Choosing a circular saw for your tasks How to choose a circular saw for a summer residence and your needs. Selection criteria: power, rpm, saw blade size. Features and abilities of some models of circular saws.
Main characteristics
Let’s take a look at some of the most compelling features of circulars.
Battery availability
Cordless saw. The tool allows you to work autonomously, although it has less performance. The speed in cordless circular saws is less important than in electric circular saws.
These models successfully cope with wood that has a small thickness and low density. The battery is charged for 30-50 minutes of operation, after which the battery must be charged again.
This brings some inconvenience, because the battery charging can take up to 4 hours.
Manual or tabletop?
The choice of a particular option depends, of course, on you. Where will you work?
Let’s say you have equipped a separate place in a workshop in the country or in a garage, and all the work will be done there. In this case, choose a table saw.
Tabletop models are usually more powerful. It is also very convenient to work on such a stationary machine.
By the way, there are special devices on sale that allow you to fix the hand-held circular saw on the table upside down. The result is a mini-machine that can be operated with great convenience. However, such mounts are not suitable for all models.
There are also models of circular saws, which are already included in the kit for installation on a bed. Consider these features when choosing.
How to choose a circular saw
Wood saw sharpening
A saw for wood is the most important tool in the hands of a specialist who must work properly and reliably, especially if the saw is properly sharpened. However, when buying this product, the consumer is not always happy with its sharpness. Wood saws are often sold blunt. To a greater extent, this applies to large-toothed tools. Therefore, the issue of sharpening remains relevant for those who wish to achieve efficient saw operation.
It is known that there are different forms of sharpening for each type of work.
- The saw must be parted first if it is not sufficiently parted. It is best to do this using a specialized layout. But if such a part is not at your disposal, then pliers can be used.
- The saw is clamped with the teeth upwards, the operator must operate in such a way that he can see the entire process along the blade.
- Then you need to bend every second tooth in different directions, accompanying each movement by tilting the pliers at an equal angle.
- Often the wiring is already present to a small extent initially. The owner of the saw simply needs to increase it when it comes to raw wood or large saws. If the saw is small and is designed to perform work that requires great accuracy, then factory wiring is sufficient.
A triangular file is used to sharpen the teeth. This process is carried out from the inner surface in relation to the setting of the saw teeth. The file is positioned at an angle in the cutting edge. This angle should be sixty forty-five degrees.
In practice, it is much more efficient to first sharpen one side of the teeth, and then, turning the saw over, sharpen them on the other side. Thus, a person makes the same type of movement, which allows you to sharpen the saw faster and more efficiently.
When sharpening saws, it is necessary to follow the most important rules that not only allow you to achieve a higher effect, but also ensure safety. To do this, when sharpening saws, you must:
- Eliminate any background noise or communication with other people,
- You should turn off the radio, TV, thus achieving complete silence, creating a situation in which no one can distract you.
Otherwise, any careless movement or reaction of a person to a distracting sound can lead not only to damage to the instrument, but also irreparable consequences, causing damage to human health.
Saw blade sharpening
The circular saw will sharpen from the rear if you are working in a position facing the material being cut.
- The front surface that runs into the material during sawing remains unchanged.
- You can sharpen the disc directly in the machine. Otherwise, you can remove it from the machine or circular saw.
- In the first option, you must first unplug the plug to prevent the consequences of starting the machine, which can happen accidentally.
- The disc must be wedged, for which thin pieces of wood must be put on both sides of it and pressed against the teeth.
- With a marker, you need to mark the side of the tooth from which you will begin to sharpen. This will allow you to avoid mistakes in such a responsible work.
- Attention and extreme caution must be exercised.
You will need the same efforts in order to sharpen all the other teeth.
If you removed the disc from the machine, it must be clamped in a vise in order to do the same activities that you read about above.
Then the disc returns to the machine, the unnecessary piece of wood is sawn. It is necessary to check the height of the teeth if your work was accompanied by loud noise or an uneven feed. This can be done by bringing a marker to the incisal edge and turning the disc by hand in a slow rhythm one revolution in the direction opposite to the direction of rotation. Each tooth will receive a mark, when examining the disc it will be revealed which teeth are higher than the others. If the difference is significant, their height must be carefully reduced.
Saw sharpening
- Wood saw sharpening
- Saw blade sharpening
- Saw set teeth
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Let’s go over the material on how to sharpen a saw for wood or sharpen a circular saw.
Do we need high speed?
The power of the motor and the speed of the blade determine the performance of the saw. The quality of the cut also depends on the speed. True, it should be borne in mind that the optimum cutting speed will also vary for different materials. So, polymers with a low melting point are best processed at a low rotation speed (so as not to melt the edges), and hard woods and MDF at a high one.
It is for the target setting for the desired material that it is used speed control. In other cases, this option remains unclaimed. Therefore, circular saws often have only one idle speed of about 5,000 rpm. So that advice for summer residents, not striving for the heights of sawing creativity: get single speed saw.
