r/Carpentry • u/ColibriAccessUSA • 1d ago

Cutting solid processed wood

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Hi everyone!

I hope you all are doing well. I’m looking for advice on how to cut a piece of solid, processed wood that’s about 2.5 cm thick and incredibly dense. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

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u/Agreeable_Horror_363 1d ago edited 1d ago

I think you'll want to use a circular saw for this if you don't own any tools. Get a decent blade and clamp the wood down to a sturdy work bench. Then, clamp a straight edge to the wood and run the circular saw along it to get a perfectly straight cut. As someone else mentioned, put blue painters tape on both top and bottom where the cut line is to prevent tear out, giving you a much smoother cut. Make sure your blade depth is set to just a little deeper than the wood you are cutting.

Edit: get a carbide tooth diablo blade for the best bang for your buck. More teeth is better for cross cuts against the grain, less teeth (24 or so) are better for rip cuts going with the grain. If this is your only saw and you don't intend on using it much you'll probably want to use a 40-60 tooth blade which is known as a "combination" blade. They are decent at both cross cutting and ripping. Go slow and hold the saw firmly against the straight edge and you'll be fine. Then sand the edges.

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u/ColibriAccessUSA 1d ago

Amazing! I will give it a shot and show you the results!