The Circular Saw

The circular saw is one of the most useful tools for any woodworker or DIY enthusiast. It is a versatile cutter that can do most jobs easily and with a fair degree of accuracy. I have found it an indispensable tool in my home workshop. 

Ripping a board with my circular saw

I use it to make most cuts since I do not possess a table saw and I usually do not use my hand saw. I also have a Skil jigsaw that I use to make small and curved cuts. My jigsaw does not cut as neatly as my circular saw and the pieces cut by the jigsaw usually have to be cleaned up afterwards, which is often a tiresome task.

Bosch GKS 190 Cicular saw: A great and versatile all purpose saw.

I had an old locally made circular saw for many years which served me well but which was not particularly accurate. In retrospect, I think I should have invested in better blades rather than letting the old fellow go.

Last year, I bought a brand new Bosch circular saw (Model GKS190), which is a great machine that cuts through board, plywood and so on like a knife through butter. I like the machine as it is accurate; feels powerful and on the whole makes clean cuts. However, it could cut cleaner, especially cheap board that tends to chip along the edges while being cut. The other problem with the saw is the short length of the electrical cord supplied with it and an equally cheap two pin plug that never seems to fit any socket.

My other grouse is that Bosch India does not provide the dust extraction attachment for the saw. The dealer from whom I bought the saw did not even know what that was. The saw throws out quite a bit of dust and the dust extraction attachment, which is nothing but a piece of plastic, should be provided as a standard accessory.

A circular saw I think is used mostly to rip pieces of board and plywood. This job is does very well but I find it hard to use when cutting smaller pieces of hard wood like teak and so on. Especially difficult to make are longitudinal or lengthwise cuts on smaller square batons.

The circular saw will usually not make perfect cuts in the freehand mode. It requires a guide for accurate cutting. A guide could even be strip of wood clamped on the work piece and I initially used an aluminium channel fixed on a 1/4mm strip of plywood. This did the work but I realised I was not getting a clean edge because the aluminium edge was not perfectly straight. 

A simple but effective guide rail. The only problem is getting good quality aluminium extrusions in India. If the aluminium is not high grade it bends and has imperfections which get transferred to the work piece. Otherwise this is a very effective guide system; the circular saw cuts along the right edge of the quater inch plywood base.

A guide, I realised, is as good as the quality of its edge. If the edge is not perfectly straight then all the imperfections, dents, etc. will be transferred to the work piece. I therefore purchased a guide rail from abroad – paid quite a bit for it along with two clamps and an attachment for the saw. The guide rail and its accessories cost double the price of the saw because I had to import them – Bosch does not sell those attachments in India. The saw now rides along the guide and makes pretty straight cuts most of the time. However, this system is far from perfect because there is a significant degree of play (or movement) in the guide attachment and even a slight tilt of the saw while it is running along the guide will cause problems.

Bosch circular saw rides with attachment along the raised section of the guide rail, which is made of aircraft grade aluminium. The guide is light, extremely strong and tensile. This system can make almost perfect cuts.

Bosch does sell different kinds of blades for its circular saw. I have three kinds: one for general cuts especially on hard woods; another with 60 teeth for fines cuts; and finally one blade for cutting metal, acrylic, polycarbonate and so on. These blades need to be maintained and kept sharp and will provide good service for many years.

Bosch Guide Rail for Circular Saw: The guide rail without the saw or attachment.

For perfect cuts, a normal circular saw will not do. For that you need something like the Festool plunge saw with its unique guide rail system. But that costs several thousand rupees while my Bosch machines cost me just about Rs 5,000, if I recall correctly. Moreover, Festool in India seems to suffer from some problems; once when I tried to buy something from their Delhi office they behaved very suspiciously.   

At any rate, I discovered that Makita and Bosch also make plunge saws but those have not been released in India and I have not come across any reviews. An Indian company, Eastman Power Tools, also manufactures a plunge saw, which looks good but I cannot say how effective it is.

While a circular saw is great for making rip cuts (those made along the grain of the wood) on long pieces of wood, it is less accurate and difficult to set up to make cross cuts on small, square pieces of wood like those for the legs of a chair or a framework for a cabinet. Even cutting those pieces lengthwise is a problem as I have earlier mentioned. 

Difficult to cut such pieces of wood lengthwise with a circular saw

The problem arises mainly from the difficulty of clamping smaller work pieces and setting up a guide to make accurate cuts. Setting up a cut on the long square piece of wood is not impossible but can often be time consuming, frustrating and lead to inaccuracies.

Ideally, a woodworker should have a table saw, which is a highly versatile machine and can perform all kinds of jobs. The best thing about a table saw is that once it is set up correctly, it is very easy to cut precise widths repetitively. A circular saw on the other hand, usually requires that the work piece be set up every time a cut is made. Although repetitive cuts can be made by attaching a parallel guide (which is a standard attachment supplied with most circular saws), the cuts will not generally be as accurate as those made by a table saw.

Pieces of wood cut on a good quality table saw look very professional and do not require much cleaning. I do not have one because those saws cost a lot; besides, a table saw can be potentially dangerous. I usually get my smaller pieces cut at a local carpenter’s workshop. But going back and forth to the local carpenter for cuts can be frustrating sometimes and perhaps one day I will take the plunge and buy a table saw.

18 February 2012