On 5 Apr 2021 at 13:32:10 BST, "newshound"
wrote:

On 05/04/2021 12:45, RJH wrote:
On 5 Apr 2021 at 07:47:18 BST, "RJH" wrote:

On 4 Apr 2021 at 20:57:40 BST, "newshound"
wrote:




snip

One thing you *must* make first if you are building from sheet is a
sawboard, or even better a pair of them, 4 foot and 8 foot. I made mine
from 9mm plywood. These save an unbelievable amount of time because you
can cut everything straight to size with accuracy better than 1mm. Next
to no post-cut fettling.

+1. I've got a 1m aluminium clamping sawboard from Aldi, and use it a lot
with
a circular saw. A straight edge clamped does me for longer lengths.

Ah -

https://www.lidl.co.uk/en/p/diy-tool...de-rail/p41446

That's only a saw guide though, and only metric 4 feet long. The cutting
line is offset from the edge of the guide. A sawboard is like this, but
with a "base-plate", when you make it you make this over-size and then
trim it, with your circular saw, so that it exactly matches the saw. So,
to use it you mark out the *exact* position where you want the cut on
your work. And you clamp the sawboard on the required material, not on
the offcut. So you get a straight cut exactly where you need it. The
baseplate also helps to prevent splitting/delamination of plywood on the
emerging side of the cut. Oh, and when making a sawboard use one of the
as-sawn edges for your saw guide, that way the final cut will be dead
straight. If you are working with full 8x4 sheets you really need an 8
foot board as well. (On the rare occasions when you are making a
diagonal cut more than 8 feet long I have always found you can still get
a near-perfect result by cutting twice with a repositioned board).

Thanks, yes, I did make one, but had an incursion accident and ruined it. For
my purposes/skill level keeping the blade away from the guide/board is the way
to go . . .

Nowadays I just use a 2m length of timber for longer cuts and clamp it to
whatever I'm cutting. Trimmed 2mm off a door recently - perfect cut.

I take your points on the limitations of the Lidl guide. All I can say is it's
done me fine. If it was my livelihood I'd invest in a proper track/saw
arrangement.

--
Cheers, Rob