Hi All,

Want to buy a new circular saw for around $150. I do a LOT of
ripping, and wonder if there is a preferred brand or model that does a
superior job fixing and holding its rip fence. Any views on this?
Thanks,

Dennis

On Sep 3, 12:16 pm, (Dennis) wrote:
Hi All,

Want to buy a new circular saw for around $150. I do a LOT of
ripping, and wonder if there is a preferred brand or model that does a
superior job fixing and holding its rip fence. Any views on this?
Thanks,

Dennis

If you're talking table saw. all you get for $150 is junque. The
wussey aluminum tables get all scratched and scarfed up and mark the
wood badly (like maple floor planks, for example). Pay $600 or so for
a decent Delta or Grizzley left tilt and it will last you a lifetime.
Do a little sleuthing over in rec. woodworking to get the real
lowdown. Obviously, if you rip a lot of lumber, you don't want a cheap
toy saw. If you're not ready to buy a decent saw yet, find an old
Craftsman radial arm saw on eBay that for sure will fit your budget
and set it up pemanently to do your ripping chores. Good luck.

Joe

Dennis wrote:
Hi All,

Want to buy a new circular saw for around $150. I do a LOT of
ripping, and wonder if there is a preferred brand or model that
does a superior job fixing and holding its rip fence. Any views
on this? Thanks,

You're talking about a hand saw, right? And the little rip guides
that attach to same?

Skill & practice in using is the best answer. If you do a LOT of
ripping with them you might try modifying one or making your own.
They would be improved much by being longer (24" +) and attached to
both front *and* back of the saw. I could see making one like this...

1. Obtain 2 steel rods 1/4 - 1/2 diameter and as long as your
widest rip + about 6-8"

2. Obtain 2 pieces of hardwood maybe 2" wide x 3/4" thick x 24-30"
long. Make sure they are straight and square.

3. Weld or braze 2 pieces of steel to the top of the saw plate - 1
as far forward as possible, 1 as far back as possible (they could be
attached by a small, counter sunk bolt from below too, not bad if they
pivot). They should be big enough to have holes drilled so the rods
in #1 will slip through them and to hold thumb screws to fix the rods
firmly. They need to be positioned so that the rods will be parallel
to each other.

4. Cut "V" grooves across each piece of hardwood at both front and
back so that the center of the grooves is equal to the distance
between rod centers. The combined depth of the cuts at each location
has to be less than the diameter of the rod.

5. With grooves aligned, drill holes through both pieces so that
you can insert a "T" nut in the bottom piece and clamp the top piece
to it using fixture knobs.

Now you can slide the wood fence along the rods to whatever rip width
you want and hold it there by tightening the fixture knobs. The
length and two point attachment to the saw should assure pretty good
rips.


--

dadiOH
____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico

dadiOH wrote:
Dennis wrote:
Hi All,

Want to buy a new circular saw for around $150. I do a LOT of
ripping, and wonder if there is a preferred brand or model that
does a superior job fixing and holding its rip fence. Any views
on this? Thanks,

You're talking about a hand saw, right? And the little rip guides
that attach to same?

Skill & practice in using is the best answer. If you do a LOT of
ripping with them you might try modifying one or making your own.
They would be improved much by being longer (24" +) and attached to
both front *and* back of the saw. I could see making one like
this...

1. Obtain 2 steel rods 1/4 - 1/2 diameter and as long as your
widest rip + about 6-8"

2. Obtain 2 pieces of hardwood maybe 2" wide x 3/4" thick x
24-30" long. Make sure they are straight and square.

3. Weld or braze 2 pieces of steel to the top of the saw plate
- 1 as far forward as possible, 1 as far back as possible (they
could be attached by a small, counter sunk bolt from below too, not
bad if they pivot). They should be big enough to have holes
drilled so the rods in #1 will slip through them and to hold thumb
screws to fix the rods firmly. They need to be positioned so that
the rods will be parallel to each other.

4. Cut "V" grooves across each piece of hardwood at both front
and back so that the center of the grooves is equal to the distance
between rod centers. The combined depth of the cuts at each
location has to be less than the diameter of the rod.

5. With grooves aligned, drill holes through both pieces so
that you can insert a "T" nut in the bottom piece and clamp the top
piece to it using fixture knobs.

Now you can slide the wood fence along the rods to whatever rip
width you want and hold it there by tightening the fixture knobs.
The length and two point attachment to the saw should assure pretty
good rips.

Or you could just buy this...
http://www.sportsmansguide.com/cb/cb.asp?a=367226

I have something similar but *much* bigger...works OK but there is
still flex. What I outlined above would be close to rock solid.

--

dadiOH
____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico

on 9/3/2007 1:16 PM Dennis said the following:
Hi All,

Want to buy a new circular saw for around $150. I do a LOT of
ripping, and wonder if there is a preferred brand or model that does a
superior job fixing and holding its rip fence. Any views on this?
Thanks,

Dennis


If you are talking about ripping small width pieces, the blade guide
supplied with the saw does a pretty good job. My Craftsman saw's guide
width is fixed with a set screw. I cut about 8 1/2" x 4" x 8' strips
from a piece of 4' x 8' plywood with no trouble.
For wider pieces, I have built two T shaped fence guides from plywood. 1
about 50" long by 5" wide, and the other 8' x 5" with a 2" wide x 8"
long plywood strip glued and screwed squarely on the end that butts
against the work (similar to a drywall T-square).
When using the 8' one on 8' work, it is short by the width of the butt
strip (the T top end), but not enough not to accept a clamp, and the
blade will cut the work as long as most of the saw's plate still
contacts the guide.
I haven't done it, but you can tack the measuring tape of a carpenter's
tape measure (you probably have a broken tape measure that you can steal
the tape from) along the top of the guide to measure a saw stop point
within the work, or make your own markings.

--

Bill
In Hamptonburgh, NY
To email, remove the double zeroes after @

Thanks fellas, this has been all useful information.

Dennis

On Sep 3, 2:48 pm, Joe wrote:
On Sep 3, 12:16 pm, (Dennis) wrote:

Hi All,

Want to buy a new circular saw for around $150. I do a LOT of
ripping, and wonder if there is a preferred brand or model that does a
superior job fixing and holding its rip fence. Any views on this?
Thanks,

Dennis

If you're talking table saw. all you get for $150 is junque. The
wussey aluminum tables get all scratched and scarfed up and mark the
wood badly (like maple floor planks, for example). Pay $600 or so for
a decent Delta or Grizzley left tilt and it will last you a lifetime.
Do a little sleuthing over in rec. woodworking to get the real
lowdown. Obviously, if you rip a lot of lumber, you don't want a cheap
toy saw. If you're not ready to buy a decent saw yet, find an old
Craftsman radial arm saw on eBay that for sure will fit your budget
and set it up pemanently to do your ripping chores. Good luck.

Joe

Delta contractor's saw, paid $600, new, industrial supplier (the
home center Delta CS is more cheaply built) Cuts better than
most Powermatic 66's I've seen. That's AFTER I spent time
fine tuning it.

Buy a package deal, including upgrade fence. I have no
experience with the Unifence, but have only positive things
to say about Biesemeyer. Could have saved $200 if I bought
it with the saw.