Neighbor showed me a trick to make my circular saw cuts cleaner

I was out in the garage last weekend struggling with a cut that kept chipping the edge of some plywood. My neighbor came over to borrow a wrench and saw me getting frustrated. He told me to put a strip of painters tape right over the cut line before I start the saw. I laughed it off at first but tried it anyway. Cuts came out way cleaner, no splintering at all. Has anyone else tried this or got a similar hack for other tools?

2 comments

2 Comments

brian_kelly911mo agoTop Commenter

That tape trick has been around for years and it does help with some materials. But honestly, I think people get a little too worked up about a small chip here or there on plywood. Unless you're building furniture for a museum, a slightly rough edge isn't going to ruin your project. You can always sand it smooth in about ten seconds. I've used the tape trick before and it works okay, but you have to make sure the tape is pressed down really flat or the saw blade still catches it. Better results come from a sharp blade and a steady feed rate than any tape gimmick.

lee.casey1mo ago

A lot of people at my old job would spend a full afternoon overcomplicating stuff like this when 90% of the time a quick sand or a fresh blade would've saved them an hour. There's this thing I see everywhere where people get obsessed with hacks or shortcuts to avoid doing the basic stuff right. Like my buddy spent a weekend trying to find the perfect app to organize his todo list but he just needed to write shit down and actually do it. The tape trick is fine but it's like putting a bandaid on a leaky pipe.