there's at least two different methods used
to cut notches with a circular saw one method producing more of a fast rough notch while the
other a more slower cleaner notch today I'm going to show you both methods so that you can
understand the techniques first and then we're going to show you six cool joints that you can
make using those methods to make a rough notch let's start by laying out and marking first
location on the face of the material I like to use a speed square to do that quickly next
mark out the desired depth of the notch which is marked on the edge of the material to set the
blade to the proper depth for the notch loosen the circular saw blade plate and while holding the
blade guard up raise or lower the base plate until the tip of the blade covers the pencil mark the
first cut will be along the right pencil line and if we're thinking about a rough cut here it's not
a bad idea to cut outside of line to ensure that the notch is larger than we need the next cut is
along the left pencil line over cutting slightly just as before with the notch roughed out to the
proper width make a series of cuts every quarter to three eighths of an inch between the two
previous cuts be careful to make full complete passes with each cut because the tendency is to
lift the saw too early towards the end of the cut leaving an uneven jagged notch this is really not
that big of a deal especially when we're making a rough cut here but it does help to make the depth
of the knotch more consistent as a side note if you're using pressure-treated lumber like what's
used on decks or outside projects you might want to make your series of cuts a lot closer than
say that quarter to three eighths of an inch PT lumber is wet therefore the wood fibers don't like
the shear off as nicely and cleanly as the dried lumber that I'm using in this video with the cuts
all made the next step is to use the claw of your hammer to start breaking the pieces free you can
continue to refine your knots by using the claw to chip away at the remaining material until you're
happy with what you see there is another way to refine the notch and that's using the circular saw
blade in order to do that hold the blade guard up while at the same time placing the shoe of the
saw on the remaining material on either side of the notch what this allows you to do is slide the
saw from side to side while the blade is running as you can see it cleans out the remaining
material very quickly however you want to use extra caution while doing this because the blade
guard is up and if your notches wider than the shoe of the saw it could drop down into the knotch
creating a potential for kickback this method that I just showed you that's rough and fast is gonna
be used mostly for rough framing especially when the knotch won't be seen all right let's move
on to talk about the second method which is a bit slower but produces a cleaner notch to start I
would recommend changing out the current saw blade for a 60 to finish blade this is not completely
necessary but I found that it does help to produce a cleaner cut as before lay out and mark the notch
location on the face of the material to layout for the depth set a combination Square to your desired
measurement and then mark the entire width of the notch you can use the same method as before to set
the blade depth but this time set the blade just above the pencil line to keep the cut as straight
as possible use the edge of a speed square to guide the shoe of the saw along the cut line and
unlike before where we over cut the line slightly this time slightly undercut the line knowing that
we may need to go back and widen a notch after the first test fit after that's complete make the
same series of cuts as before but make them a little bit closer this time more like an eighth of
an inch or even less once complete use the hammer and not the claw side to break the pieces free
the only reason why I recommend using the hammer side and not the claw side is because you're less
likely to do damage with a blunt object than with a sharp object as you can see after making a bunch
of eighth inch cuts once everything is chipped out the bottom of the notch is looking pretty good
from there refining can be done again with a saw blade but the best option would be to use a sharp
chisel slowly cut away any high spots shaping the joint until everything is flat into the pencil
line so this slower notching method be used more on things that I'll call finished framing like
decks porches pergolas and fences now that you got the basics down let's look at six different
types of joints that could be cut using these methods the first joint is a half lap splice joint
this joint is made by removing half the thickness of the material plus the width of the material
splice joints are mainly used to connect two pieces of material together to make one longer
piece another way to use this joint is to turn the two pieces and make a 90 degree angle this is
a great option instead of using mitered 45 degree angles the next joint is a through dado this
joint is made by removing the exact dimensions of the material in which it's being joined to a
through data runs the entire length or width of the material and its depth can vary depending on
building conditions this joint can be used this way or flipped over like this it can also be used
on the flat maybe for a floor or top of a pergola the third joint is similar to the through dado but
this one is cut on the edge of the material this type of joint can be used for setting flush
Ledger's and ledges are used to attach new structures like decks or floors to an existing
wall I built a few houses using this type of joint to hang the second floor joists the fourth
joint is a mid span half lap this joint utilizes two separate joint styles a half lap and a through
dado but this time the depth of the dado has to be half the thickness of the material in order to
get the joint to fit as the name suggests this joint can be used to connect members that are 90
degrees to each other the next joint is the edge cross lap similar to the ledger cut this joint is
made by removing half the material from each piece and by removing the thickness of the material this
joint can be used on heavy-duty latticework top of pergolas really anything your mind can think of
the last joint is another cross slab joint but this time it's a flat cross lap meaning the two
intersecting pieces cross on the flat side of the material these intersecting angles can vary
it just all depends on your specific application this type of joint works great for cross bracing
like what you see here on my kids Playhouse now of course there are many different joints out there
in a million different ways to cut them so let me know in the comments what joints you like and how
you like to cut them I hope you learned something today thanks for joining me in supporting
training hands Academy I'll see everybody soon
