We’re going to install these in the kitchen, and we’re wondering the best way to cut them to size.
Luckily we have a scrap piece to experiment with. I’ve heard various that you should use a 40- or 60- teeth carbide blade. I tried a 40- (as recommended by the manufacturer) and the cut is OK, but not perfect: if you hold a straight-edge to it, you can see gaps. It was a fresh blade.
Is it normal that you make a somewhat rough cut with a circular saw, then spend a lot of time sanding it to make a perfect fit?
If you’re using a hand-held circular saw, I’d expect you’d need to follow up with a belt sander as the cut line is apt to be a tad notchy or wavy unless you’re really good at following a line.
Cut it a half-noodge long, then sand to perfection.
You could use a ‘backer’ clamped to press against the face. The ‘backer’ would help prevent ‘blow out’. It would keep small pieces near the edge (thusly the face of the piece) from chipping away.
That would minimize flaws along the face. Combine that with suggestions made, cutting a noodge too long, and you should be okay.
Hard woods are hard to cut. Curiously, aren’t you getting any ‘burns’ along the face?
To get a straight line, I clamped a straight-edge to the block, using a t-square to make sure it was square first. I then followed the straight edge with the plate of the hand-held circular saw. This made a very straight line, but with a non-perfect edge.
I guess I’m just nervous about this because it’s expensive material and I don’t want to mess it up - any imperfections will be very apparent since it’ll be the kitchen countertop!
To make sure I understand the backer concept correctly: you lay the sacrificial piece of wood on top of the butcher block, right? Then saw through the “sandwich”?
Since I’ve never done this before, I’m not sure what the best result I can expect is from the initial cut with the circular saw. The manufacturer’s edge is, of course, perfect, but I suspect they have some serious cutting hardware at the mill. An expect might look at the test cut I made and say, “That’s a great cut - you won’t get better than that with a circular saw; now make your other cut, and sand them both until they fit.”
Oh, no blade burns along the cut face, but you can see tiny imprints of the blade. I also tried the trick of cutting a little, then putting a shim into the gap to hold it open, so the wood doesn’t “close up” behind the saw. Didn’t seem to make much difference.
Little crescents all along the cut? Those are nearly impossible to avoid with a circular saw. Either the blade is just barely warped or has a tooth just a little more to the side than the others, or there’s a bit of sawdust between the arbor and blade, or the arbor/bearing isn’t as tight as it would be on a good “cabinet” table saw. Whatever the actual cause, the effect is the blade rocks side to side.
You’re stuck with worn/flimsy bearings - it’s a price-point and usability compromise when the saw was designed. Good bearings are apt to be more expensive and heavy than you’d want in a hand-held tool.
The cure for a warped blade/bent tooth is replacement, or attempting to figure out just where it’s bent and attempting to bend it back without making it worse. It’s probably a lot faster to just get a new blade.
Gunk between blade and arbor is easy to manage, at least. Just make sure the two surfaces are clean before assembly.