Every person who has used a circular saw at least once knows how difficult it is to make an even cut. To somehow simplify this task, some use a special guide. This design will help you make perfectly straight cuts. Create a guide for a circular saw with your own hands.
A circular saw is often used in the household for cutting wood.
Guide bar - what is it?
Before you create such a design yourself, you need to familiarize yourself with its main features.
A guide bar is a special rail that is responsible for sliding the saw forward and backward. At the same time, it limits the movement of the tool and therefore it cannot be directed to the left or right.
This device is used not only to ensure an even cut. It also helps reduce the number of chips in places where the saw came into contact with the wood being cut.
Additional Information! Sometimes guides are included with circular saws from Bosch and Interskol.
Features of plunge-cut saws
Depending on the design, a plunge-cut circular saw may have the following features:
- the presence of a tilt function of the cutting part. Used for the manufacture of wooden blanks of complex shapes;
- number of disks - 1 or 2 (in the second case, the boards can be made of different widths, making two cuts at the same time);
- the lower base is spring-loaded, which allows you to regulate the degree of clamping of the saw part, and if there are foreign elements in the workpiece (for example, nails, etc.), stop work in time;
- the presence of additional devices, such as guide rulers of various configurations and sizes.
Most models of submersible type saws, to prevent clogging with chips and wood dust, have a special socket for connecting a chip vacuum cleaner, which forcibly removes the cutting products.
Guide rail functions
There are several main functions that these structures perform:
- increased accuracy when sawing large materials;
- improved quality when creating a curved cut;
- simplifying the creation of parts in accordance with a certain standard;
- the ability to manufacture several parts using one template;
- increasing safety when using circular saws.
Also, with the help of guides, it will be possible to make cuttings with high accuracy.
Popular manufacturers
The modern market is full of offers from manufacturers. But there are companies that are time-tested. It is their products that are preferred by owners of circular saws. A short list of popular brands is as follows:
CMT. The company appeared in Italy back in 1962. Production was moved to China, and only the head office remained in Europe.
"Makita". The year the company was founded was 1915. Much time has passed since then, but Japanese products are still popular all over the world.
"Bosch". This name has long been a symbol of unsurpassed quality. Saw blades under the Bosh brand are welcome guests in every home workshop.
"Attack". The organization appeared in 1998 in Russia. It can rightfully be called the oldest supplier of consumables on the domestic market.
Metabo. The name comes from the German name for a hand drill. The assembly of the first products began in Germany after 1924.
Dewalt. The company's victorious march around the planet started in the USA. Since 1922, the brand has produced accessories for power tools.
Advanced technologies are not easy to understand. Tooling manufacturers are constantly improving their production. We invite you to watch a video that will help you make the right choice and learn a lot of useful information:
Advantages of a homemade guide bar
The guide allows you to make straight cuts.
Many people think that homemade splints have no advantages. However, in fact they have a number of advantages:
- ease of use;
- repeated use;
- durability;
- versatility.
Homemade designs also have their drawbacks. The main disadvantage is that they are not easy to make. Therefore, to avoid problems, you need to figure out in advance how to make guides for a circular saw with your own hands.
Required materials and tools
Before you begin manufacturing the structure, you need to familiarize yourself with the list of necessary tools and materials:
- wooden blanks: boards, plywood, laminate;
- wooden bars with a thickness of 10 cm;
- self-tapping screws, screws, bolts or nuts;
- drill with drills;
- screwdrivers or screwdriver.
Additional Information! The above tools must be prepared in advance so that they are at hand while creating the guide.
Detailed instructions for manufacturing
To make a circular tire yourself, you need to familiarize yourself with the basic rules for its manufacture in advance.
From plywood
Plywood is often used to create a tire.
The plywood structure is made in several sequential steps:
- Disconnect the circular saw from the power source.
- Measure the distance from the saw blade to the groove located on the support platform.
- Cut the plywood strip so that its width is a millimeter less than the distance obtained in the previous step.
- Fasten the strip to a wide piece of plywood.
- Attach the second strip parallel to the base of the instrument.
Important! Before you make a guide yourself, you need to create a drawing with accurate calculations.
Aluminum profile tire
Some people want to make a more durable and high-quality structure. For this they use an aluminum profile. The only serious difference between such products and plywood is that a U-shaped aluminum profile is installed in the guide gap. With its help, it is possible to significantly increase the rigidity of the entire structure. Thanks to this, the cutting accuracy also increases.
