What saw to use ...

Submitted by MissSea on Sun, 12/11/2011 - 18:53

I am making the dress up tower for a friend's daughter. I have a compound miter saw, but the depth of cut is only 12 inches. Since most of the cuts on the project require at least a 15 in. depth, I had Home Depot do the cuts. Much to my chagrin.

These cuts are off by what seems like MILES! I tried to piecemeal the boards together, but some of them are, like, 1/4 inch off from the rest of the assembled piece. I measured the cuts I made (like the ones on the 1x4), but I made a newbie mistake assuming the others were right.

I thought about getting some of the pieces recut by HD, but I've already glued and nailed the piece together. Is any of it salvageable? Is this a hard-lesson-learned-by-example situation?

Thanks for any and all advice,
MissSea :)

claydowling

Mon, 12/12/2011 - 17:38

You should never trust a home improvement store or lumber yard to make your cuts for you. While their equipment is capable of making the appropriate cuts, their staff for the most part isn't, and they certainly don't have the investment in your project that you do.

You can make most of the cuts you need with a circular saw. Adding in a circular saw jig will really extend your capabilities.

If you don't have much money to spend on tools, you can pick up a panel saw at Lowes. Chris Schwarz, who I generally trust on all things saw, recently did a review of one of these saws: http://www.popularwoodworking.com/woodworking-blogs/chris-schwarz-blog/…

Tom Killian (not verified)

Mon, 12/12/2011 - 18:07

Without a doubt, the best saw to get is a standard table saw. A circular saw is so dangerous that Cerritos College, where I go to school, forbids it! Once you learn to use a table saw safely, it is a great tool and quite safe. I use a Bosch portable one and use a shop-made sled for cross cuts.

claydowling

Mon, 12/12/2011 - 20:33

Tables saws are excellent tools. Unfortunately you need to do quite a bit of modification before they're really ready to use. You need to build the cross cut sled. You need to get or make a zero clearance insert. You should probably also install a riving knife if your saw doesn't have one, although I don't think that new ones can be sold without them.

Learning how to use it safely is key though. If it's used unsafely they're a prime tool for causing serious injury. And some of the safety rules aren't immediately obvious.