Use your Speed Square as a Fence with your Circular Saw

The title says it all, yet not everyone knows to do this to improve cuts when using a Circular Saw. Not everyone works, or has worked on a construction site, not everyone on a construction site knows to do this either. Not everyone took Shop class and they may not have even taught this in Shop Class. They certainly didn't the one year of Shop Class I took.

Recently I had to cut a couple pieces of 2x4 to add onto a set of steps on a dock and used this piece of knowledge to make the cuts. So I'm sharing it with you.

Perhaps you're building a dog house, or maybe a doll house or cutting shelves. Be it 1 by, 2 by or 4x4, knowing to do this and how to do this correctly comes in handy.

Most people know you use a speed square to draw a line on a board. For the longest all I used it for was to draw a 90° or 45° line. Then cut on those lines with a Skill Saw. Hoping I could stay true to the line while cutting.

I don't remember exactly when, but I was cutting some boards and an older more experienced framing Carpenter came up to me after watching my failed attempts to cut a 45° angle in a board following the line time and again and showed me a no brainier way of improving my cuts.

IE: Use your Speed Square as a Fence guide when using a Circular or Skill Saw, which ever you prefer calling it. And I've been doing so ever since. As mentioned, I used this method to cut the little 6 inch pieces I needed for the dock steps I needed to scab onto. And take a look at how both the 90's and 45's turned out...

As you can see above all the cuts are square. The 45° cuts match up beautifully. There's no bevel or wandering to the cuts.
 Which makes installing them easier to.

Below they're installed under a the dock steps to act as a backing plate for some corner fenders to protect the vessel that's docked there.

And here's a video by someone I found on YouTube showing how to use your Speed Square as a guide fence with a Skill Saw. It's long winded but it's the only one I could find that the person was doing things correctly. Pay attention to how he places the speed Square and his Skill Saw.

In the above video he doesn't show using the Speed Square for 45° cuts, but it's the same. Only difference is you may have to put the square at the bottom of the wood depending on the direction of your angle. Not always but there's times you'll need to.

Another thing not mentioned is to make sure your blade depth is set so the saw motor will pass over the square.

I was going to end on that note but that last sentence brings me to something else I noticed on all these instructional YouTube videos on this subject. Very few are using their Skill / Circular Saws correctly. Not even the self professed "Pro's". I was rather surprised actually. So... Let's talk Skill/Circular Saw use for a second.

And this was taught to me in the year of Shop class I took in school. And a brief note on my Shop Class at the school I took it at. It was really cool. Sure I learned the basics of wood working tools, (table saw, circular saw, routers, lathe etc) but that schools Shop Class taught so much more. I learned how to check and correct a square. I learned how to bend sheet metal and solder. Yeah, solder sheet metal with one of those irons you have in a propane burner.  How to paint the metal.

I learned about vacuum forming, acrylics and even how to make Styrofoam molds and things from Styrofoam. I just started learning engineering graphics. And to design a house and actually model it up with foam board. Very cool class and I learned a ton in that one year.

As with much at the time, the only reason I took the class was to build something I wanted to make. A tunnel hull hydroplane speed boat I saw in Popular Mechanics made from 2 sheets of 4x8 plywood.

I didn't know you had to pay for materials in the class before signing up and being poor.. well that killed my thought on the hydroplane build but, in grabbing scraps and fall offs from others projects I was able to make some small items. Like a Sail Boat model out of acrylic sheets and wooden mast..  with sails I vacuum formed.  Anyway... Cool class.


Circular Saws or Skill Saws. Which ever name you prefer to call them.

First... There's a right and a left style. Didn't know that? Now you do.

Right handed circular saw has the blade on the right of the motor.

A Left Handed Circular Saw has the blade on the left side of the motor.

Right and Left Handed Circular Saws seen below... Cordless but no matter.

As well the "waste" side is on the right side on a right handed, and on the left of a left handed Circular saw.

The waste side or cut off side is the side facing the side of wood you consider waste..  or the side that gets "cut off". It has the smallest support on the base plate.

The larger side of the base plate, usually always under the motor, is what you put on the side of wood "supported" and you're keeping.

How they should sit when cutting a piece of wood, be it 2x4 or a sheet of plywood you can see below. Imagine your cutting whatever piece of wood. Waste side of the table on either style saw, keep supported on the table... Or better still. Imagine your trying the table. Waste side of the saw off the table either saw. You have the widest support of the base on the table to hope the saw true and square vertically.

A look from the front of the saws below. Same thing. Waste side of the saw off the table on either saw.

Are you following what I'm probably not explaining in a very well fashion?

To me it's a no brainier....
The base helps hold the saw square to the piece you're cutting vertically. Why use the water side, which is usually only 3/4" wide to an inch wide on most Circular Saws and set the motor and widest part of the base of the side of wood that's going to fall to the ground? I don't know, but many do so. And it's the incorrect way to use the saw.

Which saw do you choose then, right or left have? Good question...

Personally, I was a drummer. I started learning how to play from like 6 years old. Because of that, I'm somewhat ambidextrous. I'm comfortable using either right or left handed circular saws.

I think it's more as to which side of the wood you feel more comfortable cutting from. Facing away from you. With a left handed saw the wood is going to drop to the left as you'll want to be cutting on the left side of the board. With a right handed saw, it's the opposite, you'll be cutting on the right side of the board, right side will drop off.

For me, I use both as mentioned. I'm not cutting a ton of wood. I occasionally have a need to cut wood. What I find is that I'm gravitate in using a right handed saw when cutting things like 1 bys and 2 bys. (Though  on this last need I used a left handed just because it was out.) And for sheets of plywood I tend to gravitate towards the Left handed saw. For me it really depends on the cut I'm making in plywood really. If I'm having to reach across the plywood with one, I may switch to the other.

Whatever is going to work safe and work best for a good square clean cut is pretty much how I choose which I'll use for that cut.

Anyway... Hopefully that clears up which side of the saw goes where.

Next, there's the matter of getting your blade square with the base or shoe of the saw. Again, use the speed square. Watch a video if you're unsure how to do this.

After that comes setting blade depth.  You don't just run your blade full depth. Yet again, many do. You're cutting a 1/2" thick piece of plywood, you don't need not should you have 4" of blade sticking out the bottom.

The main thing is you want to allow the blade gullet to eject saw dust and chips from the blade. You don't need to past the filters depth of the blade. Blade gullets might be 1/8" on one blade and 1/2" on another. But that's not set in stone as there's other factors when considering blade depth past your work piece. But that will get in the general area of correct blade depth. You can micro adjust blade depth from there.

That's all for today. Hope these things help you make better cuts when using a circular saw.

I have some new projects I've opened up and started I'll be posting about soon.

Till next time,
Stay creative, stay Happy!
Cheers....