Adustable Circular Saw?

Without going the Festool route, are there other circular saws that allow adjustment of the sole plate to blade relationship. When using an edge guide my current cheepo saw blade is not very parallel to the edge of the sole plate. That's OK, I don't expect much from a low dollar saw.

In looking for a replacement I am not finding any that do allow this adjustment. I may just be "digging in the wrong place" so I thought I would put it out to the forum. My alternative would be to attach a shop made plate to the existing sole plate and cut it accordingly.

TIA,

Glenn

I have a Milwaulkee worm drive saw that is about 12 years old and I don't know if there is an adjustment, but I have never had a problem. I use it mostly for sheet goods with a straight board for a fence. It wasn't cheap though. I am considering the Festool with the guides, just because I bought a Domino last week and now want all the Festool stuff:) .

I "adjusted" the sole plate on my ~$40 circular saw with a rubber mallet. That made the difference so I can use it with a guide.

Roy, your slide has begun. Go forward and prosper.

John, I believe you have made the simple, clear and concise solution obvious to me. Thanks you. If its good enough for you $40 saw, my $30 C-man should have nothing to complain about.

I would still like to hear form others if such a beast exists. ;-)

I know the Dewalt DW364 has a blade parallelism adjustment. You can find it in the manual from their website, it is in the section under Shoe Alignment. I believe this adjustment is pretty rare in the current crop of CS's. Probably due to the CS's heritage as a construction and framing tool where the blade parallelism would be less critical.

Doug

Some of the EZ Smart folks have been recommending the Hilti saw that actually has the grooves in the base for riding on the rail.

I'm a Festoolie myself, though, so no first-hand experience.

Not to be a thread jacker, but along the same lines, does anybody know a CS that has a lock both front and back to keep the blade perpendicular to the base? I must push too hard on the saw, because I always have problems with the base flexing and I end up with cuts that aren't square (perpendicular to the surface).

Brian Walter

I had the same problem so, I added long auxiliary base and adjusted it


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This is a good idea, (and inexpensive:cool: ) but instead of routing a groove for the blade in the base as you did I would just plunge the saw through the base. It would make alignment harder but it also gives you a zero clearance type base, (like a homemade EZ Smart base with the AC-1 insert) so you'll have much cleaner cuts. Maybe you could plunge through the base then remove the base. Once it's removed you could just measure from the edges of the blade slot to the edges of the base. If it's not parallel it wouldn't be too hard to square up the edge of the base. Having a zero clearance saw base makes for perfectly clean edges on both sides of the blade.

Bruce

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nissim Avrahami

I had the same problem so, I added long auxiliary base and adjusted it

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Thanks to all as usual. I will try some shims to adjust for the 1/32" over 4" tht my saw is out of parallel. I'll post the results.

Hi Bruce

Don't count so much on the "zero clearance", I did it exactly as you explained i.e., plunging the saw through the aux. base and it was good for very short time.
I made the experiment on Melamine and I could see the chipping.
I made even a separate insert from the same thickness material (floor panel) and still got the chipping on Melamine. Maybe on plywood or MDF, you will get cleaner cut.

As I was told by pro that cuts Melamine boards all day, even a brand new industrial saw blade can cut 100~300 Feet (depends on the brand) of clean cut before it will need sharpening.

About circular saw, he told me that it's waste of time, with Melamine boards, you need scoring blade to get really clean cut.

niki

Hi Niki, I wonder why you had bad results with this. Before I got my EZ Smart I used a homemade guide rail with the base made from the same type of 1/4" hardboard. The net result was basically the same as having a base on the saw as you have. The results were consistently excellent with regards to anti-chip on the guide side of the blade. Melamine, plywood, whatever, it worked great. Maybe your saw has some runout that's causing some problems. With the EZ Smart I've been using the same blade since I bought my Hilti saw, (Stock Hilti 40t blade) and the same insert and it still works beautifully. Obviously the EZ insert is made from a durable plastic but my homemade saw guide was just regular hardboard. Oh, well, nice job with the saw base anyway. It definitely looks like that saw is easier to handle now.

Bruce

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nissim Avrahami

Hi Bruce

Don't count so much on the "zero clearance", I did it exactly as you explained i.e., plunging the saw through the aux. base and it was good for very short time.
I made the experiment on Melamine and I could see the chipping.
I made even a separate insert from the same thickness material (floor panel) and still got the chipping on Melamine. Maybe on plywood or MDF, you will get cleaner cut.

As I was told by pro that cuts Melamine boards all day, even a brand new industrial saw blade can cut 100~300 Feet (depends on the brand) of clean cut before it will need sharpening.

About circular saw, he told me that it's waste of time, with Melamine boards, you need scoring blade to get really clean cut.

niki

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