Trimming Doors - Circular Saw vs Power Planer

thescouselander

I've got a load of new doors to fit as we're doing up the downstairs of the house. I need to trim around 5mm of each end of every door and for the first one I used a power planer but this seemed to take a lot of passes and a long time. I'm now thinking it might be better to use a circular saw but I'm not sure how well the doors will take this as they're the hollow sort from one of the sheds.

Does anyone know if a circular saw will be ok to use?

sk240

a power planer should rip through a door in seconds, my Ryobi one can do upto 3mm per cut.
I think a circular saw may just rip the door apart.

pmartin86

I think you would struggle to get a circular saw to cut off 5mm without being extermly accurate, id guess that most blades arent far off 5mm. if your power planer is taking so many passes to remove such a small amount, id suggest its either not working proprly or not configured properly, I have a hand planer that can easily take off 1-2mm per pass without too much grunting and swearing...

Gloomendoom

I use a tenon saw.

I tried trimming one of those hollow doors with a borrowed power planer and ended up having to replace the blades after they got smashed up hitting nails.

elver_man

When i trim the bottom of a door I either use a power planer for small amounts or if I need to take off a larger amount I use a hand saw and finish with a power planer. Call me old fashioned but I find using a hand saw more accurate and less destructive,


I am not planning doors all the time, just as part of house refurbs or for the odd customer and then its usually 5 or 6 doors at a time. but it doesn't take long.


However you say it takes a lot of passes and takes a long time using your planer, it cant take more than a few minutes if the planer is set up correctly with sharp blades and a reasonable cutting depth. Unless your using a cheap planner about 500W with a max cutting depth of 1 - 1.5mm that's struggling to cope.

krey

planer yes,
however I usually do this with a good sharp straight handsaw, much more precise and way less mess.

thescouselander

My planer is only a cheap one and can really only take off about 1.5 mm for each pass. I reckon I could make the cut with the required accuracy with the circular saw but maybe a handsaw would be a good idea. Maybe I'll try both methods on one of the old doors.

MX5huggy

I'm going to go against the grain.

Using a brand new high tooth count circular saw blade. Clamp a straight edge (long level or a piece of wood) across the door exactly the distance from outside of the blade tooth to the edge of the saw. One pass job done.

This simplifies it further https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=R3pQplY3qIA

Norman_Castle

thescouselander wrote: »

My planer is only a cheap one and can really only take off about 1.5 mm for each pass.

If you're taking 5mm off thats only three passes. If the planer slows down noticeably reduce the depth of cut. Check the blades are sharp. Some are reversible.

Circular saws are fine for this but I don't find cheaper ones accurate enough and they can tear the surface.

thescouselander

MX5huggy wrote: »

I'm going to go against the grain.

Using a brand new high tooth count circular saw blade. Clamp a straight edge (long level or a piece of wood) across the door exactly the distance from outside of the blade tooth to the edge of the saw. One pass job done.

This simplifies it further https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=R3pQplY3qIA

Yes, this is exactly what I was thinking of doing. 1 pass, and a nice straight cut. Seems less messing about on the face of it.

Jonesya

I've trimmed a few hollow doors with a rail saw (plunging circular saw that runs along a metal rail) no major issues other than needing to watch out for nails/staples and if taking a lot of material off taking care about the internal support timber.

If you're buying a circular saw, might want to look at the rail saws - most of them have a plunge action so you can do cuts of different depths, letting you do a shallow cut to score the surface first, before doing the full depth cut to help reduce breakout. Plus I think they're safer with the blade kept out of the way.