A How-To by a HS Tech Student Common Sense
Parts of Saw:
- a 1/8″ circular blade
- a blade guard
- a fence (not the one you use to keep out burglars)
- some measuring tape to attach onto your fence
Steps Taken when Cutting:
- Measure out wanted length of wood and “X” the side of wood that you do not want. This is because you have to take into a account the kerf, the amount of wood lost by the blade cutting the wood. Usually the size of the kerf is the width of the blade, which in our case is 1/8″ of an inch.
- Then place the wood against the fence with the attached tape measure and bring the blade, without it on, to the piece of wood to make sure that the blade and the line are lined up properly.
- Make sure you have your goggles and ear plugs on and then turn the saw on.
- Slowly bring the spinning blade up onto the wood, making sure that the blade doesn’t get stuck in the wood.
- When the blade is brought back, when it’s off, measure the length of the wood to make sure you didn’t mess up somewhere.
- Then count your fingers and if you have eight left, that ain’t bad! Congratulations!!!
Common Problems found After Cutting:
- You may of just counted wrong. When measuring, you may of subtracted the wrong measurement of the kerf. Also, you may have just screwed up when measuring the wood with the tape measurer.
- You may have placed the wood wrong, which then makes the blade cut through the wrong part of the wood. If you look at the wood and the line that you had drawn is still there, then it means that the blade hadn’t cut in the correct place.
*There may be other encountered problems, but these are the most common*
