Circular Saw Crosscut Guide

A circular saw is a great tool for making quick crosscuts. But notice that I didn't say accurate crosscuts - that's a different matter. Guiding a circular saw through a square cut can be pretty hit or miss.

My solution was to build a simple guide box that guarantees a square cut every time. The exploded drawing below shows the basic design. The workpiece slides into the box through openings in the side. Guides attached square to the top of the box are spaced to match the width of the saw shoe.

With the stock in place, you simply line up the your layout mark with the kerf in the box and push the saw through the cut, as shown in the detail drawing. The guides do the steering. And now I can claim that my circular saw is handy for making both quick and accurate crosscuts.

Good woodworking,

Ted Raife
Online Editor, Woodsmith

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