Circular saw Vs mitre saw

Hi, I’ve got a load of skirting board ready for my kids bedroom and it’s all internal corners.

I want to mitre cut the ends across the face, I think it’s called a bevel cut , and then scribe them to fit as I can’t guarantee the corners are 90 Deg.

Anyway, I only have a couple of saws and a mitre box and these are long lengths of skirting.

So I think it’s time to go powertool <insert power chord>

I don’t have a circular saw so can a bog standard one do a decent enough bevel cut? This one appears to:

https://www.screwfix.com/p/evolution-r185ccsl240-1200w-185mm-electric-circular-saw-220-240v/285fj

Or shall I just get a mitre saw?

I’d prefer to get a circular saw as presumably it’s a lot more versatile than a mitre saw.

I’m therefore minded to get the evolution saw above. Click n collect obvs

Just get a mitre saw. *So much easier* for that sort of work. Mine was about 50 quid from Amazon and does the job.

Compound sliding mitre saw – get a pair of bevels and measure the angles because 9/10 they won’t be 90 degrees. Trying to get the same level of accuracy with a regular circular saw would be a right faff as you’ll need a bench, clamps and squares

You need a mitre saw for that, doesn’t need to be flash. Anything else will be making hard work for yourself.

Mitre saw will do the job. Preferably one with a slide. Just to add to the bevel advice – I think what db’s saying is to use the sliding bevel to get the angle between the floor and the skirting board against which you’re doing the internal scribing. Pencil this onto your board, get the saw lined up and do one or two trial cuts near the pencil mark to check its lined at the correct angle. Then flip to 45deg and do your cut. Flip back to 90deg, cut along line until you reach the start of the moulding. Use a coping saw for the moulding cut. Job jobbed.

Definitely mitre saw. A big benefit is that you can take a tiny bit off if your first cut isn’t quite right. Very useful tool to have anyway.

Take a look at evolution rages

Get a sliding bevel like this:

https://www.screwfix.com/p/magnusson-sliding-bevel-300mm-11/8662v

Use it to measure the internal angle then nick a protractor out of your kid’s pencil case to find the exact angle of the wall, half it and set your new sliding compound mitre saw to that. I did this on my last set of skirting and didn’t even have to bother with a bevel cut (apart from the bits where the wall was out of vertical, but that’s a whole new level of pain).

Mitre Saw and a hand coping saw for skirting. Like you say internal corners are rarely 90degs so cut a mitre to reveal the profile and then cut a scribe with a coping saw.

Mitre. I’ve not got one, but I’ve tried using my circular saw for this and it isn’t accurate enough. Even if you get the angle sorted, you still have to hope you get a nice straight run across the skirting without twisting the saw.

The other possible option, can tracksaws do both? If I were buying now, I think I’d go track saw over circular saw for regular cutting work.

I use a rail/track saw for everything but in your situation I would get a mitre saw.

Disappointed nobody has insisted he needs a Festool Kapex saw, Festool mft workstation and Festool M-class extractor to be able to do the job satisfactorily.  😄

I’d agree that mitre saw is the best tool for that specific job however, it’s for you to decide in terms of best tool over most useful tool versus space, versus budget, versus future use as it can be done with either a mitre saw, circ saw, track saw or indeed a mitre box and a decent hand saw. Diy isn’t the same as trade.

Mitre saws are brilliant to have but if you don’t have much space and don’t foresee using it much, then much of the work CAN be done with other tools.

For versatility(not best tool for that specific job) I’d probably go track saw, as you can bevel, mitre, rip, trench, crosscut, all sorts with one. Can’t cut down an 8×4 with a mitre saw… (should you want to)

You say you have a mitre box so why not use that? Or build a bigger one if you need the capacity. Certainly cheaper than a mitre saw you might not use again.

That all said, I love my sliding compound mitre saw, I bagged a Bosch green with the table for about £270 and it’s earned it’s keep. Table isn’t necessary but it’s handy to have for bigger jobs, Bosch are doing the blue ones same as mine on clearance for £100 through their warehouse site, it should be compatible with whatever saw you pick up if you decide you want the extra support.

Disappointed nobody has insisted he needs a Festool Kapex saw, Festool mft workstation and Festool M-class extractor to be able to do the job satisfactorily. 😄

Well the Kapex does come with a handy tool for measuring the internal angle and then transferring it to the saw….

I just used a jigsaw, setting the plate to the required angle. Not 100% perfect but ok for occasional DIY.

I bagged a Bosch green with the table for about £270 and it’s earned it’s keep. Table isn’t necessary but it’s handy to have for bigger jobs, Bosch are doing the blue ones same as mine on clearance for £100 through their warehouse site, it should be compatible with whatever saw you pick up if you decide you want

You sure on that? Usually with Bosch the blue is Professional and the green is DIY.

