as payment for lending or about 20 quid for the weekend to hire one.

Festool’s prices have fallen enough that if you were considering the others you might as well buy the festool.

Yes, the equivalent Bosch and Makita saws were near enough the same price when I bought mine (kit with two guide rails). I much prefer the Festool though, and the warranty (and theft replacement!) is superb. No point in spending that much unless you are going to use it a fair bit though. Festool blades are more expensive than others, although you can use 3rd-party blades. Pretty much all the quality tradesmen I’ve encountered use some Festool stuff. I found a Makita plunge saw too ‘rattly’ after a while. I only wish I’d gone for the deal with the dust extraction system.

If its for one job… Lend one.. The cost of buying a specialist plung and rail outweighs the use…. Ask a joiner friend or hire one….

Sound advice. As for buying cheap: I’ve ‘graduated’ from cheaper ‘DIY’ tools, and the difference once you start spending a bit is significant. It can often be false economy to buy cheap tools if you’re going to do a fair amount of work with them, although there are some that are bargains. I’ve had a little Bosh green jigsaw for years, and it’s not bad at all. Cost £30 only. But often, cheap tools can’t be fixed if they go wrong, whereas the more expensive stuff often can be.

The amount i use my tools (18 hrs a day 7 days a week)

Are you an immigrant worker in Dubai or somewhere? 😯

Better to graft now while the mind and body can cope bartyp while i still can and all the prices are through the roof 🙂 no shortage of work dont plan on working past 50 so why not now and not the “if id have just pulled that odd weekend”

The stuff i do is heavy duty commercial so most tools even the better brands struggle i suppose a years of my use is equal to average 8am-330pm site workers 5 years. As i said ask a joiner pal or even hire one…. Cost effective and you wont end up with it sat in the man cave for 6month gathering dust.

Festool’s prices have fallen enough that if you were considering the others you might as well buy the festool.

Festool had a patent on the tracking circular saw which expired a few years ago, so now anyone can make one. Hence prices have lowered as there is competition.

I have the Bosch clone:

[url=https://flic.kr/p/ecoMpy]Ripping Ply with Bosch Tracking Circular Saw[/url] by Ben Freeman, on Flickr

I have the Bosch rail stuff, too. Bloody lovely stuff to use – big cuts, small cuts, whatever you need it does it with mm accuracy. Got a few different sized lengths of the rail and they clip together to make a mega guide so I can cut length ways on a 8×4 sheet or switch to the 80cm for small stuff. With a bit of concentration it can be used for plunge cuts, too. Very versatile kit and reasonably well made.

Festool had a patent on the tracking circular saw which expired a few years ago, so now anyone can make one. Hence prices have lowered as there is competition.

That… and getting fined 8.2 million Euros for price fixing – all their stuff has dropped in price since, not just the rail saws.