Cutting plywood with a circular saw

I have a Skill Clasic and it seems to work just fine on saw horses and all. Heck I have even cut cultured limestone with it.

Was the saw blade mounted correctly. Teeth pointing the correct way.

-- Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com

Yes, I checked that and the repair shop agreed.

-- Boss Hog

Don’t know without seeing the saw but it sounds like the arbor is/was misaligned with the shoe. That is, assuming you were using a straight edge to guide the saw. Can’t blame the plywood if your smaller saw worked fine.

Ed

-- Come on in, the beer is cold and the wood is dry. www.crookedlittletree.com

I know you said you had a new plywood cutting blade on it, but what brand was it? You may want to use a multipurpose blade and see if that makes a difference. I know that the plywood cutting blade should work without smoking and burning. Any good circular saw should cut the plywood without what you have experienced. If you continue using you saw with this abuse, I’m affraid that you risk getting hurt or at the least, burning up your saw motor.

-- Jesus is Lord!

Different type blade…

-- http://www.woodsongsfurniture.com

Take it back and try another of the same model. May be something in the saw not working correctly. I’d also guess that the blade is on backwards… If not, I’d look at the tool.

We use a Skil worm drive with Freud blades. I can’t remember the number of the blade but it never bogs down even in 1 1/2 ” Alder or Oak. I think the problem is your blades. The saw should cut the ply like butter. I had ply blade cut a crooked line in a sheet of plywood one time. When I took it out it looked like a potato chip. I’ve never used a plywood blade since. If you are worried about tear out use masking tape and for sure use a straight edge.

-- Thos. Angle, Owyhee Design, Oregon

Sounds like you may also have problems with torquing the blade, so you’re getting plywood in contact with the side of the blade rather than just the teeth.

It’s not a function of saw power, it’s a function of the blade generating heat, and how it’s dissipating heat. So either the blade isn’t big enough and you’re not radiating enough energy (which is possible, but I doubt it if you’re having that problem in a foot of cutting), or there’s something in your technique with the blade that’s causing the side of the blade to rub on the wood, heating far more than the teeth of the blade would.

I had similar problems with a low-end saw whenever I tried to cut along a straight-edge. I now have a Festool TS55 circular saw that runs on a rail, and have had no problems with blade alignment relative to the guide, and can rip two-by wet fir with no problems.

-- Dan Lyke, Petaluma California, http://www.flutterby.net/User:DanLyke

The blade was a Dewalt plywood blade. It was installed properly, even the repair shop said that. I’m going to try a conventional blade and see how that works. Switching to a plywood blade helped wen I was using the small saw, but maybe a conventional blade will work better on the larger saw. If that doesn’t work, I’m going to buy one of the Festtool saws. I received the saw as a gift and I didn’t save the box, which I need to return the saw, so I’m stuck with it.

Thanks for all of your insights into this problem.

-- Boss Hog

For what it’s worth, I had the same problem with a 18v battery saw with a plywood blade from DeWalt. The saw just smoked and literally burned the wood before killing the battery. I took the darn things apart and discovered the blade had been incorrectly stamped at the factory. Look at the teeth and rotation of the saw motor with out a blade attached. Try flipping the blade. I got a 325 MAG and had ZERO trouble with it, just sorry imported blades from China.

I use the same blade with my Milwaukee in 3/4 hickory ply. Melts thru it like butter. Blade or saw problem.

Jimmy

-- Jimmy

This is probably self evident but I wanted to post it anyway. When you cut any wood the saw blade should barely extend past the wood being cut. I like 1/8 to 1/4 so that more teeth are in contact with the wood at any given time during the cut.

-- "so much to learn and so little time"..