How does the saw keep you safe?
Circular saw really traumatic thing, which must be handled with care and respect. The designers have done a lot to prevent accidents with this high-speed and sharp machine.
Here are some examples of this concern:
- Cutting disc from above closes stationary protective cover, and from below with a movable spring-loaded sector, which hides the disc until the saw comes into contact with the workpiece being cut. When the tool is fed forward, the sector guard should be slightly turned, and the workpiece to be sawn will already push back and expose the saw blade. After removing the circular from the material, the lower part of the casing automatically returns to its original position thanks to the compressed spring.
- The tool is equipped special safety device slip clutch. It works with possible jamming disk in the workpiece. This is often the case with gambling beginners. In this case, the disc stops rotating and the motor continues to run. And best of all, it does not burn out and does not lead to unplanned expenses.
- Protection against accidental activation performed by installing a special button next to the start key. To turn on the saw, press them simultaneously. It is perhaps impossible to perform such a combination of different movements by chance.
- Another great invention shaft braking unit after shutdown engine. It limits the drive to run out and stops it immediately after the user removes his finger from the trigger.
How the saw blade works
The quality, speed and convenience of work are determined by the cutting tool, in our case the saw blade. They differ:
- By type of processed material (wood of various density and thickness, plastic, aluminum profile, etc.);
- By the size and shape of the teeth and on the corner of their sharpening.
Discs with a small number of teeth (12-16) will do well with fast work, but the results will look relatively sloppy. As a rule, with an increase in the number of teeth (and there may be more than a hundred of them), the quality of the cut increases, but the cutting speed decreases.
The cutting blades have several radial expansion slots that prevent possible warpage in the event of excessive overheating and, as a result, additional vibration and noise.
Cutting disc diameter the main consumer parameter of the circular. However, it is not enough to know the size of the circle: much more important for the user maximum cutting depth. For most models, it is about 40% of the diameter of the disc itself.
Diy circular saw table
How to make a table for circular from chipboard? To make such a table for a circular, you need:
- A sheet of film faced plywood with a thickness of 911 mm (800×800 mm);
- 4 sheets of laminated chipboard 16 mm thick (400×784 mm);
- Several bars 40×40 mm;
- Several bolts and screws;
- Aluminum cornice.
Any hand-held circular saw with a large blade can be mounted on such a table. Drawings of this type of circular table can be easily found on the Internet.
Such a saw is made in several stages:
- A drawer of the future table is made from laminated chipboard sheets. It does not have a bottom, and the walls are fastened with bars, which, in turn, must be secured with bolts and screws.
- A cover is made of plywood with a hole into which you will need to insert a saw. The marking for the hole is carried out along the support shoe and the lower protective casing of the circular saw. The hole is cut with a jigsaw.
- The saw is attached to the plywood with ploughshare bolts with a countersunk cone head. The plywood cover is fastened to the laminated chipboard body with an 18 mm steel case.
- Wiring is laid along the side of the table top and a start button is installed.
Circular saw guides are made from timber or aluminum curtain rod.
The second version of the circular table. Photo of manufacturing technology
A do-it-yourself saw-table is made of boards, as the most affordable material, quite often. To make this table you will need:
- Plywood sheet (thickness 20 mm and more);
- Boards 50 by 100 mm;
- Bars 50 by 50 mm;
- Several self-tapping screws;
- Wood glue;
- One of the types of wood varnish.
A workpiece with a hole is cut from a plywood sheet with a jigsaw, in which the saw will be placed. When marking the holes, they are guided by the dimensions of the saw sole. Stiffening ribs are made of the boards, which will be attached to the tabletop with self-tapping screws. In the process of fastening, the boards are pulled together using clamps. A start button is later installed on the front stiffener. For the manufacture of legs, boards about a meter long are used. They are bolted to the outside of the stiffeners.
Diy circular saw table
A circular saw is used to cut wood along the solid wood. Its cutting base is a disc-shaped plane with a serrated outer edge. Such saws are not only hand-held, but fixed on the table. How to make a universal circular table so that this cutting tool can be installed on it? Below are several ways to make a do-it-yourself circular saw table.
The second version of the circular table.
A do-it-yourself saw-table is made of boards, as the most affordable material, quite often. To make this table you will need:
- Plywood sheet (thickness 20 mm and more);
- Boards 50 by 100 mm;
- Bars 50 by 50 mm;
- Several self-tapping screws;
- Wood glue;
- One of the types of wood varnish.
A workpiece with a hole is cut from a plywood sheet with a jigsaw, in which the saw will be placed. When marking the holes, they are guided by the dimensions of the saw sole. Stiffening ribs are made of the boards, which will be attached to the tabletop with self-tapping screws. In the process of fastening, the boards are pulled together using clamps. A start button is later installed on the front stiffener. For the manufacture of legs, boards about a meter long are used. They are bolted to the outside of the stiffeners.