Circular saw parallelism

[ewingda]

Guys,

I went thru the trouble of making a panel cutting jig for my circular saw - a Ryobi 15Amp. (dont rem model #) I assembled a guide board on a piece of plywod with glue and nails. I was then going to cut the plywood off so that I had a zero clearance cut line. Im making my cut and I cannot keep the saw on the guide. Come to find out the blade and the base were not parallel. So I get kinda mad and took it out on some scrap lumber.

So I look at the saw and there is no method of adjustment, all of the joints are riveted. So I went and got a Skil that was on sale at BORG. It has the dual lasers. I was using this with a cutting guide to cut a pieve of plywood and I notoce that the lasers are not paralel to the guide. So I check it with my square - and it is indeed not square. I may be able to shim the base with washers where the height adjuement is. I have to look.

Does anoyone have any experience with this? Or any ideas on what to do. I could return the Skil and use the Ryobi - it had more power anyway.

Thanks!!

[leehljp]

One way to fix the first one is to make a sub base from 1/8 masonite or other hard material; make it a tad larger than the real base and let that ride the panel cutting jig. Attach it aligned with the blade. Not the best fix but at least you could use your old saw.

I did this (for a different reason) on a Makita 7 1/4 once and it worked well.

[sweensdv]

With the exception of a select few, most lasers found on circular saws, drill presses and miter saws are nothing more than marketing gimmicks. They're pure hype and don't work very well if at all. Don't get me wrong, I like gimmicks and bells and whistles as much as the next guy, but I can't see any reason to have a circ. saw with a laser on it if you're going to be using a cutting jig that works properly.

[crokett]

A slightly larger sub-base fixed to your saw in line with the blade will fix it. My dad had a craftsman that was 30+ yrs old that was always slightly out of line. He gave it to me when he got a new saw. I fixed it with a hardiboard sub-base that had countertop laminate glued to the bottom. I've since replaced that saw, but my brother still uses it.

[niki]

Exactly what Leehljp and Crokett said

I used 5/16" MDF and later changed to "floor panel"
You can see it "in action" here
http://www.bt3central.com/showthread.php?t=25370

niki

[Lonnie in Orlando]

For what it's worth ...
The base of my Dewalt can be adjusted to be parallel with the blade. It's the Dewalt with the round front knob.

- Lonnie

[pirinst]

Know how you feel.

I posted quite a while back about replacing rivets in the three pivot areas and getting a true line out of my circular saws at plywood depth.

In that process and also putting one craftsman onto a base that rides on my
three different length saw guides, I needed to adjust the parallel. Fortunately
on that saw, there were screws that could be loosened and the base moved enough to get square to the base.

Many saws do not have that feature. I'd put the saw up to plywood working depth and see how much play you have in the saw. If it wobbles around it will never saw true no matter how much you adjust the base. Any handle pressure causes the blade to wander and screw up the straight cutting line.
I'm willing to bet your's is wobbly (most are btw..) If so, try replacing the rivets with bolts/nuts and see how well it saws then worry about the parallel
adjustment.

[gjat]

Almost no circular saw as an adjustable base. I have a platic sub-base that I got from somwhere that's adjustable. I applied SlickTape and it works fantastic. With a sharp blade it's easy to use a guide. Adjusting an edge to be paralell with the blade is the same principle as adjusting your miter slot or SMT to the blade.

Niki's set up will work, but it defeats the bade guard. Mine has a larger opening to let the blade guard swing out. I may cut lumber with a circ saw using my leg, but I'm not reckless.

Putting on a slicker base helps you cut straighter anyway, even without a guide. I always use my saw with the added base.

[Tom Miller]

Niki's set up will work, but it defeats the bade guard. Mine has a larger opening to let the blade guard swing out.

Good point. I plan to make something like Hank described, and Niki showed, but with more of a zero-clearance throat at the front. My 15 yr old Skil doesn't track so well, either. It seems like you should be able to make a big enough hole for the blade guard on mine, too -- I'll have to look at it tonight.

Regards,
Tom

[scorrpio]

Here is an idea.

Looking at saw from below, red is the blade. Clamp a straightedge (blue) to the baseplate, making sure it is dead parallel to the blade.

Grind off the portion protruding beyond straightedge. If base is aluminum or plastic, you can do it with a flush-trim router bit. Ot you can take it to a sander. Now, you habe a baseplate edge parallel to blade.