When creating aluminum busbars, thick plywood is often used as restraints. However, it is better to install several fluoroplastic plates instead. This material is more efficient because it has a low coefficient of friction.
Other varieties
The construction rule is often used as a guide.
You can make a guide bar for a circular saw with your own hands from a miter box rail. Most often, this device is used for cross-sectioning materials. It consists of two corners that are connected in parallel to each other. Their ends must be attached to an iron or plywood base.
If the rail miter box will be used in a circular saw, it must be attached using metal pins or bolts. The structure must be installed higher so that it does not come into contact with the work surface.
Additional Information! Some people use a ruler from the building code as a guide bar. However, this design is not very convenient, since it must be configured before each use.
Review of the most popular models
There are very few submersible circular saws, so the parameters of the most popular models in the Russian Federation are discussed below.
Triton TTS 1400 TR 208724
Plunge circular saw for longitudinal and cross cutting of wooden materials, including chipboard, parquet, plywood and laminate. There are 3 operating modes: plunge sawing, trimming (saw depth up to 2.5 mm) and disc change. Adjusting the position of the saw along the guide improves cutting accuracy. Suitable for construction and installation work at home and in production.
Main characteristics:
- type - semi-professional;
- power - 1.4 kW;
- disc diameter - 165 mm;
- disk mounting diameter - 20 mm;
- depth of cut at an angle of 90° - 54 mm;
- number of revolutions per minute - 2000-5300;
- dimensions without packaging - 335x250x235 mm;
- weight - 5.5 kg.
This model provides the following features:
- Smooth start.
- Smooth speed control.
- Connecting a vacuum cleaner.
- Spindle lock.
Pros:
- large engine speed range 2000-5300;
- smooth start;
- fixing the angle of inclination on both sides of the platform;
- trimming mode switch;
- clear scales of inclination and depth of immersion;
- Can work with Triton, Festool and Makita guide bars.
Minuses:
The depth indicator has a flag that takes into account the tire size, but reading the readings from it is not very convenient.
Mafell MT 55 CC
Plunge circular saw for cutting plasterboard, composite materials, OSB, wood, laminated boards and artificial stone.
Thanks to the presence of a marking scale on the body, it is possible to accurately cut materials without any additional devices. Due to the protective casing and a movable damper above the working area, dust formation is minimized.
The CUprex-Compact electric motor has high power, so the power tool does not operate at maximum load. Due to this, the electric motor lasts longer.
Main parameters:
- type - semi-professional;
- power - 1.4 kW;
- disc diameter - 162 mm;
- disk mounting diameter - 20 mm;
- saw depth at an angle of 45° - 40.5 mm;
- saw depth at an angle of 90° - 57 mm;
- number of revolutions per minute - 3600-6250;
- cable length – 4 m;
- weight - 4.5 kg.
This model provides the following features:
- Fixation of saw depth.
- Marking scale.
- Possibility of connecting a vacuum cleaner.
- Spindle lock.
Pros:
- precision saw;
- large cutting depth;
- the powerful CUprex-Compact electric motor allows you to cut various materials;
- convenient to use.
Minuses:
high price.
Drawing a conclusion from all of the above, we can say with confidence that using a plunge-cut circular saw you can process wood efficiently at home and in production.
Additional guide bar functions
Using a guide bar, it is extremely difficult to damage the material being cut.
Such designs have a number of additional functions that you should familiarize yourself with before using a homemade guide bar for a hand-held circular saw:
- protects the sawn material from damage;
- allows you to adjust the exact length of the cut;
- significantly speeds up the process of sawing wood;
- securely fixes the wood to the work surface.
Additional Information! Both branded guides and homemade designs can boast of the above additional functions.
How to make a guide for a hand saw and cut boards exactly like on a stationary circular saw
Making an even cut with a hand-held circular saw is not so easy. Due to the heterogeneity of the wood and for other reasons, the saw always tends to move to the side. Of course, you can buy a guide bar in a store, but a factory branded product is comparable in price to the saw itself. With basic carpentry and plumbing skills, you can make this useful addition to your tool yourself.
How to adjust correctly
Before you start working, you need to properly adjust the structure. You will have to independently choose the optimal location and point for further fixation.
It is necessary to position the device so that its edge lies flat against the cut line and without distortion. After this, you need to adjust the placement of the saw blade. It must be torn off from the casing and aligned perpendicularly to the cutting line.
When the disk and guides are adjusted, the structure is fixed with clamps. This is done to minimize vibrations that may occur while the saw is running.
