How To Rip A Sheet Of Plywood With A Circular Saw

The 2x4s will be sacrificed just a bit when the blade passes over them but that won t affect the quality of the cut.

How to rip a sheet of plywood with a circular saw.

The system works well for both rip cuts parallel to the grain and crosscuts perpendicular to the grain. I slide my circular saw with sled attached onto the guide and set the desired width then flip the tab to clamp in place. I keep a piece of rigid foam board in my workshop. Start by marking the outline of the square or rectangular hole onto the plywood sheet.

Next lift the rear of the saw but keep its front edge pressed firmly down on the sheet. Adjust your circular saw cutting depth to be just below the material. Drive an 8d nail through the board and into the sawhorse to prevent the board from slipping while you rip it. Next you need to run your circular saw along the edge of the top piece.

Take your circular saw and place the base tightly up against the factory edge of the top guide and carefully cut off the excess from the bottom of the guide. This guide is designed to rip plywood into strips by running the straight edge along the edge of the plywood while the circular saw cuts a certain distance away. Use the circular saw to rip or crosscut the plywood. Place long pieces of 2 x 2 lumber in the notches between the two sawhorses so they re flush with the top of the sawhorses.

Set the depth of the circular saw blade so it cuts through the plywood but not too deeply into the sawhorses or supports. Use an 8d nail as a third hand. I made mine 4 feet for crosscuts and doors. I do about 1 4 so for ripping 3 4 thick plywood i set my blade to about 1 depth.

It s easy to cut plywood with the circular saw by following th. When you re done ripping just pull the board off the sawhorse flip it over and pound the nail through and pull it out. Raise the lower blade guard out of the way while keeping a firm grip on the saw. Your cut line will be where you place the edge of the guide.

Adjust your saw blade depth. Then all you have to do to rip ply goods of 8 foot lengths is mark both ends and clamp your melamine guide to the plywood. You now have a circular saw guide that will allow you to rip a full length sheet of plywood. This will rip the bottom piece to match the bed edge to blade distance of your saw.

Now squeeze the trigger and slowly lower the blade into the wood. If you re without a table saw and need to rip boards with a circular saw here s a tip to make the job a lot easier.