An Easier Way To Cut Sheet Goods

Posted on | November 24, 2008 |

I hate wrestling cumbersome sheets of plywood or MDF onto my table saw. In fact, I’m never going to do it again. Instead of pushing a 4 X 8-foot sheet of plywood through a saw, I now use my circular saw and a guide track. The product I use is the Eurekazone SGS-1 EZ Smart Guide System. I like this system because I don’t have to purchase a proprietary saw and other tools to make it work. It works with the tools I already own.

The track comes in handy 50-inch sections that can be clamped to your work piece without interference. You can connect sections of these tracks together, kind of like Hot Wheels tracks to create a long straight edge.

The system comes with a removable base that affixes to your circular saw and rides the track like a slot car. The base comes with an anti-splintering insert that gives you clean cuts without any tear out. The only drawback to this base is that it limits the depth of your saw cut. While this isn’t a problem when cutting plywood or flooring, it can be a bit of a pain when you need to trim down some doors.

The benefit to this system is that I have a lightweight, extremely portable saw system that cuts stock with the same astonishing accuracy as my table saw. But, after a hard day of making cabinets or built-ins, packing up this saw system is a hell of a lot easier than wrangling a table saw into the back of my truck.

A carpenter friend of mine has this to say about the EZ guide. For more information about the EZ guide please visit Eureka Zone. There are some very good Youtube demos, too.

Category: Products

Comments

3 Responses to “An Easier Way To Cut Sheet Goods”

steve
April 17th, 2009 @ 1:09 am

I like the idea - I was sorry to learn that they only make these guides for LEFT bladed saws - which eliminates a Skil 77 and most if not all worm drives.

I guess they know what they are missing but I’m not sure why they would ignore all us with worm drives.
jk
April 17th, 2009 @ 5:23 am

I use a right bladed sidewinder with my EZ guide.
carpenter
June 30th, 2009 @ 6:30 am

Thanks for the tips, I would also like to know some more information on carpentry.

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I’m a sawdust making, tool buying, work boot wearing kind of guy. When I’m not building something useful, usually for someone else, I’m writing about it for Fine Homebuilding or This Old House. I’ve spent most of my adult life honing my craft and now I want to share what I’ve learned. From tool reviews to how-to this blog will explore a bunch of interesting stuff. So strap on a tool belt or crack a cold one and let’s have some fun.