Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I think you are talking about the depth of cut adjustment.
The problem OP brought up has to do with a cut along the length of the door. A circular saw would wander and you wouldn’t get a straight cut.
No I am NOT talking about the depth of cut adjustment. I have been using the older of my circular saws (and it's just a Sears Craftsman) since about 1976. I think I am familiar with it. It has an integrated fence which works just as I described. If the edge you're following is straight, using the fence will give you a dead straight cut. Yet when I mention this the posters here act like I'm suddenly writing in Greek or something.
I'll wander out to the shed later today and see if the newer saw (Black and Decker, I think) has it too. Somehow I think that it had the integral fence but the part got lost.
Anyway, it seems that a large number of people have never even heard of this function of a circular saw.
Now of course if you've got a wandering edge, an integral fence will just duplicate that. But a minute either sighting down the edge or clapping your 6 foot level against it will tell you whether or not your edge is straight enough to use.
Anyway, it seems that a large number of people have never even heard of this function of a circular saw.
There used to be guys who could crack a hardboiled egg with a steam hammer, too.
First, circ saws are construction tools. That you can do some fine work with them, given the right setup and skill (or Skil), is neither here nor there. I've got any number of 'brute force' tools I can do amazingly detailed work with, but it's not something I'd recommend.
Also, show me how a fence, built-in or slide-in or clamp-on, can set up a circ saw for a 1/16" cut.
Then, just for giggles, show me (per my older post about trimming doors) how you can walk that cut down a 36" wide door without getting a very irregular cut.
I checked out my newer Black & Decker and while the fence is missing, the slots and thumbscrew for it are present. So somewhere in the past (I inherited this saw) the fence has gotten taken off and lost. But it had one.
As to how you do it, as noted above I'd take 1/16 off a door with a plane. If I were willing to take the door off the hinges and I were confident that it needed a nice straight edge (doors often stick at a corner so in such a case it makes better sense to just trim it where it's sticking), I'd take it down with a jointer or smooth plane (I've got a 22" Millers Falls jointer and a #6 Stanley smooth plane, sharpened up and ready to go). But I'd probably leave it on the hinges and take it down a bit at a time where sticking with a block plane. No reason why you couldn't use some carbon paper or equivalent to find the tight places and just take them down.
But!!! If I were determined to do it with a power tool (for this you'd HAVE to take it off the hinges), I'd run a marking gauge down the face of the door. Then I'd take my saw and set the fence to take off just a little wee bit, and I'd just run it on down the edge of the door. Some skill is required because you have to keep the blade parallel to the edge of the door, but if you have normal dexterity that's not too tough. Of course there's a bevel on the door, so I'd probably have to set a little angle on the sole plate of the saw.
I mean, we're not talking about hand scraping the ways of a Bridgeport, or building a lathe or an optical bench, here. If you pay attention to inspecting it before hand (see my note on using carbon paper to find the actual tight spots) then normal care, dexterity, and going slow and easy will be plenty accurate enough. And yes, I can make a 7 foot long cut straight and accurate with a circular saw, at least to the tolerances needed here. You put the thing up on saw horses and you make sure everything's clear and stable before you start the saw running. I have cut many many sheets of plywood to within a 16th with a circular saw.
Of course cutting this with a circular saw, you end up with sharp corners so now you've got to go along and round them all off and probably blend your bevel with the existing bevel. If you'd open your mind to hand tools you'd see that the best tool for that blending is gonna be a block plane. Otherwise you're hacking along with sanders or rasps.
Choosing amongst power tools, I'd probably pick your belt sander as the best of a bad lot, to tell the truth I had rather do it with that than a circular saw, but it's going to throw dust everywhere and the grit that's coarse enough to do the job before the sun burns out will also leave a rough surface that you're going to have to go over again with a finer grit, so you end up going over the whole thing twice.
The only reason I got into the circular saw fence discussion is that this appears to be something beyond the knowledge of a number of posters here - that they come with a fence. Maybe they don't all come with it, but on a sample size of two pieces we're 2 for 2.
