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My three favourite types of saws for building a deck, what they're for and why I like them.
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0:00
In this video I want to explain to you the three different kinds of saws, power saws, that make sense for building a deck
0:08
And the first one, and if you can only have one power saw, then a handheld circular saw is the one to get
0:17
This is also another handheld circular saw, a little bit of a different design
0:22
Both of these are cordless, and cordless is nice. Battery technology has come a long way, so that you really get a lot of cutting or drilling or whatever from a charger and a battery
0:36
But you do pay a premium for that too. So if you're building your tool collection on a budget, then go corded
0:43
You're going to get a little more powerful performance in fact. It's a little less convenient because you have a cord and you have to plug it in and things
0:52
But you will save a fair amount of money and you don't have to buy replacement batteries
0:57
Replacement cordless batteries now are usually warranted for about three years. RIDGID actually has a lifetime warranty on batteries
1:05
So it's not as bad as it used to be as far as keeping your batteries
1:09
They also last longer than they used to. But you still will need to replace them unless you get a RIDGID and register that tool
1:16
So corded is okay, cordless is nice if you can get it
1:21
This tool will do all the cutting that you need to do for your deck
1:25
It won't do all the cutting as well as some of these other tools
1:29
But like I said, if you want one tool, then this is the one to get
1:33
I guess the main drawback, if you could say that, is that all of the cuts with this are hand guided
1:40
I mean, I guess you could clamp down a piece of wood to guide it for you
1:44
But generally speaking, if you're cross-cutting deck lumber, it's a hand-eye coordination thing
1:50
So I'll show you how that works in a second. But one tool, this is the one
1:57
You can cross-cut, you can rip wood, you can build a whole deck with a saw like this
2:02
So, going to do a cut there? Yes, I am. I'm going to mark it here
2:09
This is just a test cut. Just a sample cut to show you something
2:14
This applies to every kind of handheld circular saw. Don't forget your safety glasses
2:20
Ah, yes. So, there's two things you need to keep your eye on when you're trying to make an accurate cut
2:37
First of all, mark it. If the cut matters. There's nobody out there who's good enough to do 90 degree cuts every time without a mark
2:46
The next thing is you have to decide what side of the line you're going to cut on
2:52
You don't want to cut down the middle. In this case, we'll call this the waste side
2:57
So this is the piece we want. So we want to cut on the waste side of the line
3:08
What you do is, you see how I'm locating the blade to the left side of the line
3:14
I'm going to start this cut in a minute. But that's not the only thing I'm looking for
3:20
Every shoe, that's what this part of the saw is called, every shoe has these slots or marks or something that show you where the blade is going to cut
3:30
And in this case, since I'm set to zero degrees bevel this way
3:35
in other words, I'm straight up and down, that slot in the shoe there represents the way the blade is going to cut
3:43
So I can have the saw teeth lined up here, but if I'm out here and I'm trying to follow the line, I'm going to bind the blade
3:54
And that's no good. So I'm going to start the cut now. I'm going to actually see where the blade is cutting in relation to the line
4:01
Then I'm going to adjust here and complete the cut. So you can see it
4:21
Now, there's the cut. It's not perfect, I can see that. I can see I cut a little bit too far on that side of the line
4:31
It's not perfectly square all the way along. It's pretty close. And for most things, that would do fine
4:37
Now, as I'm going to show you, another saw, kind of the ultimate cross-cutting power tool is the miter saw or the chop saw
4:44
And it makes cuts like this perfectly accurately every time, very quickly, nice and smooth
4:49
That's what I'm going to show you in a second. But before we do that, I want to point out the two different configurations of circular saws
5:01
So, this one, the one I just used, has the blade on the right-hand side of the saw
5:08
This one has the blade on the left-hand side of the saw
5:12
Now, personally, most circular saws are like this, with the blade on the right
5:18
It's fine, you can use this, but as a right-handed user, and most users are right-handed
5:24
I have to look over the saw in order to see where that blade is cutting
5:29
For some reason, and I don't know exactly why, a minority of circular saws have the blade on the left
5:36
even though we live in a right-handed world. This is actually better for right-handed people
5:42
because you can more easily see where the blade is cutting. It's not a huge deal, but it's right there
5:49
It's easy to see how it goes, and I actually prefer a left-hand blade configuration
5:59
I should mention, too, that if you're investing in tools for your deck building project
6:05
don't just go by this video. This is just an introductory video
6:09
Contact me, and I can give you some specific recommendations on different models
6:14
Make some models, depending on your budget. I'm constantly receiving tools from manufacturers for testing
6:23
so I know pretty well what the best tools are, what the best values are
6:28
Be sure to contact me, and I can direct you in the right direction
6:32
If I was getting a second saw to help me with deck building
6:36
any other kind of home renovation, fix-up stuff, some kind of a miter saw or a chop saw like this would be the thing
6:44
As I mentioned previously, this is the ultimate cross-cutting tool. Cross-cutting is what I did with the circular saw there
6:53
It's any cut that goes across the grain, not necessarily at 90 degrees either
6:57
