How to cut
2x4 With Circular Saw
How to use Circular Saws and make CrossCuts a Tutorial to Making Perfect Straight Cuts
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making cross cuts is fun simple and
you're gonna be doing them all the time
if you're doing any type of DIY or home
improvement projects and things of that
nature so make sure we're doing them the
right way correctly safely and do them
right the first time
all right let's take a quick minute and
go over our soft setup first things
first when you're setting up your saw
you want to make sure number one she's
not plugged in right that'd be very
dangerous so first things first always
make sure you're unplugged while you're
making your saw adjustable okay second
thing is we're gonna make sure we have
the right blade for the project that
we're doing today we're doing--we're
outdoor decking it's what we're doing
with this redwood here and I typically
use about a sixty to eighty tooth blade
for a project like that I'm using a
combination blade which is this guy here
to Dewalt sixty two combination blade
you can find it at Lowe's Home Depot
different stores like that Amazon
what-have-you
let's talk about our saw setup so we got
our circular saw skill saw what we're
gonna do now is run set our pitch of the
blade also our blade depth our blade is
in its good and tight you have our guard
here
keep your fingers nice and out of the
way saves them and basically your blade
pitch just right here these numbers
there so what those numbers are for our
dialing in the angle of your cut now
what we want is zero degrees so we're
gonna have this blade setup is zero
degrees if we wanted to say a 45 or a
thirty it would actually go ahead and
loosen up our saw every saw is a little
different we would loosen up this guide
and it allows us to position this guy
like so so with that say we wanted a 45
here tighten it down say that 45 we went
to cut this wood our saw is now setting
at this 45-degree angle however we're
going to do a zero degree
also known as a right angle set that to
zero block it in and we're going to
double check that with our speed square
the way you double check it is take your
saw flipper upside down right side up
get your guide out of the way we take
our speed square set it right up here
against our saw guard or guide and just
check that our angles we have no gaps in
between where it's meeting the blade
here and where it's touching our saw
here yeah so we check that our 90 s good
saws seems to be in good shape our
blades not warped at all okay next thing
we want to do is line up our blade to
our wood but I mean set the depth of
your saw so all we want is this blade to
be about an eighth of an inch past our
wood okay so in order to do that it's
real easy actually your guide up out of
the way and this saw it's actually on
this backside right here loosen this guy
up like so and that allows you to extend
your blade length basically so either
have 0 plates showing or all the blades
showing what we want on this wood here
it's like I said about an eighth of an
inch so we're gonna hold it down guide
is still loose we're gonna pull our saw
up we have about I'd say about an eighth
of an inch that's almost like a full
tooth on this particular saw blade and
we're gonna lock that in alright the
less surface area of our blade that's in
contact with our wood the better off the
less friction we're creating we're
making our cut and less chance of
burning the wood as we make our also
setting it at about an eighth of an inch
it stops the splintering of the wood as
we go through on our past making our
crosscut
and that's how you said it yourself
alright now we're gonna set up to
actually go ahead and make our cut go
ahead and plug our saw on at this point
I like to do a little figure eight knot
in the cord that way it doesn't come on
plug some big trips over it
just plug them in hold it tight not too
tight just a little tight snug no I
won't come unplugged on you our PPE
aren't PPE for the job you're always
going to need ear plugs or ear muffs
some goggles or safety glasses and some
type of mask or respirator at our tape
measure speed square and we're gonna be
cutting a 6-inch piece so what we want
to do is want to mark our wood at six
inches from this base end marking our
wood we're gonna be using a six inch
piece of wood whatever your measurement
is so today we're using we're gonna cut
six inches off this so we take our tape
measure a cool little thing about your
tape measure to note is a lot of people
wonder why this little end piece is
actually loose okay it pushes it out you
can push it in in and out in and out
what that actually is it gives you an
eighth of an inch either from the end if
you but this up against something doing
an inside measurement or if you're gonna
do a length measurement from like the
edge of a wood like here if you pull it
out that actually gives you an eighth of
an inch the opposite way so what that
said is anytime you're measuring
something depending on how you're
measuring if you're doing like this and
we're going from the end of this out you
want to make sure it's pulled tightly
you don't want it loose like that you
