How to Make a Circular Saw Guide / Track Saw Guide

hello everyone I'm calling Canet if you don't own a track saw you're going to want to stick around and see what I'm going to make today before you get started quickly I want to thank everybody who purchased t-shirts and the link you can go to look at them is down below in the description box and I sincerely appreciate your support ok let's get started what I'm making today is a dig that you can use your circular saw and get nice straight cuts and I'm making a different version of this I've never seen this before so this is something totally new this whole project comes about by way of an email from Michael who asked what track saws I recommend well I don't own a track saw and I've only used a couple of them a couple of times so I'm not an expert in them and I don't really know which ones are the best I know they vary from like $200 up to a thousand so but what we're going to use today is something I've been using for over 20 years it works just great it's not a track saw but it gives amazing results and it only costs a few dollars what I'm going to be working with today is one of my circular saws my cordless circular saw and I'm going to be using some 3/8 construction grade plywood I had the hardware store cut it in half for me because I only need a half sheet and while I was at the lumber store I actually marked the factory edge so I wouldn't get them mixed up this is the factory edge that's why it's red and that way I know that I've got a nice straight edge that I'm going to be using I just wanted to show you my cordless saw that I'm using today I've installed a 40 tooth blade in here because then I want a nice fine cut now just so you understand what I'm going to be doing today imagine this is the front of the plywood who I'm going to be doing is cutting a strip of this off taking that strip of plywood off and moving it back and now that's going to be the new fence that the edge of my circular saw will be able to ride along so for this exam what I'm showing you this black let just imagine that that's the wood that I want to be cutting it's MDF or plywood whatever it is doesn't matter and the little red on top of course is our jig now I've set the height of my blade and I've set that so that it's just barely below the wood that I'm cutting here because this is the wood that I'm cutting the black here and when we use a circular saw we do the same thing as we do with the table saw we set the height of the blade just barely below the surface of the material about half a tooth and the reason we do that two reasons we do that the first reason is we get a better cut when we have the blade just below the surface here the other reason is it's much safer because when you have the blade hanging way down here like we used to do a long time ago you have a much greater chance of kickback and of course that becomes dangerous so here's the difference with the jig that I'm making okay so imagine that this is an 8-foot long piece of 3/4 inch plywood underneath here for example we've got our jig on top here and what's gonna happen when you when you cut when you go to the end of the wood like this at that right at that point right there that blade has cut that wood off but the jig the fence the old standard way of making these the fence carries on on top and there's really no reason for it because it's not supporting anything the wood underneath is already cut but what we can do we're going to take that that fence instead of putting it right at the end we're going to move it back because when we start here we want more support at the beginning so that this saw isn't going to move around and we'll have that support because that fence is going to get moved back a little bit so we'll actually be able to start and make a better cut right at the beginning and run that all the way along won't make any difference and then when we get to the end we'll have already cut this off when the fence runs out so we can actually make a better jig by moving that fence back my fence for this I'm going to make it four inches wide the last one I made was three inches and I think I'd like to go a little bit wider in this one so I'm just making a line all the way down here and then I'm going to cut that off and this will become our fence now the next thing I need to do is to cut off the material that I don't need and I'm not going to need this here now I don't know if you can see my lines on here but I'm on the underside now and I'm going to drill some countersink holes all the way along about every 12 or 14 inches I'm I'm not gonna make you sit through it okay I'm doing one final check here and it looks like mine is probably best set a little over two inches about two and a quarter inches so you can see where that fence is going to be back a little bit there and that's where I'm going to set that and I've already got it semi clamped here but I still have to flip it over because the holes that the countersink hole so they drilled are on the other side so I'm ready to start fastening all of those on and I'm going to start in the middle well you can see the jig is much flatter because I reversed the two pieces of wood that were warped and I think it'll straighten out even more hopefully that will do that but anyway the way it is right now it will work just fine I only have one thing left to do and that is as you know this outside edge is a tiny bit wider than the base of my saw so I'm going to put the other battery in and now I'm going to run the entire length of this with the new fence that I've used this is the factory edge and I'm going to put a brand new mirrored on the outside here now I only have two small little piece of plywood here that I can cut to show you how this works today but here's how simple it is you basically just measure the distance that you want it's actually a 24 inches I'm gonna make it 23 and a half inches just because that's what it is and I'm just putting a line there and do the same thing down here 23 and a half inches right there now when I put my Jake on all I have to do is align the very front because this mirrors this edge and that's where the blade is going to be and if I wanted to be really particular I could take the width of that blade off of there as well so you can be really accurate with this thing and set the same thing on this side and I'm going to cut it sort of right at as close as I can to 23 and a half inches because I'm going to take into account the thickness of that blade and just even eyeballing and see how close I can get there ooh I'm out by a boat 1/32 of an inch on that side and that was just eyeballing it and both the same side so that's a pretty accurate actually in that blade just gives a beautiful edge on what was a pretty rough edge on that before so well that concludes my video for today and you know what if you don't have a track saw this is a great jig if you've got a circular saw corded or cordless it doesn't matter you can make a jig like this you'll need a it helps to have a good blade a good quality blade and you know you can make super accurate cuts and by using my adaption of just moving this fence even a couple of inches you'll get much better cuts on even a full eight foot sheet of plywood or MDF whatever it is you're cutting and you know what a jig like this will last you years and use the last one I made was over 20 years old I expect this one the last be another 20 years I'm called a cadet for woodwork web thanks for watching you

Channel: WoodWorkWeb

Views: 587,952

Keywords: tracksaw, track saw, circular saw, circular saw tips, plywood, circular saw jig, how to make a track saw, circular saw guide, how to make a circular saw guide, circular saw guide rail, diy circular saw guide, circle saw, how to use a circular saw, circular saw straight edge, guide rail, diy track saw, homemade track saw, how to use a track saw, straight edge

Id: d81qIn-oT2o

Length: 9min 34sec (574 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 30 2018