No I am NOT talking about the depth of cut adjustment. I have been using the older of my circular saws (and it's just a Sears Craftsman) since about 1976. I think I am familiar with it. It has an integrated fence which works just as I described. If the edge you're following is straight, using the fence will give you a dead straight cut. Yet when I mention this the posters here act like I'm suddenly writing in Greek or something.
I'll wander out to the shed later today and see if the newer saw (Black and Decker, I think) has it too. Somehow I think that it had the integral fence but the part got lost.
Anyway, it seems that a large number of people have never even heard of this function of a circular saw.
Now of course if you've got a wandering edge, an integral fence will just duplicate that. But a minute either sighting down the edge or clapping your 6 foot level against it will tell you whether or not your edge is straight enough to use.
Ok. Maybe, although I still don't see how this would work.
I admit, I don't own a circular saw, and I don't think that I have used one since the 1980s. I simply have no need for one.
I own a table saw, planer, jointer, bandsaw, tracksaw, SCMS, handsaws of various types, planes of various types, a couple of jigsaws, a sawzall, some routers, chisels, etc. I can think of a number of ways to deal with the OP's problem, and for obvious reasons circular saws simply didn't cross my mind as a serious contender.
I probably should have refrained from commenting on a tool that I do not use.
Also, show me how a fence, built-in or slide-in or clamp-on, can set up a circ saw for a 1/16" cut.
Then, just for giggles, show me (per my older post about trimming doors) how you can walk that cut down a 36" wide door without getting a very irregular cut.
It is not that difficult - similar to using a table saw to shave off 1/16". In this case, it is the saw that moves instead of the material. You get a quality straight edge cutting guide, clamp it to the door and then run the saw along the edge. With an 80-tooth blade and nice painters tape, you can make a nice clean cut. Of course, that is overkill if you just need to shave off the door in a spot or two, but I have used that method to shave the entire length of a door. For me, that is also the best way to cut large sheets of plywood.
Ok. Maybe, although I still don't see how this would work.
I admit, I don't own a circular saw, and I don't think that I have used one since the 1980s. I simply have no need for one.
I own a table saw, planer, jointer, bandsaw, tracksaw, SCMS, handsaws of various types, planes of various types, a couple of jigsaws, a sawzall, some routers, chisels, etc. I can think of a number of ways to deal with the OP's problem, and for obvious reasons circular saws simply didn't cross my mind as a serious contender.
I probably should have refrained from commenting on a tool that I do not use.
What do you do if you need to do something like build a fence? Take every board over to the table saw?
That said, I would shave the door in place with a block plane where it sticks, and use a sharp chisel down near the floor if needed; if I just had to take it off hinges, I'd do it with a jointer or smooth plane. No noise, no dust and chips thrown everywhere, almost no chance of slipping and scarring everything up, no chance of cutting off the tip of a finger.
It is not that difficult - similar to using a table saw to shave off 1/16". In this case, it is the saw that moves instead of the material. You get a quality straight edge cutting guide, clamp it to the door and then run the saw along the edge. With an 80-tooth blade and nice painters tape, you can make a nice clean cut. Of course, that is overkill if you just need to shave off the door in a spot or two, but I have used that method to shave the entire length of a door. For me, that is also the best way to cut large sheets of plywood.
Think of it as using the world's largest diameter router bit, with the axis (almost) parallel to the ground, to mill off 1/16 from the edge of the workpiece. Easy peasy. Gotta keep your wits about you, of course.
IMHO the correct tool for this job is a jointer plane, as stated in previous posts. You take the doors down, support them securely so that the edge to be planed is roughly parallel to the floor and go to work. If you don’t have a sharp blade in your plane, you have to work harder and may slightly mar the edge you are working on.
You can also buy a used electric Porter Cable door plane with an attached fence which greatly simplifies the task and also allows you to cut the correct bevel for the closing edge of the door. I paid $140 for mine but have seen them much cheaper on eBay. They are supposed to come in a nice metal case with ledges for the plane to rest on so as not to dull the blades. Before I bought one, I used a circle saw with a straight-edge guide occasionally to cut the door edge and also the bevel if necessary.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
