what's going on everybody I'm Johnny
Brook welcome back another crafter
workshop video today I'm bringing you my
first kind of quick tip video so this
isn't a full-on project but I felt like
it deserved its own video just to kind
of explain a technique a little further
so I'm in the midst of working on this
DIY plywood couch and I want to be able
to build it without a table saw because
I know a lot of people don't have access
to table saws and I want to basically
turn this circular saw into what is
essentially a track saw so you've
probably seen this technique in other
videos it's certainly not my original
concept but I figured I was gonna make
one anyway why not get some footage of
it what you'll need is basically some
off cuts of plywood most people will
have a couple different sized tracks one
that's long enough to cut a full-length
sheet of plywood vertically another one
that's kind of shorter usually in the 50
ish inch range to cut a sheet of plywood
horizontally and then one that maybe is
even shorter or something around the 30
inch range for doing some smaller cross
cuts so what I have here is a scrap of
3/4 inch plywood this is a full length
96 inches it's about seven and a half
inches wide
I've also got an offer cut of a piece of
quarter-inch plywood again full length
and about 20 inches wide so I'm not
gonna need all of this material I'm
gonna rip both of these down on the
table saw and you might be saying it's
kind of ridiculous to use the table saw
to build a project that's trying to make
you avoid a table saw but you can just
have your local Home Center do it for
you they have a panel saw there that is
awesome and ripping plywood so you know
leverage that free skill and get them to
make the cuts for you so what we're
gonna need to do is essentially rip this
piece of 3/4 inch to around 5 inches
just enough to basically clear the motor
here on the saw so we have room to clamp
this down when we're making cuts and
then we're gonna rip this piece of
quarter-inch plywood to be wide enough
to have room to glue down this 3/4 inch
plywood and have a little bit of
overhang so that we can actually cut it
flush with the circular saw itself which
is what will create the zero clearance
functionality so let's go ahead and move
over to the table saw and make our rip
cuts
the exact size of the pieces for your
straightedge jig will really depend on
the model of circular saw you'll be
using but I think about five inches wide
for the three-quarter inch piece of
plywood and ten inches wide for the
quarter inch piece of plywood are a good
starting point after ripping the two
pieces to width and the next step was to
glue the two pieces together to hold the
pieces together while the glue dried I
added some three-quarter inch Brad nails
from the bottom of the guide and then
came back and added some 3/4 inch screws
keeping things perfectly square here it
doesn't really matter much just keep the
edges of the two pieces aligned as well
as you can it's important to countersink
the screws so the heads are below the
surface of the plywood also make sure to
add the screws and nails from the bottom
of the guide since the quarter-inch
plywood doesn't have much depth to
create a good hold
after letting the glue dry for about an
hour I came back and trimmed the guide
on the miter saw again keeping things
square doesn't really matter here since
the only reference surface on this guide
is the inside edge of the three-quarter
inch plywood if you don't have a miter
saw you can make this cut with your
circular saw and a speed square I cut
each in square and then cut the guide
into two pieces one at roughly 59 inches
long and one at roughly 36 inches long
and these are two really useful sizes
since the 59 inch guide is long enough
to cross cut a full sheet of plywood or
other sheet goods and the 36 inch guide
is good for shorter cross cuts to make
this guide work as a zero clearance jig
I needed to trim the quarter inch ply
with the size so I set the depth on my
circular saw to just go through the
plywood and then ran the saw along the
edge of the 3/4 inch plywood I made the
cut on top of some one-inch foam
insulation and this is a great way to
protect whatever surface you're working
on a piece like this only costs around
$20 at your local home center and is
almost infinitely reusable once I made
the cut I just double check the width
that each in to make sure I didn't let
the saw move from the fence at any point
and it looks good
and with that confirmed the guide was
done all right without the circular saw
straight edge is pretty much complete
are there a few other things you can add
one would be some sort of fence here
that would be perfectly 90 degrees to
the rest of the track so you can
basically just hook it up against the
sheet of plywood or whatever kind of
sheet good you're ripping and no you
have a nice square of reference on this
line wood sofa project I'm actually
gonna be cutting some angles so I'm not
gonna add a fence to mine having one of
these kind of drywall tea squares is
super super useful you can but that up
against the sheets and then but the
guide up against this and these only
cost like 10 bucks or something like
that hopefully you guys enjoyed this one
nice and simple the plywood project will
be out on Tuesday so stay tuned for that
if it's already out I'll add a card in
case you're watching this in the future
you can go see this thing in action
thanks again for watching guys if you
don't already go and get subscribed I
put out new project videos every Tuesday
also have a list of all the tools and
materials I used in the video
description below and until next week
happy building guess