Skill Saw Required, possibly ...

[chirpychippy]

I am thinking about trying to make my life a bit easier on a job I am doing, the job is fitting larch cladding 21x150.

I have been hauling my chop saw and stand up onto the scaffold for the past week or so, but it's a headache not just the weight of it but the scaffold is only four boards wide, much of the day is spent swearing.

So I'm thinking skill saw, preferably battery, preferably small but it needs to be powerful and accurate. I intend to use it with my speed square.

I have 2500 odd meters to fit, whilst the chop saw is accurate it is not practical.

Any recommendations please on good quality skill saws, I suppose it could be corded as well???

 

[ETAF]

do you have any cordless tools at the moment - just once you buy into a cordless system, best to keep to all the same battery system

I have a dewalt circular saw - DEWALT DCS391 165MM 18V LI-ION XR CORDLESS CIRCULAR SAW - BARE (23296) , but i already have quite a few batteries
I dont think this is brushless - EDIT - just looked at spec on screwfix and NOT Brushless - I made the mistake when i first started buying , thinking XR was brushless !!!!!!!!!!
toolstation has it on offer https://www.toolstation.com/dewalt-dcs391n-xj-18v-xr-165mm-cordless-circular-saw/p83392
screwfix also has on offer
BUT NO BATTERY - just a BARE unit

But often cheaper to be purchased as a kit

i'll check the brush - i seem to remember XR - does NOT mean brushless .... but maybe wrong
EDIT - yep its NOT brushless and also XR - so correct XR does not mean brushless

i use mine often with a speedsquare
and i made a block/template that is the correct distance from the side to the blade for part i want to keep - and also waste side
so i can use the block/template to get the correct distance from mark ....to cut

you may also need to consider the blade - as comes with a rip blade 24 teeth , how many teeth has the chopsaw blade got on it -

 

[Deleted member 174758]

150 x 21? Makita DHS680 18 volt cordless brushless 165mm circular saw (with left hand blade) plus a small metric speed square. That's my "every day driver" which gets used for framing, cladding, etc. In point of fact most manufacturers do small, left blade saws which would do the task, so I am not saying only Makita, just that it is my battery system

The reason I prefer a left blade over a right blade saw is that it is far easier to see the cut point on a left blade saw when using a speed square to guide the cut. Brushless gives longer run time and more power (albeit at extra cost) over brushed motors. And many of these small saws also have adaptors to allow them to run on guide rails (or in the case if some Bosch miodels run directly on a rail) which speeds up straight line cutting no end. The speed square, with the flange located against (i.e. hooked over) the far side of the material can be pulled towards you with the left hand whilst simultaneously pushing the saw away from your body with the right hand - sort of a clamping effect which guarantees a square cut. Buy a metric 175mm/7in speed square (e.g Johnson, Hultafors, etc - not common) and you can use the square to mark out 15 to 70mm (in 5mm increment) parallel lines which can be very handy in 1st fix work

 

[ETAF]

Thats interesting JobAndKnock - re lefthand blade - never saw that - looks like the dewalt is also a left hand blade - I helped a friend the other week - and used thier evolution saw , and something didn't feel quite right, when i was lining up with the line - I had never noticed , that explains the issue i had .....

 

[chirpychippy]

do you have any cordless tools at the moment - just once you buy into a cordless system, best to keep to all the same battery system

I have a dewalt circular saw - DEWALT DCS391 165MM 18V LI-ION XR CORDLESS CIRCULAR SAW - BARE (23296) , but i already have quite a few batteries
I dont think this is brushless - EDIT - just looked at spec on screwfix and NOT Brushless - I made the mistake when i first started buying , thinking XR was brushless !!!!!!!!!!
toolstation has it on offer https://www.toolstation.com/dewalt-dcs391n-xj-18v-xr-165mm-cordless-circular-saw/p83392
screwfix also has on offer
BUT NO BATTERY - just a BARE unit

But often cheaper to be purchased as a kit

i'll check the brush - i seem to remember XR - does NOT mean brushless .... but maybe wrong
EDIT - yep its NOT brushless and also XR - so correct XR does not mean brushless

i use mine often with a speedsquare
and i made a block/template that is the correct distance from the side to the blade for part i want to keep - and also waste side
so i can use the block/template to get the correct distance from mark ....to cut

you may also need to consider the blade - as comes with a rip blade 24 teeth , how many teeth has the chopsaw blade got on it -

Answering the question about "Kit" I am full Makita corded and battery, mostly battery, plunge saw, impact driver and drill, multi tool, grinder, 36 volt SDS, the biscuit jointers is 240v as is the planer, the big chop saw is 110, I have a as is the 1/2 inch router.

I also have DeWalt drills Battery and 110 SDS's

And finally Festool Plunge saw 110v and a Festool 110v MClass extractor.

I do site and domestic, I think I'll go Makita again bare unit and buy some more batteries for Christmas.

Thank you, but I will look at the dewalt saws aswell.

