today we're covering five circular saw tips that will help out any beginner tip number one how to choose the correct blade handing for those that don't know circular saws come as a blade right or a blade left blade right saws come with the blade on the right side of the motor if you're looking down on the motor blade left saws come with a blade on the left side of the motor now which one is best for you really depends on two things first your handedness and second how you're using the saw for example a lot of right-handed users prefer a blade right saw because they feel safer with the blade on the other side of the motor in addition right-handed users generally feel safer using the blade guard because their hand is safely over the motor unlike if a right-handed user is to use a blade left if you come in to activate the blade guard your hand almost feels like it's going into the blade however there are right-handed users that like a blade left regardless of what i just mentioned and that's completely fine why because they're comfortable with the saw and that's what matters the most now when it comes to left-handed users generally the blade left saw is more comfortable for them however it really just all boils down to what's comfortable for you could be a blade left or a blade right this tip is probably the most important to consider because feeling comfortable with the saw as you can imagine is very very important if you need help choosing the right saw for you i did make a youtube video exclusively about that topic so i'll leave a link up here and down in the notes section the last thing to mention here is that a blade left and a blade right saw can be used for different operations for example if you're in a tight spot sometimes a blade right will not fit because of the motor while the blade left will in another example sometimes you're in a position with a saw where the sawdust is extracting out towards you while with the opposite saw the sawdust would be extracting away from you as you can see all these things do make a difference and are important things to consider however what i believe is the most important thing is still how comfortable the saw feels in your hand tip number two how to prevent kickback now i don't want to over simplify kickback because it is serious but at the same time it's also really quite easy to understand and to prevent most of the time there's two things that causes kickback first the blade getting pinched or bind between two pieces of wood or a small piece of wood getting caught between the blade and the blade guard for example the blade can get pinched if your material is allowed to bend or flex like this which puts pressure on the blade increasing the chance of the saw kicking back or sometimes the blade can get pinched if the piece you're cutting gets trapped and can't move away from the saw blade so here are two things that can fix this issue first always make sure that your material is supported not only on the ends but in the middle as well you also want to make sure that the cut off piece has the freedom to fall to the floor without any interference the second reason a saw could kick back is because a small piece gets caught between the blade and the blade guard oftentimes this is the smallest of your cut off pieces because it's the waist piece and this too can be prevented because if you allow that waste piece to have the freedom to fall away from the saw it doesn't have a chance to get caught up in between the blade and the guard what's also nice is even if you forget to do something right the saw will give you a warning that you're doing something wrong and that warning is actually a sound when the saw is about to kick back bind up or throw something at you you can hear a distinct noise something that sounds like this and once you start to hear that noise all you need to do is simply take your finger off the trigger most of the time circular saw kickbacks can be absolutely prevented simply by listening to the saw stop doing what you're doing reposition and adjust something to make it better and you can grow these skills simply by listening and looking and hearing what the saw sounds like during a normal cut then pay attention to if that tone ever changes and if it does that means the saw is potentially wanting to bind up and to prevent that from happening all you have to do is simply let off the trigger readjust your work and go ahead and finish your cut tip number three how to safely use a blade guard every now and again especially on thinner materials or when you're trying to make an angled cut that the saw doesn't want to start into the wood it's almost like it's stuck now what may be happening here is that the blade guard is getting caught on the edge of the material and it cannot move out of the way in cases like these you'll have to lift the blade guard out of the way just so it clears the material and begins cutting and then you're going to need to let the guard back down and depending on your handedness which we already talked about in tip one a blade right or a blade left saw may give you some better advantages for me personally as a right-handed user i prefer to be able to take my hand and operate the blade guard with my hand safely over the motor if you're left-handed the blade left saw may be more comfortable for you to operate the blade guard there are other cutting operations that require the blade guard to be lifted up including things like making plunge cuts so this does come up from time to time so choosing the right saw that feels the best in your hands does make a very big difference bottom line whatever saw you decide to go with just make sure that you're staying safe you're moving slowly and you're keeping your hands and your fingers out of the path of the blade alright the last two tips are both related to cut quality tip number four how to cut straight lines the easiest and cheapest way to make a straight cut with a circular saw is to use a really straight piece of wood and some simple clamps once the board is clamped into place you can ride the base along the straight edge making a straight cut this technique works really well and is very simple but if you need to make repetitive really fast short rips sometimes using these framing jigs works really well too all you need to do is set the saw to the correct distance away from the edge of the material clamp on a framing jig to the saw base and make your long rip cuts there are more expensive options of course for making straight cuts with a circular saw but for a beginner these two options are great because they won't break the bank tip number five how to avoid splintering splintering happens when the saw blade is cutting through your material and leaves the ends or the edges that you just cut splintered which affects the quality of your project now splintering happens mainly for two reasons first a dull blade or you're using the wrong blade the blade that
