Chop Saw or Mitre Saw For Skirtings?

Chop Saw or Mitre Saw For Skirtings?

Author
Discussion

tleefox

Original Poster:

1,110 posts

147 months

Friday 17th April 2015
quotequote all
I want to teach myself how to fit skirting boards to save a few £ on a house refurb - I'm pretty good at general DIY but would probably only ever use this saw for doing skirtings.

Does getting a mitre saw make it much easier?

Jasandjules

69,825 posts

228 months

Friday 17th April 2015
quotequote all
Oh yes. It took me seconds to do a fair bit. Place skirting across wall, mark, cut. Also for doing laminate flooring it is so much easier. I got a Rage 3. Love it.

stevensdrs

3,208 posts

199 months

Friday 17th April 2015
quotequote all
Hand mitre saws are quite good for skirting and will give a good clean finish to the cut for not much outlay.
£28 in leading tool supplier. The Rage 3 at £99 will do the job quicker but the finish might not be as good.

Pheo

3,324 posts

201 months

Friday 17th April 2015
quotequote all
I'm trying to find a finer blade for my Rage saw for skirting. Getting a bit of split-out on the cut.

Simpo Two

85,149 posts

264 months

Friday 17th April 2015
quotequote all
tleefox said:
I want to teach myself how to fit skirting boards to save a few £ on a house refurb - I'm pretty good at general DIY but would probably only ever use this saw for doing skirtings.

Does getting a mitre saw make it much easier?
If your skirting is deep you might need a sliding one to get through in one go.

allegro

1,132 posts

203 months

Friday 17th April 2015
quotequote all
Mitre saw for external mitres, scribed butt joints for internal mitres

Simpo Two

85,149 posts

264 months

Friday 17th April 2015
quotequote all
Unless the profile is very plain you'll need a coping saw as well then.

Is there any advantage in doing it that way?

stuart313

740 posts

112 months

Friday 17th April 2015
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You need a compound saw, I think? the one that tilts over to 45 deg as opposed to the the one that just pivots round the base whilst the blade remains upright. I got a brilliant one from toolstation for about £170. this was in the days before every tom dhead and harry used the place.

LeadFarmer

7,411 posts

130 months

Friday 17th April 2015
quotequote all
As posted above, if your skirting has any kind of profile you will only be able to cut the external joints with those saws. The internal joints just butt up to each other, with the profile bit needing to be scribed.

wolfracesonic

6,940 posts

126 months

Saturday 18th April 2015
quotequote all
Electric mitre saw every time. If you buy a lower range one investing in a better quality blade with more teeth would be wise, as stated above.
The beauty of the electric ones over the old Nobex type is the ability to shave a few thou' of the timber in the extremely unlikely event you cut something too longsmile You'll also need a coping saw for the internal corners and I find one of these useful for fettling the scribe cuts round wood rasp

AMD1

342 posts

185 months

Saturday 18th April 2015
quotequote all
If you are fitting 150mm wide skirtings, Buy a compound sliding saw. Evolution from Screwfix for £100 or so and you will be cutting like a pro.

Not too difficult to fit skirting, but if the mitres and scribing for external and internal joins are not good, it will be a disaster and a waste of timber. And also, buy some Mitre Bond adhesive.

tleefox

Original Poster:

1,110 posts

147 months

Saturday 18th April 2015
quotequote all
Cheers guys.

So would one of these do the internal & external angles;

http://m.screwfix.com/p/evolution-rage3-s-210mm-sl...

alock

4,224 posts

210 months

Saturday 18th April 2015
quotequote all
tleefox said:
Cheers guys.

So would one of these do the internal & external angles;

http://m.screwfix.com/p/evolution-rage3-s-210mm-sl...
Internal angles need to be scribed instead but the easiest way to do this is to cut a mitre and use that as your scribe line for the profile. Lots of videos online show how to do this.
The reason you don't want an internal mitre is that it doesn't hide expansion joints very well. A scribe joint that opens up by 1mm is much more subtle than a mitre joint.

AMD1

342 posts

185 months

Saturday 18th April 2015
quotequote all
That's the one. Buy that and a coping saw to cut the scribes and some Mitre bond and you have everything apart from fixings which will depend on the wall surface.

The compound saw will be useful for many other DIY tasks.

HaplessBoyLard

1,546 posts

187 months

Saturday 18th April 2015
quotequote all
I've got the fury version of the evolution saw linked above. I love it and have used it loads but to get a finer tooth blade to fit you're going to need an adapter for the bore. Most blades I've seen use a 30mm bore but evolution are 1".

Evolution do a wood blade but it doesn't look very fine cutting to me.

wolfracesonic

6,940 posts

126 months

Saturday 18th April 2015
quotequote all
^ Here you go if you get the Rage and need a finer sawblade abor reducing ring and fine tooth mitre saw blade negative rake crosscut bade or better yet, spring for one of these, they've been around for years, Noah used one on the Ark. They take standard 30mm blades as well Dewalt mitre saw

DoubleByte

1,239 posts

265 months

Saturday 18th April 2015
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I find it useful to use a mitre saw one on of the internal boards as it gives you a perfect edge to follow when cutting the profile.

CoolHands

18,496 posts

194 months

Saturday 18th April 2015
quotequote all
Ahhh the hours of fun I had doing the skirting of a room....smile It's quite satisfying when it's all done though. (No corner on that pillar was 90 degree before you criticise!)





As above I used a sliding compound saw as well as a coping saw from screwfix http://www.screwfix.com/p/forge-steel-coping-saw-6...

tleefox

Original Poster:

1,110 posts

147 months

Monday 20th April 2015
quotequote all
CoolHands said:
Ahhh the hours of fun I had doing the skirting of a room....smile It's quite satisfying when it's all done though. (No corner on that pillar was 90 degree before you criticise!)





As above I used a sliding compound saw as well as a coping saw from screwfix http://www.screwfix.com/p/forge-steel-coping-saw-6...
They look good to me, obvious gaps because of the wall aside.

Andy 308GTB

2,918 posts

220 months

Wednesday 10th March 2021
quotequote all
Sorry for bringing this thread back from the dead...

I'm about to buy an Evolution Rage 4 Chop Saw (Screwfix £99 https://www.screwfix.com/p/evolution-rage4-1250w-1... for a number of garden projects - decking type stuff. But before I pull the trigger, I wanted to check that it will do mitres on 4" or 6" skirting board.

I'm wondering if I would be better off spending an extra £20 and getting a Sliding Compound Mitre Saw, as this wil surely cut square too?
https://www.screwfix.com/p/evolution-r210sms-210mm...