 

[chirpychippy]

150 x 21? Makita DHS680 18 volt cordless brushless 165mm circular saw (with left hand blade) plus a small metric speed square. That's my "every day driver" which gets used for framing, cladding, etc. In point of fact most manufacturers do small, left blade saws which would do the task, so I am not saying only Makita, just that it is my battery system

The reason I prefer a left blade over a right blade saw is that it is far easier to see the cut point on a left blade saw when using a speed square to guide the cut. Brushless gives longer run time and more power (albeit at extra cost) over brushed motors. And many of these small saws also have adaptors to allow them to run on guide rails (or in the case if some Bosch miodels run directly on a rail) which speeds up straight line cutting no end. The speed square, with the flange located against (i.e. hooked over) the far side of the material can be pulled towards you with the left hand whilst simultaneously pushing the saw away from your body with the right hand - sort of a clamping effect which guarantees a square cut. Buy a metric 175mm/7in speed square (e.g Johnson, Hultafors, etc - not common) and you can use the square to mark out 15 to 70mm (in 5mm increment) parallel lines which can be very handy in 1st fix work

You have educated me JobAndKnock I never even knew about left and right hand bladed skill saws, I have an old Bosch in the garage which is right hand having looked earlier today.

Changing the subject, I also learnt something else today thanks to YouTube and how to calibrate my chopsaw, I learnt it does right and left 45 degree cuts, for two years I have been flipping timber to achieve the other cut, pleasantly surprised and my own stupidity.

I digress, I expect I will buy the one you have recommended and it is in stock aty local FFX, I will look at the dewalts, but my kit is mostly battery Makita.

Speed Squares - I have a Swanson Speed Square - does what it says on the tin - other than this I have framing square, combi squares or 3-4-5 but for this job it'll be the Swanson.

Thank you for your help squire, Merry Christmas.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

Thats interesting JobAndKnock - re lefthand blade

I believe the left hand blade position came about from the original Skil saw in the 1920s, oddly enough not what people in the UK often refer to as a "Skil saw" or simply a "Skilly"

If you want to be pedantic that is really a worm drive framing saw (and would be called a "worm drive saw" or s "Skil saw" in the USA where they were invented) as opposed to a conventional right hand blade directly driven blade saw (or "sidewinder" in US parlance)

There were a few left blade conventional saws in the past (Porter-Cable made them) but it was the arrival of cordless saws which seems to have introduced the type to the UK market (no idea why, though). The big plus for site work is that you can snap a chalk line and cut to it fairly accurately if you are right handed because you can see the cut line easily with the need to hang over the saw - the sort of thing which is handy if you are cutting Velux window openings in sarking boards on a roof, for example.

 

[^woody^]

Look at the TLC Tru Cut saw guide

https://www.farnell.com/datasheets/631202.pdf

It may be discontinued now, but there are other similar concepts.

I have it, its very useful for taking around, or up scaffold. Works with any standard circular saw.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

For cutting narrow strips @^woody^. Get real!

 

[^woody^]

For cutting narrow strips @^woody^. Get real!

Cross cutting cladding apparently, like with a chopsaw.

I can confirm its a useful guide for cladding or rafters and joists. The only issue is that unless the OP wants to work on the scaffold boards, it will need a suitable support and for the long cladding planks too

I'm keeping it real, as always

 

[^woody^]

Or how about something like one of the Tajima circular saw guides such as

 

[scbk]

I keep a cheap aluminium 6" square in the box with the 165mm cordless circular saw (hikoki), it is used mainly for cutting larch - cladding boards, 6x2, 4x2, 4x4 etc

 

[Deleted member 174758]

Cross cutting cladding apparently, like with a chopsaw.

No, with a speed square which the OP already has. I'm completely in agreement with his desire not to have to lug a chop saw up onto scaffolding every day. Royal PIA unless you have a full size lock box up there

I can confirm its a useful guide for cladding or rafters and joists.8⁸

Are you being serious? Do you actually have roofers who use such things? A decent roofing square and a decent heavy portable saw is far better, e.g. a Hilti WSC85 (60° bevel cut) or a Makita DRS780 (53° bevel cut) - because as you know 45° doesn't hack it on cut roofs...

The only issue is that unless the OP wants to work on the scaffold boards, it will need a suitable support and for the long cladding planks too

Well obviously you need a cheap pair of trestles for almost any type of site carpentry work which any chippy either carries with him, or knocks up on site out of whatever is to hand. But as he himself stated, the OP is a chippy. TBH my old gaffer used to say that the only things that work on the floor are floorers and carpet sweepers - seems that the HSE concur as we've heard of several fines being handed out for doing just that in recent months (in Manchester)

I'm keeping it real, as always

Yeah. Right.

I don't really see the point of the Tajima at anout £55 delivered - you can get a non-metric 7in soeed square for undervs tenner, a punched alumimium metric 175mm model (e.g. Johnson or Hultafors) for £15 or so and the "King of Metric Speed Squares", the 250mm Swanson Metric Speed Square" (capitalsbecause they invented the speed square back in 1925). Frankly the 250mm square can't be carried in a tool belt pouch, whereas the 175mm and 7in versions can be

BTW, anyone notice the error in how the Tajima is being used? The way shown is fundamentally unsafe in a site environment

 

[catlad]

Yeah! I definitely don't use mine like that...

 

[chirpychippy]

I bought the Makita left hand "Skill Saw" set up the trestles with a scaffold board for support.

The reason I opted for the chop saw is because the customer has supplied all 2500 metres of the stuff in 3050mm lengths, considering the cladding is vertical and the shortest length 3800mm and the longest is 4460 every vertical board has a join, these joins have to be bang on.

I couldn't achieve the level of accuracy I need with the new skill saw and speed square so back to dragging the chop saw up the scaffold - No Smiley Faces.