actually want to pull it completely up
against there so you get your full
measurement I like to actually slide a
little bit further so I can pull it tied
up against these guards that's gonna
give you a true six inches and this wood
you're gonna make a V so you make a dash
from six inches
out to your right out to your left
that's a little Carpenters trick come
down to this side of the wood
you can do the same thing I know you
can't see it well you make a V just like
that now we take our speed square and
it's important to know you want to line
up your PIN so not the square with the V
you don't want to take your square and
line it up there because then we'll be
inside of six inches we want our pencil
to come straight down the center of this
view and our V back here pretty much
down the center we'll double-check that
so right here as you can see my pencil
goes a little to the right of that so
I'm gonna just slide my square back a
smidge right there there we go and it's
centered there one stroke to stroke it's
all you need we're gonna double check
that measurement make sure we got six
inches now when making your cut a cool
little trick you can still keep your
speed square out clamp your wood that
way it doesn't move too much on you I
like to at the end of the piece and one
up here at the top on the opposing side
of our wood that way it stops it from
being pushed that way as we go through
with our saw Tanya does any where you
can get the clamps to fit all also
keeping your speed square on there woods
not going anywhere
so anyways with that said you can use
your speed square as a guide to allow
your circular saw to follow so what you
do is just set it up here hold a nice
and tight against their cyndago also you
can clamp it on your have the hand
strength or you hold it up there and you
just kind of gonna line your blade up
we're gonna keep this piece of wood this
six inch piece of wood is what we want
to keep after so we want our blade to
actually cut on this left side of our
pencil mark we were to come that rights
out of our pencil mark we'd actually end
up with a piece that's slightly smaller
than six inches if you're making
furniture or anything that has to be a
precise measurement that little bit of
sliver say an eighth of an inch or
sixteenth I
should be detrimental to your all entire
project so we want to make sure our
piece that we're left with the six
inches we're going to cut on the left
side our pencil mark because we're
keeping this right side piece of wood
that makes sense we were going to be
keeping this piece of wood we do the
opposite be cutting on the right to the
pencil mark to keep the left portion of
the word vice-versa so for instance
we're keeping this part of the wood so
we want to cut on the left side of this
line if we were to cut on the right side
of this line we'd actually come up short
so we want our blade to come up to the
left side of this pencil line and you
can see that a little bit easier here
okay so you want our skills saw circular
salt to be there so we get our speed
square up have our circular saw riding
up against it to where our blade comes
just on the left side of our line and
with that you don't have to focus on
your mark the whole time you just focus
on guiding your circular saw against
your speed square much easier cut to
make for these shorter pieces you want
to allow your saw to get to full speed
prior to contacting the wood so for
instance you know you don't want to be
right up on that wood and pull the
trigger because then you'll get a bunch
of splintering right out where your
blade is touching you want to let that
saw get nice and up to full speed and
then go through your wood nice and
smooth kind of let the saw pull its way
through the wood in a sense and that's
it you won't get any wood burning you
hardly get any splintering if you do all
those things correctly and there we go
nice and smooth
that's it and you saw that as I made the
cut I let the sauce speed up prior to
contacting the wood and look nice and
smooth piece no burns I just let the saw
kind of pull itself through the wood
instead of forcing it through so it
didn't really splinter on me you see
that that's all there is to making a
crosscut with a circular saw you guys
follow all those steps and guess what
you're gonna making plenty of cross cuts
in no time daolon min nice and good ones
you know with no burning no splintering
or very little and very minimal and
that's we want to do is help everybody
do things a little bit better recapping
got our wood we've got our clamps we've
got a level to make sure we're working
on a nice level surface keep it things
level our circular saw with the great
blade properly fit for the job
carpenter's pencil speed square tape
measure PPE for the job you're always
going to need ear plugs or ear muffs
some goggles or safety glasses and some
type of mask or respirator and remember
guys be safe have fun and we can do
anything that we put our minds to it
just takes a little bit of knowledge and
know-how get after it and if you have
any questions or comments leave them in
the comment section below let me know
I'd love to hear from you and give this
video a like thanks have a great day
