How To Cut Wide Boards With Miter Saw

There is no claim about which types of saw work best, but the miter saw is one of the most popular choices in DIY projects. That is because it can cut many types of materials and effectively deliver nice cut lines. With heavy stock, a miter saw also can provide good cuts, but with a bit more skills.

So, to get more details on “How to cut wide boards with miter saw,” follow our guide now!

How To Cut Wide Boards With Miter Saw

Here is step by step that can help you handle wide boards:

Step 1: Understand Your Miter Saw

Before the process, you should understand cutting wide and longboards with a miter saw are harder. To explain, you need a heavy-duty cast iron metal frame with an easy rolling system and precise power. Furthermore, those boards need a motor that can drive them directly to deliver good cuts, and a miter saw would help in this case.

Best Miter saw for beginners can help you handle effectively with heavy timber as they are designed for big stuff such as millwork or face-frame stock.

Step 2: Get The Right Blade 

Firstly, you need to have the right blade to start your work correctly. There are two types of blade: negative hook and positive hook, and you can easily recognize the differences between them. 

About the negative ones, they come with tooth-backed angles that come from the blade centerline. So, your scrapping purpose can be created better. Also, negative hook blades have self-refueling features and can make a safer cut which is more helpful.

On the other hand, positive hook blades a vital will ring you aggressive cuts for each cut.

Step 3: Fix and Mark The Boards

It is of vital importance to clap the wide and long woods tightly into the table for stability during the cutting process to have more accurate cuts.

In many cases, if you do not hold the thick plywood in the right position, it can lead to imperfect cutting lines. So, be serious with your work and clamp right to not ruin the whole session.

With a wide and thick board, it is harder to make an even cut.  It would help if you have your measurement correctly. Then, a pencil would help mark the lines that you need to cut, which makes your cuts easier as you just need to follow the marked signs.

Step 4: Make The Cut

Making the cut is the most important part of the whole process. However, if you have prepared well in the previous steps, you just need to slide your motor through the boards and let it eat the wood gradually. Before that, put the blades away at an appropriate distance and start to create force.

Before letting the saw go through all the wood, stop the machine. Because of that, there might be some uncut pieces. However, the blade can run even when the power is off. Just continue to keep the saw moving to the endpoint then it can cut all the rest. And make sure the blades stop completely before lifting the wood out of the machine.

Some Tips To Help You Get A Good Work

Firstly, you need to follow some safety guidelines before the process, such as:

• Wearing earplugs, face shield, and protective gloves 
• The blade guards should be in place all the times
• Your body should be kept at least 6 inches from the equipment
• Remember to turn the miter saw off when adjusting the blades
• Please make sure the blade reaches its maximum speed before start cutting
• Uses a clamp to secure the material firmly in the right place

Secondly, do not try to force the process. You are more likely to have a perfect cut with gradual pushes till the end. Besides, accidents may occur if you try to force your machine.

Thirdly, because cutting lines through a long wood is quite time-consuming and tiring, you should spare some time to stop the miter saw and continue your work after a short while. You can take a short break, and it also helps cool your blades down.

Last but not least, as processing, many pieces of wood with similar lengths are quite intriguing, take advantage of stop blocks. Measure the needed length and clamp the stop block in place. Then, you can cut multiple pieces of wood without any errors simultaneously.

Final Words

That is all about “How to cut wide boards with miter saw.” We hope you can gain more knowledge and confidence to get the best work. Also, do not ignore safety tips because they are very important.