It can be at differing angles. Ripping is cutting along the grain, and that's another matter
7:04
Table saws excel at that. I'm going to show the little table saw in a minute, but this is a miter saw
7:11
Once again, it's cordless. If you want the best value for your tool-buying dollar, don't go cordless
7:18
Although cordless tools have really come a long way lately, and they are convenient
7:23
This is called a chop saw because the blade chops down. This, in fact, is called a sliding compound chop saw
7:34
What that means is that, first of all, it chops, and then it also slides
7:39
so you can cut wider material. Even though the blade here is quite small
7:44
it's not a particularly large blade. As miter saws go, they go 10 inch, 12 inch even
7:52
But the sliding action does let you cut fairly wide stock. You can change the angle by rotating this
8:02
A good miter saw will go beyond 45 degrees, a little bit
8:07
You can see that here. There's the 45 degree mark. We're a little bit beyond
8:12
We're getting close to 50 here on this side and this side. That's kind of nice because occasionally
8:17
when you want to do what theoretically should be a 45 degree angle
8:21
to get it to work, you might have to go a little bit more. The final thing, it's a sliding compound miter saw
8:32
By compound, I mean you can move this, loosen this thing back here
8:42
and you can tilt. It'll tilt on both sides. Actually, it'll go both ways if it's activated
8:50
This is a feature that you don't often need or use in deck building
8:57
It's a compound angle. But for trim work and things, it's useful for that
9:03
That's where it gets its name, sliding compound miter saw. For most deck stuff, most deck construction
9:09
you're going to be doing straight cross cuts. They're nice and fast and extremely accurate
9:15
and very square and nice and smooth. That's why I like them
9:20
They really help you to do a much better job, as you'll see. I'm going to make a cut here
9:26
but before I do, I want to explain things. Before, I had to mark the cut
9:30
I had to mark the cut with a square, and I had to follow that
9:35
You rarely get it right on perfect. With this, I don't have to worry about angles or anything
9:41
This is set to cut a 90 degrees. All I need to know is where to place the cut
9:49
You can see that little pencil line there. Milwaukee and DeWalt are 2 companies
9:57
that employ a method for helping you to see where the blade is going to cut
10:03
before it actually cuts that I really like. There are different ways of doing this
10:07
but if you take a look here, there's a light. I press this little button
10:13
The light will come on even when I hit the saw, too, but I can also get the light to go on
10:18
You see there's a shadow there. The blade is casting a shadow
10:23
so I know exactly where that blade is going to cut. Now, what I'll do is the light will be on
10:31
when I start to cut, and the shadow of the blade will even be more representative
10:36
of how it cuts when it's spinning, because right now, if you look closely
10:40
you can see little wider spots where the teeth are. But once it's spinning
10:46
it'll be one solid shadow line that lets me know exactly where this thing is going to cut
10:52
and it works every time. So let me just start this up, and we'll try the cut
11:09
Now, can you see that? I actually split the line exactly what I wanted
11:15
and it happens every time, because the machine is meant for that
11:21
and it's perfectly square this way, as well as this way, and a nice smooth edge, too
11:29
I mean, it's not furniture-grade, but it's certainly more than fine enough for deck use
11:36
So if I was buying a miter saw, a sliding compound miter saw, for general use
11:43
I would go with a 10- or 12-inch model, something that can cut a 2x12 at 90 degrees
11:52
I have a saw like that, and I use it, but for the project I'm working on right behind me here
11:57
I don't need to cut that wide. So I just use my little portable one, and it's handy
12:02
I can bring it out, I can put it back in if it starts to rain. There's no problem
12:06
So that's saw number two, miter saw, chop saw. There's one more that I'd like to show you
12:11
that does something else really well, too. So the third deck-building saw
12:16
it's the most unnecessary, I guess, for deck construction, but it's still nice to have sometimes
12:21
and that's a portable table saw. That's what this one is to here
12:26
Once again, it's coreless, and if you want the most tool for your money, go corded
12:32
But you're looking for something in the category of table saws called bench-top table saws
12:39
and that's just because they're small and portable, and you might use them on a bench
12:43
They also have portable stands that you can use as well. But unlike these other saws
12:52
the blade, it rotates, but it doesn't actually move anywhere. You move the workpiece over the blade
12:58
instead of the blade through the workpiece like you saw before. All table saws, you can vary the height of the blade sticking up
13:08
I've taken off the guard here so that you can see things better
13:12
And when you're using a saw like this, this is mostly for what they call ripping
13:19
which is cutting solid lumber along its length. You can also use it for cutting sheet goods, too
13:27
And this part of the saw here is called the fence, and this kind of supports the workpiece
13:36
and lets you slide it in an accurate manner. So I'm just going to adjust this to cut off this bit of inner part of the tree
13:45
that came off this hunk of scrap. So you can move this wherever you want
13:49
There's a scale here that shows you how far it is from the blade
13:53
and you just lock it down. Now, as far as blade height goes
13:57
the rule of thumb is that the blade should come up above the workpiece
14:01
by about a quarter of an inch. So I could make it stick up higher
14:07
and that would offer the benefit of less chance for kickback because the blade is, when it's encountering the wood
14:16
it's going into a more downward direction. If I wanted to minimize..
