The Simple Saw Hack That Ensures A Perfect Cut Every Time

Some woodworking mess-ups are easy to fix, but there's often no going back on a bad cut. Cleanly cutting lines is a critical point that can make or break most projects, so you have to appreciate the value of the many tricks and techniques to safely use your circular saw with ideal results. One of the most consequential challenges is controlling where the blade will land when moving the blade through the wood. Cut too shallow, and you might ruin your work in a heartbeat. YouTuber @HomeRenoVisionDIY showcased one simple saw hack to solve this problem, marking the shoe with a marker to indicate the edge of the kerf. After pulling up a straightedge next to the saw, you can align the blade with the measured mark on the wood and get a perfect cut every time.

So, how effective is this hack? Knowing it will work is critical before you make that first cut, so we reached out to House Digest's carpentry expert Bob Beacham for an exclusive chat to understand more about its efficacy. Surprisingly, the main point of this hack isn't the part you're likely focusing on. "It's not really about that mark drawn on the circular saw. It's actually about the speed square to the left," Beacham states. "He's using a speed square to line up the saw and keep it cutting straight." As he explains, a basic speed square use for wood DIYs is to act as a straightedge, ensuring a smooth cut.

Much like the SkateGuide, the must-have saw accessory to make DIY projects easier, the speed square provides a 90-degree guide to keep the saw from deviating from the desired path. In his exclusive House Digest interview, Bob Beacham details how this works. "A speed square is a carpenter's tool with a lip along one side that you can hold against the board to keep it steady," Beacham explains. "You mark where you want the cut to be. Then, you hold the side of the base plate of the circular saw against the speed square so you know it's true."

From there, you just need to slide your tools to the mark and make your cut. "You keep the speed square pressed up against the side of the board, and the saw runs along its edge so the cut is made at a perfect 90 degrees," Beacham says. And the red mark at the edge of the shoe? While it might help you quickly line up the saw blade with the cut mark, Beacham remarks that you can likely skip this extra step. "It's not really necessary. There's a zero mark engraved on the saw anyway," Beacham states, noting that all circular saws have them.

Simple and straightforward, this saw hack assures a perfect cut with little potential for error. But having to use the speed square alongside the saw can make it awkward to handle them simultaneously, particularly for novices. "You have to be quite confident using the saw with one hand. Beginners sometimes like to use two, and that's fine, but for this hack to work you need one hand on the speed square," Bob Beacham says in his exclusive exchange with House Digest. "Or, you could clamp the speed square once it's in place, leaving two hands for the saw, but it's a bit of a fuss and slows everything down."

While Beacham acknowledges this hack is easy, quick, and potentially time-saving when cutting numerous boards, he states the size of the square can limit the types of cuts where it would be effective. "The length of the side of the speed square defines how wide a board you can cut. If you don't keep even contact the cut won't be at 90 degrees," Beacham discusses. "For sheet material, you need a long straight edge clamped at either end. Then you can run the saw along that to make sure you get a straight, accurate cut."