Got my most recent Sears club sale flier and noticed a $130 circular for sale at $100 with magnesium guards/base/professional grade edge guide/and electric brake.
Just for fun I went down to take a look. Put it up to full height for cutting thin plywood and wow-look at the thing wobble. I showed it to the tool expert at the store and he didn't know how to comment other than say try the new expensive dewalt circular saw......
Anyone else had troubles getting their circular saw to cut straight lines in plywood? I sure did for a long time. Used various edge guides, even had one on each side of the saw base and still got wobbly cuts. Couldn't figure it out and had to use a router to make the edges straight. Thought the blades were getting hot and distorting.....
One day in the store I was admiring a $100 5 inch finish circular saw and noticed the hinge pins were loose and allowed the base to move. When I rushed home to check mine, I saw there were hinge pins and also basically rivets holding the moving parts together in my two circular saws! Plus the one bad one had no washer holding one joint together so a rubber bushing was all that was keeping the raised part in line-any pressure caused it to move over an 1/8 inch. The light went on for me right then and there.
I removed all roll pins and rivets and replaced them with BOLTS and castle nuts and very thin side washers. Now, neither saw has any movement to speak of even at the full minimum cut height!. I can cut a straight line now and am very happy. Plus it makes my super guide systems work like a dream.
Once I realized the weak points of the saws I started looking at the various circular saws at sears, hd, lowes, fred meyer. etc.....They almost all had either roll pins and or rivets holding the hinges together. Even the over $100 models. I found only one with bolts and it was a very expensive worm saw-pushing $200. As long as the saw bushings are in good shape (most are throw away units anyway) pretty much any circular saw can be converted into a straight line cutter with minimal effort and expense-even the cheapo
skill saws. Hope that helps someone out there that might have the same problem with straight cuts in thin plywood.
Just for fun I went down to take a look. Put it up to full height for cutting thin plywood and wow-look at the thing wobble. I showed it to the tool expert at the store and he didn't know how to comment other than say try the new expensive dewalt circular saw......
Anyone else had troubles getting their circular saw to cut straight lines in plywood? I sure did for a long time. Used various edge guides, even had one on each side of the saw base and still got wobbly cuts. Couldn't figure it out and had to use a router to make the edges straight. Thought the blades were getting hot and distorting.....
One day in the store I was admiring a $100 5 inch finish circular saw and noticed the hinge pins were loose and allowed the base to move. When I rushed home to check mine, I saw there were hinge pins and also basically rivets holding the moving parts together in my two circular saws! Plus the one bad one had no washer holding one joint together so a rubber bushing was all that was keeping the raised part in line-any pressure caused it to move over an 1/8 inch. The light went on for me right then and there.
I removed all roll pins and rivets and replaced them with BOLTS and castle nuts and very thin side washers. Now, neither saw has any movement to speak of even at the full minimum cut height!. I can cut a straight line now and am very happy. Plus it makes my super guide systems work like a dream.
Once I realized the weak points of the saws I started looking at the various circular saws at sears, hd, lowes, fred meyer. etc.....They almost all had either roll pins and or rivets holding the hinges together. Even the over $100 models. I found only one with bolts and it was a very expensive worm saw-pushing $200. As long as the saw bushings are in good shape (most are throw away units anyway) pretty much any circular saw can be converted into a straight line cutter with minimal effort and expense-even the cheapo
skill saws. Hope that helps someone out there that might have the same problem with straight cuts in thin plywood.
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