1. Home

splintering when making cross cut with circular saw

Submitted by stmahaja on Sun, 06/22/2014 - 19:21

Hello guys,

I'm working on my second project which uses 2x4, 2x6, 2x8.... lots of thick lumber. every time i make a cross cut with the circular saw the last bit tears away as the nonsaved piece falls to the ground... it ruins the wood. I tried supporting the saved piece so gravity would not cause this to happen... but then started getting very bad kickback (dangerous). Why can't i just make a clean cut without the corner peeling away because of gravity?

Any tips would be appreciated... I'm using a regular workbench and just clamping the long piece of lumbar to the bench to make the cut. Do I need sawhorses?

Thanks

Forums
General Getting Started Questions

nicholaix

Mon, 06/23/2014 - 13:38

Most saws come with blades that have a low number of teeth, essentially for framing, etc where the finished look is not so important. I found that after I switched out the blade for a higher toothed blade ( and a plywood blade for plywood) I got much nicer cleaner cuts. Seriously, night and day.
The second most important thing is to make sure your wood is supported for safety as well as cutting. I have used the bed of my truck in a pinch or whatever I can grab thats about the right height. Sheer laziness on my part because its easy peasy to build some sawhorses....lol. That being said, you will get a tiny bit of splinter most likely no matter what. Just be aware of it and sand it out or use on back sides of stuff. Happy building!

Ana White

Wed, 08/27/2014 - 17:04

Stmahaja,
Here are some tips that have been helping us, this is a common problem.
Try setting the saw so it cuts deeper and don't slow down at the end of your cut. Also purchasing a blue piece of foam under the back of the board and only cutting a little way into the foam (so that you can reuse) will keep the board supported. Hope this helps and happy building! We would be thrilled to see some projects.
Ana

birvine

Fri, 10/03/2014 - 18:24

I lay out 2×4 supports across two saw horses, then lay a 4x8 sheet of foam on the 2x4s . Then lay thecwood to be cut onto the foam. All is strongly supported.