Smokin' the pine with a circular saw

Brett;

For some reason, most manufacturers are pleased to sell great tools with crappy blades. I suspect if you go get a good blade your cross cutting problem will be solved. I also use a 12” rafter square to CC 2x material to prevent binding.

Good luck.

-- Rick Gustafson - Lost Creek Ranch - Colorado County, Texas

get a marathon blade 24t for rough cuts and you will good to go for a long while. (non-pro use) i use them on a daily basis when framing they are the best bang for the buck 8.99 each 19.99 3 pack

Sounds to me that you have some dull blades on the hand held saw. But, I hate to say this, could the blades be on backwards. Been there done that.

-- Thor and Odin are the greatest of Gods.

Are you using some kind of guide? If you get a little wobbly cutting across, you can get a fair amount of binding and the resultant smoke.

Most saws come w/ throw away blades in the saw. My guess is the blade is crap.

-- Bondo Gaposis

Hey Bondo;

Not “most”, seems like “all “circular, table, band, saws come with cheap blades. They could ship them with no blades and take a few dollars off the price, at least in my experience.

-- Rick Gustafson - Lost Creek Ranch - Colorado County, Texas

No guide, just free-handing. But even when I cut slowly, I got smoke if I was anywhere near a knot. The blade worked fine a year ago when I was cutting douglas fir, but that’s a different wood entirely.

-- More tools, fewer machines.

one other thing could be the yellow pine’s resin is clogging your gullets which can happen with any blade. a technique i use is lift the rear of the saw repeatedly while you are cutting almost like munching threw the board just be careful not to lift to high or your guard will swing in. If you are not comfortable with your saw don’t do this though