I don't own any kind of saw with laser guide, so have little experience of
them. I did have a PP/B&Q jigsaw with a laser, but found both the saw & the
laser useless, so I gave it away - lasers just confuse you on curved cuts
anyway.

On a circ saw or SCMS how do they cope with the kerf of the saw blade?

Assuming said kerf is 3mm, is the laser to the left or the right of the
kerf, in which case you could cut over or under by 3mm, or is it central
which would give you 1.5mm short either way?


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

On Mon, 21 Sep 2009 23:31:19 +0000, The Medway Handyman wrote:

I don't own any kind of saw with laser guide, so have little experience of
them. I did have a PP/B&Q jigsaw with a laser, but found both the saw & the
laser useless, so I gave it away - lasers just confuse you on curved cuts
anyway.

On a circ saw or SCMS how do they cope with the kerf of the saw blade?

On my CMS it's narrower than the blade width, and aligns with one side of
the blade - e.g. with a piece of material:

-----x--y--z----

x-z is the blade cut and x-y is the laser line. If cutting from the 'other
side' I quickly got into the habit of offsetting by the blade width to get
the cut where I want.

Far as I recall from the manual, the laser position's adjustable anyway,
so I could set it however I wanted.

One gotcha with mine is that if the motor runs, the laser runs. There's no
way to control the latter independently, which is a bit stupid (I have to
run the blade to see where I'm about to cut). I'll see about putting a
manual switch in there sometime...

cheers

Jules

It's noticeable that very few pro tools have laser guides, seems more
common amongst diy-market CS's and mitre saws.

However an exception is a high-end SCMS from festool:

http://www.axminster.co.uk/product-F...Saw-718884.htm

So it might be that a really good solution to laser guides is as yet
too expensive for wider adoption.

On 22 Sep, 00:31, "The Medway Handyman"
wrote:
I don't own any kind of saw with laser guide, so have little experience of
them. *I did have a PP/B&Q jigsaw with a laser, but found both the saw & the
laser useless, so I gave it away - lasers just confuse you on curved cuts
anyway.

On a circ saw or SCMS how do they cope with the kerf of the saw blade?

Assuming said kerf is 3mm, is the laser to the left or the right of the
kerf, in which case you could cut over or under by 3mm, or is it central
which would give you 1.5mm short either way?

--
Dave - The Medway Handymanwww.medwayhandyman.co.uk

I've got a Makita LS714 SCMS with laser. The laser is positioned so
that it hangs directly above the blade and projects the line down
parallel to the blade. There is a little thumb-wheel adjuster which
allows the laser to move left and right across the width of the blade
so that you can adjust the laser to work on left or right-hand cuts,
and to cope with different blade widths. To set it up, shove a bit of
paper underneath the blade, and bring the blade down onto the paper to
let a tooth make a mark, then lift up and adjust the laser to fit the
mark. When set up properly (30 second's work), the laser is accurate
enough for all but the most furniture precise work I do, and I
wouldn't be without it.

The shop I bought the saw from told me that lasers on the cheaper
tools are basically gimmicks, and aren't accurate enough to do decent
work with, but the tools from Makita, DeWalt, etc. have lasers that
work properly. For example, some lasers are positioned out of parallel
with the saw blade, and so the line will vary position depending upon
the height of the material to cut. Also, make sure that the laser can
be switched independently of the saw blade - some saws have lasers
which only work when the blade is turning!

dan.

"RubberBiker" wrote in message
...
It's noticeable that very few pro tools have laser guides, seems more
common amongst diy-market CS's and mitre saws.

However an exception is a high-end SCMS from festool:

http://www.axminster.co.uk/product-F...Saw-718884.htm

So it might be that a really good solution to laser guides is as yet
too expensive for wider adoption.

They work if they are adjustable.
You need it to line up with the edge you are using or have two one on each
edge.
I don't use one, the length is either not that critical or you push the end
up against the stop you have set accurately.

The Medway Handyman wrote:
I don't own any kind of saw with laser guide, so have little experience of
them. I did have a PP/B&Q jigsaw with a laser, but found both the saw & the
laser useless, so I gave it away - lasers just confuse you on curved cuts
anyway.

On a circ saw or SCMS how do they cope with the kerf of the saw blade?

Assuming said kerf is 3mm, is the laser to the left or the right of the
kerf, in which case you could cut over or under by 3mm, or is it central
which would give you 1.5mm short either way?

I have a laser on my Buy and Spew CSMS but my problem is, I can't see it
outside, because of the brightness on the sun. To get a laser to be seen
in those conditions you would need to earn a licence and have a key to
switch it off when you were not using it. I have used those in the
aerospace area. I once tried to calibrate my laser level and I had to
wait till the sun was almost set before I could do it.

I have never used a builders pro laser level, so I don't know what
training the users have to go through.

JMTP

Dave