You sure on that? Usually with Bosch the blue is Professional and the green is DIY.

I had a quick look as Bosch blue chop saws are nice. It’s £100 for the stand. Another £300-500 if you want the saw. Cheaper than RRP but still quite spendy

Thanks a lot for these replies.

I’m now thinking circular saw, despite what’s been said. I’m cutting a bevel edge on a couple of long lengths of skirting so I’m using 2 workbenches and going to lay the skirting (which is double sided) down flat

Surely a circular saw with a plate guide that can angle the blade at 45 Deg will be enough? I can then run it flat along the skirting to get my mitred edge for scribing

So the blade needs to angle along its vertical axis

The smaller mitre saws don’t seem to do this as I need enough clearance to stand up the 175mm skirting to bring the blade down (if I can’t angle the blade vertically)

I’m looking at £100 quid for a larger mitre saw but that evolution circular saw seems to be able to do it (£60) plus can do other jobs

Disappointed nobody has insisted he needs a Festool Kapex saw, Festool mft workstation and Festool M-class extractor to be able to do the job satisfactorily. 😄

I was going to suggest the Festool HKC55 with FSK short rail, ideal for when you can’t be arsed to drag out the mitre saw 😉

Just don’t forget to change the cut depth when working with varying timber thicknesses and cut right through your sacrificial board 🙄

You actually don’t need any of the above for skirting internal corners

You’d get a great results from a 22″ hand saw and a coping saw, like I said above, cut a mitre to reveal the profile and then scribe.

Found this which explains it well enough

Also if you can cut a mil or 2 too long and spring the scribed skirting in, it cuts into the joint a touch and makes nice tight finish

You need an old ELU or Dewalt radial arm saw for the full New Yankee Workshop experience. I paid £200 for mine, awesome saw if you have the room

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/293305355745
The above covers any faults.

Don’t worry got loads of caulk on standby

I’ve seen The Scouse joiner tutorial before where he doesn’t use his mitre saw and just cuts a bevel edge by hand but I don’t have that level of skill for a straight line , plus it’s double faced skirting so harder to follow a straight line, and it’s not MDF which is a more consistent cut

Mitre saw for what you want to do right now but both. You have an emergency excuse to order both so just do it. I am sure the circular saw will come in handy if you decide to sculpt a sea horse for example : https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/are-you-bored-enough-to-watch-me-carve-a-sea-horse-from-a-railway-sleeper/

You sure on that? Usually with Bosch the blue is Professional and the green is DIY.

I’m just talking about the table. Yes that’s the right way round.

Surely a circular saw with a plate guide that can angle the blade at 45 Deg will be enough? I can then run it flat along the skirting to get my mitred edge for scribing

So the blade needs to angle along its vertical axis

The smaller mitre saws don’t seem to do this as I need enough clearance to stand up the 175mm skirting to bring the blade down (if I can’t angle the blade vertically)

1) You can’t guide a circular saw unless you are within the range of the fence. Experience tells me this is only good for ripping. Some have tracks but they are expensive, rare and pointless since you are essentially buying a compromised plunge saw for the same outlay.

2) You need a saw that cuts compound angles, you will not be able to cut vertically, besides the number quoted is the diameter. Toolstation 14225 is an Einhell that will do what you want for £135

If you’re doing skirting boards the only time you need a mitre is on external corners. Normal ones, into the corner of the room you should run one board (this depends on the most common viewing angle) all the way to the wall and the one butting up to it should be profiled to match with a coping saw. If you mitre into a corner a gap will always open up and look crap.
Just like Tiger9671 above described.

. If you mitre into a corner a gap will always open up and look crap.

The Op did say he was scribing, and just needs the mitre to show the scribe profile.

1) You can’t guide a circular saw unless you are within the range of the fence.

You can run it along any straight edge clamped to the work in any direction (unless I misunderstood your statement)

When I did this a few years ago I found that my (cheap) mitre saw didn’t mitre well at it flexed. The circular saw guided with a long straight edge did a decent job although hand / coping saw job would arguably have made better internal corners at no more effort. Mitres look nice on the outside ones.

Blade makes a difference cross cutting so change to a cross cut blade. Buy a saw with decent bearings that don’t wobble. Don’t know about evolution saws as they use a multi material blade that I think runs at a different speed from regular wood saws.

You can run it along a straight edge but again, experience tells me the results aren’t brilliant especially for such a short cut. Bear in mind this is the experience of someone who thought all internal joints should be mitred on the first go rather than someone who knows all the ins and outs.

I agree a hand saw would actually be better choice, especially for such a relatively small job. It’s really satisfying to get right too, make sure you have a good coping saw, I got a Bahco to do mine and the results were fantastic.

And a scribe cut is still a mitre, it’s the cut we’re talking about, not the joint.