Making Long Pieces Shorter

[Coop]

Four of us talked about this in Amana but it started/continued to rain and we were outside so it didn't get very far. It seems that most on here use a jig saw to rough cut the length of a piece of board. I've always used a circ saw. When I do us a jig saw, it's mostly for small stuff and can't imagine using it for anything thicker than 1/2" or so. What saw and blade combination do you guys use? 

[Chet]

I use my Bosch Jig Saw with a blade that is about 4 - 5 inches long and a pretty aggressive tooth pattern.  They're Bosch blades I get at the local ACE hardware in a 5 pack.

[Tpt life]

Usually circ. I know from years with a recip that blade choice is everything. If a jig is not working for you I would look for a rougher cutting blade. I have been recipping recently with carbide teeth roughing blades. 

[Cliff]

I use the Festool Trion. I don't remember which blade exactly. Just a general hardwood/softwood blade. I've never taken it out except for when I cut metal I used a metal cutting blade. 

I just don't care for circular saw cause of kickback.

[Coop]

7 minutes ago, Chet K said:

I use my Bosch Jig Saw with a blade that is about 4 - 5 inches long and a pretty aggressive tooth pattern.  They're Bosch blades I get at the local ACE hardware in a 5 pack.

Chet, Kev's last video is what made me think of it again and I guess that was with your saw. I have 2 recip saws with blades from metal cutting to limb cutting and never thought about using them. I've just always gone to the circ saw to do this, being careful not to get it into a bind. It just seemed that the jig saw was a safer bet, kind of like a miniature version of the band saw, but it took forever, I guess I need to look at the blades available for them. 

[Ronn W]

Circ saw with the wood laying on 3/4" styrofoam on the garage floor.  Just did that with 10' long 6/4 oak.

[wdwerker]

Corded Bosch saber saw with those 4 + inch long blades work just fine on 8/4 stock. I just ordered a little 12 v Bosch Sabersaw but I don't know what it will be capable of. I will post a review after I put it through the paces. 

[Eric.]

Same as Chet.  I have a Festool Trion but if I had a do-over I'd either buy the Bosch and save some money, or I'd buy the Carvex, which by all accounts is a much better saw than the Trion for a number of reasons...which makes it a much more justifiable purchase.  I would not recommend the Trion.  It just doesn't separate itself enough from the better box store brands to justify the price.

I keep a 4" aggressive blade on it 90+% of the time for hacking down rough stock.  I have finer blades for everything else.  I highly recommend breaking down rough stock with a jigsaw.  You can usually get away with it on the SCMS but there's gonna be that one time that a nasty board just punishes you for taking the gamble.

A circ saw is a little better but you still risk kickback.  Any saw with a plate blade is not a great idea until your stock is flat and square.  General rule.  The more you understand about how wood behaves, the more risk you can assume and probably get away with.  I have to break down some pretty gnarly stuff at the lumberyard on a regular basis, and the only saw we have there is a 12" Dewalt slider.  And while I don't really enjoy turning the saw on and diving into that wicked-twisted board...eventually you're able to predict almost assuredly how a board is going to behave - and the best way to approach the cut - just by analyzing its shape and grain.  But until you reach that point in familiarity with both wood and tool, it's a wise choice to use the jigsaw to break down rough lumber.  And even if you're 100% comfortable with your SCMS, it's still best practice to use the jigsaw.

[rodger.]

I often use a sharp handsaw, especially with 4/4 stock.

[Coop]

I just cut a 2x8 ( construction crap) with a circ saw, with the shorter piece in my left hand and the longer piece on saw horses. Luckily, I felt and heard the bind coming and stopped. Got me to thinking. But, like a DA, I readjusted and continued.  Thanks guys for the input. 

[Chet]

42 minutes ago, K Cooper said:

I guess that was with your saw

Yes, it was and the blade was on its last leg and needed t one replaced.

[Pondhockey]

I'm with Pug (for a rough cut.)

[Llama]

For rough cutting/breaking down I use a Festool Carvex with a long blade. Cuts through 8/4 oak with no issues...

 

[Barron]

Jig saw, or handsaw if I don't want to dig out the jig saw. 

[gee-dub]

19 hours ago, Chet K said:

I use my Bosch Jig Saw with a blade that is about 4 - 5 inches long and a pretty aggressive tooth pattern.  They're Bosch blades I get at the local ACE hardware in a 5 pack.

This is me too.

I keep three or four specific blades in a plastic tube right next to the jigsaw. Fortunately, on the Bosch, changing blades takes only a few seconds. I just put in the blade appropriate for the material and go at it.

[RichardA]

Bosch jig saw.

[mat60]

Another Bosch here to.

[Tom King]

If I have something big to shorten, but don't want to get oil on it from a regular chainsaw, I have an old Craftsman electric chainsaw that I run a dry chain on.  It's surprising how long a chain will last running dry.  I use it often when working on the framing of an old house.  

Recently, I had a stack of 12/4 x 16'7" long boards.  I bought them all long and thick to get a few straight pieces out of for handrails.  After getting the handrail pieces roughed out with a 16-5/16" circular saw, and 6-1/2" power planer, I didn't need anything longer than 92" out of the rest of the stack.   I cut the remaining stack right in the middle of the boards, right where it sat, with the dry cutting chainsaw.

In the truck photo is after shortening.  The stack had been shuffled a little bit after the other picture was taken, but the one shortening cut was the three boards left after we took the handrail pieces out of three other boards.  The pieces that didn't stay straight enough for the handrail pieces were still large enough to get shutter parts out of, and we used almost every stick of wood that was resawed out of all of it.

 

[Art]

Bosch jig for me.  I've cut up to 12/4 with no problem.

[Coop]

Thanks guys. I think my problem might be in the blade. I've probably been using the 100 tooth version of the 10" ts blade. If a more aggressive blade doesn't work, I'll marry it to a new Bosch

[Tom King]

I had to true up some hard, old stair stringers, and didn't want to put a good handsaw in that wood.  I found some 10 pt. Irwin "Sawzall" blades in Lowes that seemed more stiff than the normal blade.  They did a good job of allowing me to follow a fine line, and cut fairly fast.  I would expect that to be a decent board shortening blade for anyone using a reciprocating saw.

[Tom Cancelleri]

Usually I use my Carvex Jigsaw to break down long boards. If that's not feasible I hand saw it, or the wood is really big I schlep the SawZall out of it's case. 

[Brendon_t]

I'm with pug. 75% of the time, I'm only cutting one or two boards to rough length and will just grab my hand saw off the wall. I do keep a jigsaw loaded with a 5" aggressive cut blade for when I'm feeling lazy but I prefer the hand saw.

[kyokahn]

The roughest you can get is probably a recip saw with a long blade. You could probably cut a 4" thick board with that. Jigsaw for smaller pieces up to 6/4 and circular saw for sheet goods. I only have a tiny car so anything I buy I have to resize.

[Eric.]

36 minutes ago, Brendon_t said:

when I'm feeling lazy but I prefer the hand saw.

If that's not contradictory, I don't know what is.   The epitome of cutting off your nose to spite your face.