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Just about everybody I know uses a circular saw to cut wood, but a lot of times they struggle
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with it because maybe the wood splinters or you can't keep a straight line as you cut. Well
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I'm going to show you some tricks today. It's going to turn you into a professional. The first
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thing you need to know about circular saws is which way the blade rotates. I know you're thinking
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that doesn't make sense, but I'll show you why. Most circular saw blades rotate this direction
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so that the blade is cutting up towards you as the front of the blade moves through the wood
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Here's why it's important to know which way that saw blade spins. Look at this piece of wood
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You can see the graining in the wood. The grain runs this direction. So if I'm cutting parallel
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with the grain, I'm not going to have too many problems with splintering. But if I decide to cut
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this piece of wood this direction, I'm gonna have big problems unless I take a couple of steps
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Look at all those splinters, what a mess. I gonna show you how to avoid that The thing I like to do is cut along the line where you going to cut with a razor knife and actually pre that grain And then when you cut with the saw cut slowly
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Notice on this side of the line, there's no splintering, but over here where the saw blade
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wasn't against a cut line, you can see the splinters that I got over here. The final thing
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I'd like to show you is how to cut curves with a circular saw. Really simple. First thing you
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need to know is what's the thickness of the material you're cutting through. This is like
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half inch plywood, but look at the way the saw's set up right now. Look how deep it's cutting. The
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trick is to adjust the depth of the cut so that it's just a fraction of an inch over the thickness
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of the material. Check out that curved cut with a circular saw. Maybe that's why the
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color to circle. I'm Tim Carter, Ask the Builder. If you want to discover more home improvement tips, go to askthebuilder.com
