Borrowed a chop saw from a retired carpenter and he showed me the trick he used for 40 years

Last weekend I borrowed a miter saw from an older guy named Frank through our local tool library. He came by to hand it over and saw I was building some basic shelves. He stopped me and said "You're measuring twice, but you're cutting from the wrong side of the line." Spent 10 minutes showing me how to mark the waste side and keep the blade kerf on the right spot. It sounds so simple but nobody ever told me that. Has anyone else gotten a random tip from someone in your library that stuck with you?

2 comments

2 Comments

anna_green4829d ago

Did your friend Frank happen to mention how the kerf changes if you're using a blade with more teeth? My buddy Dave borrowed a table saw from a retired cabinetmaker once, and the guy told him to put a strip of masking tape right on the cut line and mark on that instead of the wood. The tape kept the pencil mark from smudging and made it way easier to see where the blade was going to land, even with a dull blade.

grant.parker29d ago

That part about the masking tape really hits home. The retired cabinetmaker must have been a pro - I bet he learned that trick after a few too many ruined pieces from smudged lines. Actually, your buddy Dave's story reminds me of a time my cousin tried to cut a sheet of plywood in his garage with no blade guard. He ended up with a cut line that looked like a snake crawled across the wood, and the kerf was all wavy. The masking tape trick wouldn't have saved him there - he just didn't have the table saw set up right. Did Dave ever get that tape trick to work for tricky cuts like plywood?