Making A Circular Saw Joint
Hands-on hobbies like carpentry and woodwork give you a lot of practical satisfaction. There's a satisfying degree of control over how you will go about things. Hobbyists and carpenters have some freedom when it comes to accomplishing their task. You design and make each piece of your work which is unique. With any design you make the model different ways depending on your tools. Ever tried making a circular saw joint?
It is interesting to compare the work of two different carpenters doing the same job. They may take different paths and use different tools to make their final product. In this article, we will be discussing a topic related to the flexibility of woodworking: the circular saw joint.
We are going to be taking a look at how you can cut a joint with a circular saw. There are some obstacles to cutting a joint with one of these tools. Experienced woodworkers will tell you that they do it all the time. We will look at this information and give you the facts.
We will dive into cutting joints. First, let’s take a bit of a broader look at circular saws before diving into the deep end with these tools. But feel free to skip ahead to making circular saw joints at any time.
The Versatile Circular Saw
Circular saws are very versatile tools and a tool that every carpenter needs access to. In woodworking most people will use for them in their tasks. First up, you can use circular saws with many different types of material. The circular saw blade needs to be capable enough for the material you cut to make your circular saw joint.
There are many different circular saw types. There are the beginner models that you can find at reasonable prices. There are high powered precision advanced saws made for experienced carpenters. Both types of saw can make a circular saw joint.
Some saws may not work at the low RPM required to cut through dense materials without burning out the motor. These unpowered circular saws are not versatile enough to cut through tougher materials.
You will cut most raw wood materials with a circular saw. The versatile power circular saw is ideal for carpenters because of the types of cuts they want to make. This power tool that can perform most kinds of cut, a circular saw is a perfect option.
If you look at performing the broadest range of woodworking tasks, a circular saw is first choice. For those reasons a circular saw is often one of the first tools that a carpenter will get their hands on.
Make A Circular Saw Joint
You can make a joint with a circular saw. So, what types of joints that you can create with your circular saw. We will look at the different joint styles that are possible with a circular saw in this article.
Half Lap - Circular Saw Joint
First let's look at making dado cuts with circular saw. This is the easiest circular saw joint that you can make with a circular saw. But it will be more challenging with a circular saw than it would be with a table saw. To do this task, you'll have to make wooden guide fences for your work.
When you have your fences ready, you will want to clamp them to your workpiece. Make sure that your saw won’t bump or move them while you are cutting. Once you are sure that your fences are in place, you can begin to cut kerfs into your wood to prepare the dado cut.
Once you cut your kerfs into the wood, you can remove them by hand chisel and a hammer to make it easier. A kerf is the groove or notch made in wood using your saw blade. The width of the groove gets made by removing the material between two parallel saw blade cuts. You may not have tried this method before. Try some different techniques to remove the kerfs and settle on the way that works for you.
When the cut is clear, make sure that the bottom of the dado is smooth, and you will be ready to slot in the next piece.
Don't Make Biscuit Joints Using A Circular Saw
When it comes time to create biscuit joints use a biscuit joiner. OK, you not familiar with a biscuit joint. You form a biscuit joint between two wooden pieces gluing a wooden disk in adjacent slots.
In theory you could make a disk joint using other tools. It will be difficult to do so with a circular saw. A circular saw lacks the required precision when cutting the connecting slot. The saw blade is less able to create the equally-sized slots in the pieces you want to join. For those particular joints use the biscuit joiner or domino joiner.
Best Joints To Make With A Circular Saw
Try the half lap joint as the most popular joint type that you can make with a circular saw. You don’t need to stick with 90-degree angles when you are cutting these joints. But the nature of a circular saw makes it a little more challenging to cut at an angle.
Using your fences in creative ways can make it easier to cut angled joints as well as straight ones.
Conclusion
As you can see, the circular saw is a very versatile tool: more than many would assume. We hope that we have been able to help you find new ways to use your saw to make circular saw joints. Feel free to leave a comment down below so that we can know what you think.
Resources:
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