Father's Day Pop-Up Ads galore, many 'Track Saws' featured, some very expensive.

[bill epstein]

Apparently lost to history:

1) Take a 4' and/or 8' long piece of 1/4" hardboard wide enough to accommodate the width of your $29.95 Skil Saw plus about 6". (see step 3 before beginning)

2) Screw an equal length piece of plywood with a factory edge to the hardboard, flush against the left side with the factory edge to the right. The hardboard should protrude past that edge the width of the shoe plus a few inches.

3) The plywood should be wide enough so that when the left edge of the saw's shoe is against the plywood's right edge, the motor is far enough inside the left edge of the plywood so as to allow clamps at both ends that don't interfere with the motor. Adjust the width (Steps 1&2) accordingly.

4) Now, with the saw shoe tight against the factory plywood edge, cut off the excess hardboard.

The right edge of the hardboard registers on your cut line with the assembly clamped on the workpiece at both ends.

Happy Father's Day!

[mike stenson]

I mean, I can snap a chalk line and follow it too... (with a handsaw or a skillsaw)

[Mike Kees]

Bill that will work ,but it is not the same. You pretty well have to try a tracksaw to appreciate how good they really are. I also do not trust factory edges for straight.

[Jared Sankovich]

If my track saw died today, I'd have a new one tomorrow morning.

[Jim Becker]

Yes, this works with the caveat that there's nothing that keeps the saw from wandering away from the fence and keeping the cut absolutely true. But there's no guarantee that the "factory edge" is actually straight anymore... We all have to balance cost vs functionality/features.

[Matthew Curtis]

Made one with of these for a friend after we worked all day on his house and could have really used one. That was several years ago. He still says every now and then that he uses it often and really appreciates it.

[johnny means]

Apparently lost to history:

Also, forgotten.

[Steve Fish]

I still use a similar set-up for framing or dirty work. The track saw gets the nod for clean cuts in more expensive material or when dust extraction is required. And happy Fathers Day as well

[Jim Dwight]

I had these and used them often before getting a track saw. But I never got the quality of cut I routinely get from my track saw. And as has been pointed out, the saw can wander if you are not careful which is not the case with a track saw. I also use the track to guide a router for long dados. I have rail dogs so I can easily make very accurate crosscuts up to about 28 inches. If I need wider, I will have to carefully put a couple more holes in my bench and will be able to go over 30 inches. It is bench limited, in other words. Circular saws with guides are handy but crude by comparison and have more limited capabilities unless you are very clever with jigs. Said a different way, track saws make table saw quality cuts. In my experience, circular saws do not.

[Jamie Buxton]

I'm more positive than most of you about the OP's approach. I made and used my own jig of this sort for many years before I bought a formal track saw. I'd say a well-built shop-built version offers 90% of the functionality for 10% of the cost.
Tips about building your own...
Tune the saw so that edge of the shoe is parallel to the blade. This may take bending or filing of metal.
Make the reference straight edge really straight. The factory edge of a piece of plywood may be good enough, but maybe not.
If you can, use a saw which you can attach a vacuum to. Mine was from Porter Cable.
It is true that the saw can just wander away from the straight edge. So pay attention!

[Jim Becker]

I don't believe that I'm not positive about the OP's technique to create a saw guide...it's a time tested method that does work. But I do differentiate it from a "track saw" for the reasons I mentioned in my previous post, the biggest part of that being that the track has more effect on how the saw moves than the simple guide does. That can make a difference in the cut quality, especially when things are physically awkward for the saw operator. The trade-off is clearly the cost of investment.

[Jim Dwight]

I guess it depends on what you are trying to do. If you only want to break down sheet goods so you can more easily make the final cuts on a table saw, then a guided circular saw works well. I used one for that for decades. But if I tried to make final cuts that way, I had accuracy and cut quality issues I do not have with my track saw. I also made some right angle cut guides but found them to be not very accurate, possibly due to my construction but I think due more to the difficulty of both holding the jig in position and guiding the saw to be up against the saw guide. I would not even consider preparing the edge of a long board for glueup with a guided circular saw but I do it all the time with my track saw. I would say a guided circular saw does about 10% of what I do with a track saw. It is easy to make a good cut with a track saw. It is difficult at best to make a similar cut with a circular saw. They are just different tools.

One issue with what I sometimes call "shoot boards" is the edge that marks where the blade cuts gets cut away, especially if you are fighting to keep the saw on the other edge. Then you don't know exactly where the saw will cut. You know within a sixteenth or so but I need better accuracy than that. The fighting the saw doesn't happen with a track saw but the soft plastic edge still gets chewed off over time but it is replacable. It is also fairly easy to make a jig to position the track to make the exact cut you need by indexing off the guide protrusion of the track. Then you are not dependant on placing the soft edge of the track on the cut mark. How are you going to simulate use of rail dogs, long posts on the track to go in 20mm holes in the worktop, for cross cuts with a circular saw? It would be possible to set up a shoot board for this but you better be having a really good day when you do it. Anybody can screw a rail dog into a track.

I believe the simple truth is that circular saws are construction tools that work well for relatively crude cuts. I believe you have to be very talented and determined to use them for finish cuts in furniture. By contrast, track saws can be used for crude cuts but excel at furniture level accuracy.