(blows)
- Cutting us straight and square line with a circular saw,
that can't be too hard can it, or is it?
(jazzy music)
(logo whooshes)
(finger clicks)
(bell rings)
(saw whirs)
(ruler shakes)
Whoa!
Ugh! (exhales)
(wood clatters)
Good day, folks. All the Knackers here.
Now if you can relate to what you've just seen,
don't panic, just relax,
because we've all been there and done that.
So let's kick off the new year, 2021, on the right foot.
Making it the year of the squared cut,
by building a quick and easy
straight square cutting jig type thingy,
that'll have you cutting like a pro in no time at all.
Let's do it!
Now, popular and very effective option
for cutting a straight and square cut,
which a lot of people up for is the use of a speed square,
which is what I'm using here.
And as you can see, it does a pretty good job
of cutting a straight and a square line.
Now mine's only a little fella, coming in at seven inches.
You can buy them all the way up to 12 inches,
but what if the piece of wood that you're trying to cut
is actually bigger than the speed square that you have?
I'll tell you where you are,
you're up the creek without a canoe.
And that's where the S.C 1000 makes an appearance.
Hang on a sec, was what I meant to say up the creek
without a paddle and not a canoe?
Let me know, down below.
Yeah, I think it is paddle.
Up the creek without a paddle, sounds right.
Or canoe? I need a coffee.
Okay, the first thing you need to do
is to grab yourself a sheet of ply.
(wood drops)
Then two aluminium angles, a handful of pan head screws,
and a handle of some description,
which really is just an optional extra.
And I'll leave a list of those materials
with their dimensions down beneath this video
just in case you need to check those out.
And while you're here, make sure you stick around,
as a little later I'll be sharing the link
to my Eight Essential Circular Saw Tips For The Beginner,
which I think you'll find very useful.
Now the benefit of using plywood for this project,
is that off the shelf, plywood comes
with a factory finish or a factory edge,
which simply means that in the factory
the sheets are cut nice and square.
As you can see here, just like that,
which is really important for this jig to work properly.
Now you can make this jig basically any size you like,
it's all up to you and we're going to be doing it
in five simple steps.
The first thing we need to do with the saw unplugged
or the battery removed, is lift the guard
and then rest the blade hard up against the edge
of the plywood.
Now with the blade hard up against the edge of the plywood,
come around to the back of the saw's base plate,
which is all the way over here.
And then with your pencil,
mark a line along the back edge of that base plate,
and then do the same thing
down the other end of the plywood.
(jazzy music)
Now with your smaller section of angle,
place that on our fresh new marks,
just like that.
And then come up from the bottom,
about a hundred millimetres or four inches,
and then on the back edge, mark that line.
Done!
Hold the phone folks,
I'm making a bit of a change.
Instead of coming up the original 100 millimetres,
or four inches,
I'm sizing the cut down to 75 millimetres,
which is about three inches.
Sorry about that.
Now with that cutting guide
that comes with your circular saw,
we need to sit that back roughly 75 millimetres,
or about three inches away from the blade.
With the saw set up and raring to go
we now need to cut out this section of plywood.
Now there's a very important reason why I'm doing that
and I'll explain why shortly.
(saw buzzes)
(drill whirs)
Next on the agenda,
we need to grab the second length of angle,
the one with the larger profile.
We'll place that on top of the plywood;
hard up against the first piece of angle.
Just like that.
Then we'll cut that to length using a hacksaw.
Then drive in some screws to hold that firmly in place.
Speaking of driving things,
did you hear the one about the two nuns
who are driving down a dark and isolated road
in Transylvania?
Fair dinkum, how crazy!
When all of a sudden a great big scary vampire
jumps out in front of the car.
So one nun says to the other, "Show him your cross."
So she winds down a window, leans out and says,
"Oy, get out the way you toothy git!" (laughs)
Yeah, a bit confused.
She thought angry cross and not crucifix cross.
Easy mistake to make under the circumstances.
It worked apparently, so all good.
Yeah.
Can't trust those pesky vampires.
No, siree!
(saw grinds)
(drill whirs)
And as you can see now, we've made ourselves
a big beautiful square cutting jig.
Now to make this a bit lighter,
and to jazz it up a little bit,
I might just cut an angle or two on this,
give it a bit of a paint job, and then I'll come back
and I'll explain why we cut out this section of plywood.
(saw buzzes)
(sander polishes)
(paint sprays)
Okay, let's just screw this handle on
and then we'll go ahead, give it the big test,
see how it goes; exciting.
Beautiful!
Looks good.
- Okay, let's just place the old S.C 1000
on top of the sheet that we're about to cut,
hard up against the bottom.
And then we'll have a quick chat
about the reasoning behind that extended section there.
This section of angles sits hard
up against the bottom of our sheet.
Whereas this section of angle
extends past the bottom of our sheet.
Which simply means that more of your base plate
is in contact with the angle,
therefore giving you better control as you enter the cut.
Okay, let's test this square cutting jig thingy out.
First of all, we need to line up
the edge of a jig here to our mark over there.
Just like that.
Righto, let's go.
(saw whirs)
Okay, let's see how we went.
Fingers crossed everybody, fingers crossed.
Alrighty, here we go.
That is looking absolutely perfect.
How good's that?
Now, that is an absolute little ripper.
Great tip, Knackers!
Hey, check this out:
About two minutes ago on the scorching hot summers day,
I was enjoying a frozen Zooper Dooper
and I chipped my front tooth.
Look, it's chipped! (chuckles)
Not happy.
That's gotta be the world's most expensive Zooper Dooper.
Not happy.
Not at all.
Now if you wanna see more videos just like that one,
make sure you check out my,
Eight Essential Circular Saw Tips For Beginners video,
which should be popping up over there just about now.
Hope to see you there shortly.
(claps)
Alrighty, after all that I've got to go to the dentist.
So till next time be good, be safe,
and I'm out of here. Cheers.
Can't believe I broke my tooth!