How to cut PERFECTLY STRAIGHT LINES with a SKILLSAW and a straight edge!

hello and welcome to Vancouver carpenter today I'm going to teach you guys how to rip plywood with a skill saw in a straightedge so right here I got a sheet a prefinished maple plywood and I use this stuff a lot for closets shelves anything like that so I like it because it's got a nice smooth already finished face I rip it up stall it on some walls as shelves and stuff anyways let's get right to it behind this sheet of plywood on these saw horses I got a set of two by fours so the first thing you want to think of is well which way do I want to cut this now first off I don't actually have a straight edge so I want to make one of those for starters so we're gonna use three inches off this piece of plywood and I want to put this on these two by fours the right direction not only that because this is prefinished plywood I want to think about which side is going to be my finish side so I don't want to scratch that side and just looking at this this is actually the nicer side so I'm going to have the nice side down so I've put it down this way because I'm going to be cutting across this way and that way the pieces are supported by the two by fours so first I'm just gonna mark three inches here actually three and a half why not three and a half and I'm gonna snap a chalk line I have a nice brand new blade in here and before I make this cut I'm actually gonna make sure that this is set on zero the bevel actually it's so tight here I don't think it can be changed not today without a hammer and I'm gonna make sure this is locked okay so this has not been locked since the last time it was used and I'm also gonna set the depth to about one inch or even a bit less maybe 7/8 and so how you can do that is you can just line it up right here and make sure your teeth are just sticking down past the plywood so I'm gonna lock that it's just below it now I'm going to cut this one because this next piece is going to give us a nice straight edge that we can use to rip the rest of it to get nice perfect cuts so you're gonna want to know make sure that you know which side is your straited so this is my factory edge and I'm actually gonna write that on it factory so this is the side that I'm gonna be using to cut against because this one was just you know done by hand so it's not a machined factory edge next we're gonna take a look at this saw real quick here so what I want you guys to know about almost every skill saw now be sure to check before you just go ahead and do this but from the edge of the blade to the teeth is almost always an inch and a half so this one actually happens to be maybe an inch and seven sixteenths so it's close enough to an inch and a half for these measurements if you want to really accurate you really have to make sure that you measure from the tip of the teeth and see so right here it's actually an inch and seven sixteenths it's an inch and seven sixteenths so why does that matter what do we need to know about that well what I need to do here is from this factory edge to here I want to make this 33 inches wide okay so I am measuring right now 233 so that's the line I actually want to cut now if I want to make sure I'm cutting on that line I need to go back an inch and 7/16 so an inch and a half would be 231 and a half right 31 and a half plus inch and a half is 33 but I'm actually going to go back a bit more because we know that it's an inch and 7/16 on this saw so there's my mark for an inch and 7/16 now the next thing you can do is take a note of what that measurement is so that's actually 31 and 9/16 I'm now gonna mark 31 and 9/16 off this other factory edge here so you want to make sure that you're measuring off of the factory edge not the one you just caught by hand so now what I'm doing is I'm making sure to take this factory edge right there a factory edge and I'm going to my mark this one at 31 and 9 and I'm lining it up on the other side so now I'm going to clamp it make sure you have some decent clamps and make sure your clamps aren't in the way over here you want them on this side clamp this side and now on your way back you can take a quick measurement just to double-check I'm pulling off of here 31 and 1/2 is what it measures diagonally down 31 and a half so I know that I have it in the right spot I'm quickly making sure that I actually have the 2x4 supporting both pieces so now what I'm gonna do because I'm gonna line up this blade now if you have a saw that's been abused it's actually not gonna work well so what's gonna happen is if the fence if this isn't Square to the blade it's gonna veer off and bind so it's not gonna work so let's hope that this saw is doing good and I often try and keep my cord out of the way because as you push along it likes to drag and then you have to stop and pull your cord out so I'm just making sure to keep firm even pressure against this but not so hard that I could potentially bow it or move the clamps oh I also don't recommend actually stopping in the middle of your cot but this is just for you know a shelf in my basement so if I had a tiny bit of tear out it would be okay so I find this a great method for shelves or any plywood that you need pretty darn accurate but you're not gonna get it down to the thirty-second every time at least it's possible but it's kind of tricky because you're dealing with the variances of the fences being different widths but most fence two blades are almost all in inch and a half so you can usually just kind of use that as a standard measurement anyways let's see how close I am to 33 all right I was 32 and fifteen sixteenths on that end 32 and 15 16 and a half so about a half a sixteenth different and I'm about a sixteenth to half a sixteenth off my desired measurement so it's good enough for you know moderate stuff but I wouldn't do this for like cabinets another thing you might want to consider is that for stuff that you don't want to scratch either side you might want to put a bunch of tape on the base of your skill saw because this metal will scratch the finish for sure okay so I've got one more cut to make here now I'm gonna turn my plywood around because this one's gonna be a crosscut so let's go over this one more time so I'm doing this one at 65 inches now I'm just gonna go back up an inch and a half because this one doesn't need to be super accurate so 65 going up to 63 and a half that's where I want to measure 63 and a half make sure you're going to the right side of the line clamp and at this point once you're actually under four feet you can start to use like a level or any other straightedge - it doesn't have to be this piece of wood it's just not everybody has an eight-foot straightedge so I usually just use a piece of plywood and make sure I have the factory edge again just you know I said that already but let's cut this too much talking another thing to note the tear out is always gonna be way worse on your crosscut take a look at that so that's why I was saying you want your finished side on the bottom 64 and 15 16 64 and 15 so there was the same error there and once you've made two or three cuts you know maybe make it on some pieces that don't matter as much but then you can actually calibrate to what the saw is so now I know that I need to add or subtract two sixteenth for every time I'd make this measurement so in this case I would have to make sure that I was actually going an inch and seven sixteenths instead of the inch and a half that I just did on that last one but like I said this is gonna be good enough for where it's going well that is how I like to cut plywood with a skill saw so if you need to do a little bit of cutting plywood with skill saws now you can use a straightedge because I showed you how anyways the next thing I'm gonna do is iron some clothes actually I'm gonna do the DIY we can worry your method of installing a little bit of edge banding because how many of you guys have like one cabinet door with a piece of edge banding hanging off and you need to know how to put it back on I bet there's some of you so that's gonna be in the next video anyways thanks for watching Vancouver carpenter hope you guys got something useful out of this video and you know if you are use it stop sitting there get up and do something with it

Channel: Vancouver Carpenter

Views: 127,421

Keywords: cut, plywood, skillsaw, circular, saw, straight, carpentry, spindles, handrail, spacing, uprights, woodworking, how to, DIY, construction, balluster, bannister, door, repair, woodwork, bondo, patch, fix, handle, lock, install, framing, hollow core door, how to install a door, drywall, hole, wall, ceiling, damage, wallboard, sheetrock, gyproc, tape, mud, taping, mudding, good, best, fast, easy, smooth, texture, paint, painting, trim, corner, inside, outside, bead, corner bead, home repair, carpententry, tutorial, plaster, casing

Id: DaDc_QsHSzg

Length: 11min 42sec (702 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 01 2019