14:22
But, of course, the drawback here is that there's all kinds of blade above the wood
14:26
and if I'm careless, I could run into that with my hand
14:30
So on the other side of the equation, making it so that the blade just barely peeks through
14:35
eliminates the accidental cutting hazard. But because the teeth are encountering the wood
14:41
as they travel in a more horizontal direction, it increases the chance for a kickback of the wood
14:48
Rule of thumb, bring it up a little bit, a quarter of an inch or so
14:53
and that'll serve you well. One other thing before I actually make a cut
14:57
so you can see how this thing works. I talked about kickback, and that's where this spinning blade
15:02
which is spinning very fast, for whatever reason, catches the wood, and instead of chewing through it
15:09
throws the wood back. Now, don't let me frighten you too much here
15:13
It hardly ever happens, and it almost never, ever happens if you use the right kind of blade
15:20
And you see here, this is a tooth. It's a carbide tooth
15:25
It does the cutting. Another carbide tooth here, another carbide tooth. But behind each tooth
15:31
there's this little bump of metal. You can see it here and here and here
15:35
Every tooth has its bump of metal. And the bump of metal
15:39
its arc of travel is just slightly lower than the arc of travel of the tip of the blade
15:48
So essentially, this bump here, this one here, limits the amount of wood
15:54
that this tooth can bite in any one given revolution. Because a kickback happens
16:01
when instead of chewing through the wood, the tooth grabs the wood
16:06
and then throws it. So if you can limit the bite of a tooth
16:11
then it's not going to be trying to bite off more wood than it can chew through
16:18
as it goes through. So that's what these bumps are called. They're called anti-kickback pawls, P-A-W-L-S
16:27
And most blades have them these days. It's actually a safety requirement
16:33
required by law in Europe. The only blades that won't have this
16:37
are blades that are very fine, that have a lot of teeth
16:41
There's no room for the bumps. But table saw blades aren't usually like that
16:45
at least not general purpose blades for the kind of cutting you're going to see here
16:49
But that is something to look for when you're selecting a blade
16:53
So like I said, the guard's removed so you can see what's going on
16:57
Safety glasses, a must. And I also wear hearing protection. It's not terribly loud
17:03
but over the years it's going to build up. Any damage might build up
17:07
so put on the muffs, turn on the saw, and away we go
17:23
Now that's interesting. What happened there? Well, I'll tell you what happened there
17:29
I'm pretty sure we're low on battery here. Yeah, we are. See, the modern lithium batteries
17:35
are quite smart. And you can push that button and you can see I'm on its last legs
17:41
here as far as the charge goes. So I'll just swap out
17:45
another battery. This is kind of interesting. Both these are 18 volt batteries
17:55
That's part of Milwaukee's system. And this is a high output. It's actually a 12 amp hour
18:01
which is the biggest batteries get nowadays. But even though the voltage is the same
18:07
the larger battery will maintain its voltage to a higher level under load
18:13
And so when you're dealing with high draw power tools like this one
18:19
the bigger battery is going to give you better performance even though the
18:27
voltage is the same. So this has got enough juice in it
18:31
I think this is going to work fine for us. And just complete the cut
18:53
So if you want to cut a piece of deck lumber to a specific width
18:57
this is your tool. You can do it with a circular saw
19:01
If the cut matters, you're going to want to clamp a second piece of wood to act as a guide
19:05
for the saw. Otherwise you're not going to get this kind of result. But that's
19:09
the bottom line. Three tools for deck building. The handheld circular saw
19:13
miter saw, and if you can manage to fit it into the budget, table saw
19:17
Well thanks for joining me this week for this video. I hope you've enjoyed it
19:21
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19:25
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19:29
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19:33
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19:37
Saturday morning
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