Saw

Hand saws

Hacksaw

• 2 types:
  • Junior hacksaw, 6" blades
  • Other one, 12" blades & other sizes

Mitre Saw

• Wood is clamped to the base
• Frame guides saw blade, keeping it at the chosen angle
• Small captive handsaw of some type cuts the timber
• Quite different to the electric mitre saw

Floorboard Saw

• Has additional teeth on the top side in an arc near the end
• Can saw into floorboards in situ

Toolbox Saw

• Shorter version of jack saw
• Fits in toolboxes

Jack Saw

• General purpose building saw
• Cuts timber, aerated concrete

Bow Saw

• Sawing tree branches
• The coarse peg teeth usually used cut on both strokes

Pullsaw

• Cut on the pull stroke
• Blade thinner than pushsaws
• Less effort for given progress than pushsaws

Keyhole Saw

• Very narrow blade

Two-man saw

• aka pit saw
• Long slightly curved blade with a handle on each end
• Double the sawing power
• Very long stroke

Wire saw

• Flexible wire with a handle on each end
• Mostly used for veterinary uses (bones, horns)
• Exceptionally good access properties for difficult cuts
• Not expensive
• You wont get them from DIY suppliers

Power Saws

Jigsaw

• Low cutting speed
• Can cut curves
• Steer by rotating the saw, never push sideways
• Quality varies greatly
• Cheap & midrange jigsaws:
  • Performance generally anything from patchy to dire
  • Blades wander & bend badly
  • Cost of ruined wood over the lifetime of a cheap or midrange jigsaw is likely to exceed the cost of a better saw
  • Not possible to cut a straight line using a guide fence, as they need regular direction correction
• Good jigsaws:
  • Constrain the blade with rollers
  • Can cut straight lines
  • Much less prone to blade bending, but not immune
• Various types of blade available:
  • Coarse, medium, fine
  • Blades for wood, metal, plastic, leather, paper products
  • Flush cutting
  • Knife
  • Grit
  • Varying pitch

Circular saw

• Fast cutting
• Cuts straight lines only
• Good general purpose DIY saw
• Riving knife prevents kickback
• Blades with high number of teeth can produce very smooth cuts
• Normally supplied with a guide fence
• Depth of cut and angle can be preset
• Max possible cutting depth is less with angled cuts

Mitre Saw etc

• aka compound mitre saw:
• Circular saw blade
• Cutting head swivels to cut at various angles
• Cutting head tilts to give cuts angled in 2 axes
• Plastic bases found on budget machines bend slightly under force, misaligning cuts.
• Pushing the saw can violently shatter the fence with some budget machines

Sliding Mitre saw

Mitre saw with cutting head that slides to cut wider timber

Flipsaw

• Mitre saw with a sawhead that flips over to give either a mitre saw or benchsaw

Chop Saw

• Look somewhat like mitre saws, but with no angle adjustments
• Cuts at precisely 90 degrees
• Workpiece clamp included
• Abrasive grit blade usually used
• Primarily used on metalwork

Scroll Saw

• Vibrating blade can be touched without injury
• Modern version of fretsaw

Spiral saw

• eg Rotozip
• Can plunge eolid materials then drill in any direction
• Can not withstand a lot of side force
• Die grinders can use 1/8" spiral saw blades, but such thin blades are not robust
• Spiral saws taking 1/8" blades may also take die grinder accessories - check speed ratings

Table saw

• Circular blade
• Fast feed rate
• Plastic or wood pushers are used to keep hands away from blade

Bandsaw

• Uses a blade consisting of a continuous loop of spring steel, with cutting teeth on one edge. This rotates around two aligned wheels (one of them driven), and passes vertically through a cutting table.
• Coarse, fine and omnidirectional blades available
• A typical DIY bandsaw blade of 12mm width allows straight and curved cuts down to about 150mm radius to be comfortably made. Narrower blades allow tighter curves to be cut, but they are more vulnerable to breakage.
• For accuracy of cutting, the 'set' of the teeth on a bandsaw blade should be properly maintained. Once the 'set' has gone, the blade will tend to wander.

Handheld Bandsaw

• A miniature hand held version of a band saw
• No idea about its strengths and weaknesses, anyone used one?

Tile saw

• Miniature table saw with diamond grit tile blade
• Water cooled blade
• Replacing the blade might allow it to do other jobs too

Reciprocating saw

• Powered version of jack saw or hacksaw

Chainsaw

• Relatively high risk saw
• Protective clothing is wise
• Basic training is wise
• Correct type of oil important
• Blade should not contact soil

Reviews

Mitre saws

To Do

Plywood saw Rip saw Saw set

See Also

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