Important! To cut wood at an angle of 45 degrees, you will need to adjust the saw blade or adjust the angle on the bar itself. This must be done very carefully to avoid mistakes when adjusting the tilt.
The simplest option is a cutting stop
The device is actively used when cutting with a jigsaw.
It works quite effectively, but is limited in its suitability for a hand-held circular saw. The tire is pressed against the workpiece using a clamp. The bracket protrudes above the work surface both from below and from above.
As a result, we get restrictions on the length of the cut. The circular motor rests against the clamp, and you have to make the cut in two steps. In this case, the quality of the edge deteriorates and a step may form.
Any craftsman will tell you that a high-quality cut is obtained when the saw moves continuously from the beginning to the end of the workpiece. In industrial designs, the fasteners are placed outside the ruler and do not interfere with the free passage of the tool.
A homemade guide is made from a ready-made tool of a different profile, which has a low cost. We buy a long aluminum rule (emphasis on and) for plaster or screed.
Its cost is 3-4 hundred rubles. The tool is a profile of a complex shape with a smooth groove on the reverse side for adjusting the position of the handles. The fastening is clamping, with hex nuts. Not suitable for our purposes.
As a donor for hidden clamps, you can use screwless quick-release clamps, which also have a reasonable cost. Their main advantage for our design is the removable upper leg.
Let's delete it. At the same time, the tool can be returned to its complete set at any time and used for its intended purpose. Instead of paws, we make and fasten runners from a piece of fluoroplastic or polypropylene. The main criterion when choosing a material is strength and low coefficient of friction.
You can process the workpiece using a milling cutter or a hacksaw for metal with a fine-toothed blade. In the second case, you will have to, as they say, “finish it with a file.”
We adjust the runners to the groove. Sliding should be without sticking, at the same time, strong play is also not needed. There is no need to try too hard; this unit will be fixed during operation.
We screw the sliders to the top of the clamp rail. The connection must be strong, since there should be no spontaneous release during cutting, as this can lead to injury or damage to the workpiece.
We check the functionality of the design. The homemade guide ruler holds securely, there are no backlashes.
This design can be used to process flat workpieces of any size, as long as the length of the ruler is sufficient. In our case it is 2 meters. Taking into account the margin at the edges for fixing the clamps, the working length is 1.5 meters. More than enough for most household jobs.
If your requests are longer, you can use the 2.5 or 3 meter rule. The most reasonable set is a three-meter ruler. You can cut a piece 50 cm long from it, and you will have two rulers - for large-area workpieces and narrow boards.
We are conducting tests. The cutting line is perfectly straight, nothing interferes with the free passage of the circular saw.
And most importantly, the purchased tool is not damaged during the manufacture of the device. Both the clamps and the rule are returned to their original state at any time and used for their intended purpose. Labor costs are minimal - in fact, only the sliders are manufactured.
Useful tips
Blank templates make the work much easier.
There are several useful recommendations that will help beginners use a circular saw with a guide:
- It is necessary to use special blank templates. With their help you can quickly make identical parts.
- Before starting work, you need to adjust and configure everything in advance. Only with a properly configured tool will it be possible to cut wood efficiently.
- Do not work at the circular saw for too long. The tool must be turned off periodically to prevent it from overheating.
- The tire must be securely attached. It must not slide on the work surface. Bolts or screws can be used as fastenings.
- If, during sawing, the circular saw begins to sharply slow down, it must be turned off. This often happens when a tool works continuously for a long time and begins to overheat.
Important! If you need to cut an even cut, you must use a guide. Without it, it is quite difficult to do this.
A circular saw is an indispensable tool that allows you to quickly cut wood products. People who want to do quality work should use special guides. Such designs can be purchased or made independently.
Characteristics
Let us note the most important operational parameters necessary for effective work with organic glass:
- power – 250-300 W for hand saws, 500-800 W for professional models. More powerful samples have increased capabilities and can work not only with plexiglass, but also with a number of other materials;
- cutting speed – 5-10 cm/s;
- speed – 3000-4000 rpm. (optimal);
- adjustable cutting angles - 90, 45, 60, 35?, as well as a number of intermediate adjustable values.
Useful features found on many modern circular saw models include:
- blowing away sawdust due to a cooling impeller and a special air exhaust system;
- emergency stop (sharp, without inertial rotation);
- soft start system – provides a smooth increase in speed and eliminates jerking at the beginning of work.
All saws are connected to a standard electrical network (220 V). Household wiring can withstand units of any performance, as long as their power does not exceed 2 kW.
