# Is Jigsaw good for plywood straight cut?



## volunteers (Mar 4, 2011)

I am cutting some 12 inch wide plywood for my home project. I've tried my small table saw and circular saw. Neither got good result: the edge just looks ugly and the surface around the edge is not smooth anymore. 

I have no budget to upgrade my table saw or to buy a miter saw. So I am wondering if a jigsaw with decent blades could do this job well?


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## Cherryville Chuck (Sep 28, 2010)

Not likely. Jigsaws tend to wander and the upcutting action leaves a very rough finish. On your budget, a circular saw with straightedge is probably your best bet. However, I was having trouble getting a good job with my fairly cheap well known brand name skilsaw. When I checked I found that the blade was not parallel with the base by quite a bit. I drove out the roll pin that held one end to the base and did a little grinding and shimming and now it cuts very well.


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## volunteers (Mar 4, 2011)

Maybe I should change my circular saw blade to get a fine cut? I may need more teeth on the blade. 


Cherryville Chuck said:


> Not likely. Jigsaws tend to wander and the upcutting action leaves a very rough finish. On your budget, a circular saw with straightedge is probably your best bet. However, I was having trouble getting a good job with my fairly cheap well known brand name skilsaw. When I checked I found that the blade was not parallel with the base by quite a bit. I drove out the roll pin that held one end to the base and did a little grinding and shimming and now it cuts very well.


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## The Warthog (Nov 29, 2010)

I use a Diablo combination blade on my circular saw. I like it so much I bought three of them on sale. With your jigsaw, if there is a back and front to the job, cut on the back, then the teeth of the saw will leave a smoother cut on the front.


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## Cherryville Chuck (Sep 28, 2010)

volunteers said:


> Maybe I should change my circular saw blade to get a fine cut? I may need more teeth on the blade.


More teeth helps. Laying a strip of good quality masking tape over the cut can also help but could produce an angled cut unless you balance the saw out with a second strip. As I pointed out earlier, make sure your saw is true. Unless the back of the blade follows the front of the blade, you will get a rough cut. This is also true on a table saw. No point in trying to work around this problem, it will never go away. The best machines in the world will still give poor results if not set up properly. Conversely, even poor machines, if very well set up will give good results.


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## mgmine (Jan 16, 2012)

Are you using a blade designed for plywood on your table saw? Another type of blade that would work would be a hollow ground planer blade however I would go with the plywood blade first.


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## bobbotron (Jan 7, 2010)

I have a 60 tooth freud blade for my circular saw - I'd definitely use it with a straight edge for cutting plywood over a jig saw for a smooth cut.


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## tdog (Nov 30, 2011)

*plywood blade*

Had the same problem for the longest time. switched to the freud plywood blade and no more problems.Good blades are worth the investment.
Tdog


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## Mike (Nov 22, 2004)

I prefer Freud red blades over any others I have tried.


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## williamm (Oct 10, 2011)

In the past I have had good results cutting plywood with most any saw. It all depends on the saw blade and a good straight edge to follow.
Plywood blades are excellent, but you can get a nice smooth edge with most sharp blades with 60+ teeth for 10" diameter. My jig saw gave me excellent cuts using a scroll saw blade from Craftsman. It would cut on both the up and down stroke. The teeth were like beveled triangles. I can't find them any more. My saw takes blades that fasten to the saw with a set screw and I can't find them any more.


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## jim_hazel (Aug 7, 2011)

*Sharp blade*

I usually find that splintering is a sign my blade is dull and needs replacing/sharpening. Sharp blade and an even feed on a properly aligned saw helps a whole lot.


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## IanKWatts (Jun 22, 2007)

My suggestion for you is to stick with the circular saw with the fine blade as you mentioned and in addition place some tape along the edge to prevent the kick up of the edge.


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## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

5" Double Cut Saw for plywood and much more,it will put most jig saws to shame.

5" Double Cut Saw

==


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## TomE (Dec 17, 2010)

Plywood by it's nature will look "ugly" at it's edge but if you are referring to tearout of the top veneers when cross cutting, heed the advice of using a good blade and a saw guide.

Masking tapes will help and additionally one can score along the cut line before sawing with a uitility knife. 

If you make a simple guide, it's fairly easy to prescore at the cut line.


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## cagenuts (May 8, 2010)

Another thing to remember when cutting plywood is to use as much of the blade's height/depth as possible. This is contrary to what you would do when cutting wood but it helps with tear-out.


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## volunteers (Mar 4, 2011)

This is new to me. I remember the rule is that the blade should be slightly more than the depth of wood. Is this rule not working with plywood?

If my plywood has front and back, then which part should be on top when I cut with circular saw? Thanks.




cagenuts said:


> Another thing to remember when cutting plywood is to use as much of the blade's height/depth as possible. This is contrary to what you would do when cutting wood but it helps with tear-out.


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## cagenuts (May 8, 2010)

volunteers said:


> This is new to me. I remember the rule is that the blade should be slightly more than the depth of wood. Is this rule not working with plywood?


Think of the angle the blade hits the plys. The greater the acute angle between the face of the ply and the edge of the blade the better. What happens is that if the blade is only raised a fraction above the ply, the blade actually cuts away at the lower layers first leaving no substrate to help with tear-out. In other words, get the angle between the teeth and the ply to be as close as damn-it to 90 degrees (you'll never get there until someone invents a square blade).



> If my plywood has front and back, then which part should be on top when I cut with circular saw?


If you are hand holding the circular saw then the best side should be face down. The blade _should_ be cutting up towards you.

If the ply is faced on both sides then try and score the top side first by dropping the blade depth by on a sixteenth of an inch or so and run that cut first. Then drop the blade to the maximum and do a full cut. This is all easier on a table saw of course but if your guide is clamped it should not be a problem.

Does this help?


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## LexB (Apr 12, 2010)

You'll never get good results with a poor-quality blade. Get a good carbide-tipped blade designed for cutting plywood. There are a couple of other things you can do that will improve the quality of the cut even more: make a zero-clearance insert for your saws (they work just as well for handheld circular saws as table saws), and if you're willing to put in some extra time and effort, then make the cut in two passes: the first pass is extremely shallow (1/16"--1/32" is ideal). The teeth will be moving close to parallel to the surface of the plywood, so the fragile surface veneer will be better supported and not tear out. After that cut is complete, raise the blade to its final cutting depth and make a second pass, cutting in the groove you just made. Pro cabinet shops often have a dual-blade table saw dedicated for cutting sheet goods. It has a small scoring blade directly in front of the main blade, so it accomplishes in a single pass what this method does in two passes. Either that, or cut slightly oversize and trim the edges with a router and straight-edge guide with a "compression spiral bit" installed.


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