I've just had to resort to the ancient technique as there is no power
in the house I'm working on.

Cut a piece of floorboard a little longer than your work-bench. Saw
two perpendicular lines either end of the board, a few inches in from
the stool. Point the saw toward the centre of the board at the
required angles (45 degrees.)

Scribe a line parallel to the top of the board. Put a baton on this as
a ledge to support the work and there you have a safe, cheap mitre
saw. The two cuts want to be deep enough to give the saw guidance
before you hit the work-piece. If you are cutting long stuff put the
ledge at an ideal height to something that will support the other end.
(Or make two saw benches.)

The simplest way to make another bench is to cut an old door in half
and use it's hinges to join them and a piece of rope or a baton to
stop them opening too far.

Always use a new saw as a used one tends to cut off-line. Unless it's
a Jack saw. I never got one of them that cut straight. I think it was
the supplier treading on them so he could sell more. Get a Sandvik (or
Bacho) one.

"Michael McNeil" wrote in message
om...
I've just had to resort to the ancient technique as there is no power
in the house I'm working on.

Cut a piece of floorboard a little longer than your work-bench. Saw
two perpendicular lines either end of the board, a few inches in from
the stool. Point the saw toward the centre of the board at the
required angles (45 degrees.)

Scribe a line parallel to the top of the board. Put a baton on this as
a ledge to support the work and there you have a safe, cheap mitre
saw. The two cuts want to be deep enough to give the saw guidance
before you hit the work-piece. If you are cutting long stuff put the
ledge at an ideal height to something that will support the other end.
(Or make two saw benches.)

The simplest way to make another bench is to cut an old door in half
and use it's hinges to join them and a piece of rope or a baton to
stop them opening too far.

Always use a new saw as a used one tends to cut off-line. Unless it's
a Jack saw. I never got one of them that cut straight. I think it was
the supplier treading on them so he could sell more. Get a Sandvik (or
Bacho) one.


http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/...11835&ts=99463


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http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/...11835&ts=99463

Are you serious? You can't be serious can you. Someone tell me he
isn't serious.

To start with you are restricted with the size of cuts you make. The
blade is crap and the ammount of teeth you can use that contact the
timber is about half the blade. This leads to uneven wear and getting
a new blade is a PITB.

The board method allows you to nail stops or put easily recognised
marks on it to do repetitive cuts at the same size and you can throw
it away after use, leaving you with a perfectly good saw for other
purposes.

I would suggest it is fine for picture framing where fine teeth are
required for occasional use. But cutting 4 and 5 inch skirting? No Mr
Wallop. You are not serious. (You had me going for a moment there
though.)

In message , Michael
McNeil writes
http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/...11835&ts=99463

Are you serious? You can't be serious can you. Someone tell me he
isn't serious.

I think he probably is fairly serious.

Snip

I would suggest it is fine for picture framing where fine teeth are
required for occasional use. But cutting 4 and 5 inch skirting? No Mr
Wallop. You are not serious. (You had me going for a moment there
though.)

I have the similar compound mitre saw from Screwfix, I have recently
used it for doing the skirting (125mm as it happens) in one of the
bedrooms. It did the job pretty well.

If you have rooms like mine then you often want a different angle than
45 degrees exactly..........
--
Chris French, Leeds

Michael McNeil wrote:
Always use a new saw as a used one tends to cut off-line.
Unless it's a Jack saw. I never got one of them that cut
straight. I think it was the supplier treading on them so
he could sell more. Get a Sandvik (or Bacho) one.

A new saw?? Are you talking about "hardpoint" saws?
IMO/E these have lots of problems. Cheap ones are
made by cutting the teeth "one way", then setting
and hardening - they cut 'round corners (e.g. Wickes'
special =A35 ones). You can tell this by gently passing
a fingertip from handle to tip of saw along each side
(not along the points). One side will feel "rough",
this has the burr from the original cuting, and the
saw will veer off towards this edge when used. These
saws are almost useless. Pricier hardpoint saws are
fine until you hit something hard with them, then
they're (expensive) scrap. An ordinary re-sharpenable
panel saw can be re-sharpened for little cost, and
will stay sharp for ages when cutting timber - you
can re-sharpen them when you need to.

Hard point saws? I've (generally) spit 'em!
--



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Amateurs!

(Michael McNeil) wrote in
om:

Amateurs!

On a DIY group - most likely!

--
Danny Monaghan

To email me, put the LIGHT out!

On 20 Jul 2003 03:50:53 -0700, (Michael
McNeil) wrote:

I've just had to resort to the ancient technique as there is no power
in the house I'm working on.

As an aside I popped into the local Focus store today and noticed they
had a bunch of what appeared to be meaty Rexon mitre saws for sale at
£149 each. Seemed to have all the toys, such as a 300mm blade.

Anyone know if Rexon are a decent make?

Andrew

Do you need a handyman service? Check out our
web site at http://www.handymac.co.uk

"jerrybuilt " ] wrote in message ...
Michael McNeil wrote:
Always use a new saw as a used one tends to cut off-line.
Unless it's a Jack saw. I never got one of them that cut
straight. I think it was the supplier treading on them so
he could sell more. Get a Sandvik (or Bacho) one.

I'm talking about Sandvik. See, /\ Sandvik.

The trick with not hitting a nail or something that will ruin your saw
is to use timber that is free of said faults.

ALL the trade use them for preference. If you are going into ****ty
timber you use an old saw. You keep three saws near bye. A tatty one
for that sort of thing, one that is still good but failing and a new
one for best (I.e mitring new skirting.)

Sharpening a saw is all very well if you know how to do it. I could
get a fairly good edge on mine in the OLD DAYS in a few minutes. I
doubt I could now -if I had such a saw. The files cost as much as a
Sandvik so you gain nothing as you have to sharpen the saw so often
that it wears the file out in about the same time you'd replace a S
you know what.

Obviously sharpening a saw on a building site has gone a long time
ago. For the very obvious reasons stated.

Don't let idiots near your saw as they tread all over them -that is
the greatest cause of ruining a Sandvik. They last weeks. I have still
got my first one for this site I'm on (in my 9th week there) and still
using it for best work. They tend to last as long as the wrapper they
come in if you look after both. When the wrapper becomes tatty, that's
when to relegate it to next best.

I use my old Jack for cutting floor boards. A previous employer bought
it me and it cuts straight, still -but I am not living in Ruthin now
where there was very little choice and they were stored badly.

The mitre saw shown above is a good little toy. It does a very nice
cut for a while but you can't use it as a compound can you. You can
with the method in my first post. You can cut any angle up to 180
degrees.

AND:

You can fix it to awkward things such as bargeboards if you need to do
some real fancy repairs. I've never seen it done of course, I just
noticed the thread about that on my way in here.

You don't have to take my advice. It's just that I saw so much guff
about buying a chop saw. If you must buy a mitre, saw get a chop saw
and a g-clamp. But you don't really need one for occasional work.