Saws

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Jan, the right saw for cutting the circles is the jigsaw. If you will learn to use the circular saw, that can be an easy way to make straight cuts on the plywood. I'll tell you an easier and safer way. The circular saw will handle the 4x4 as well.

For what you want to cut, the table saw can be as intimidating as the circular saw. Big sheets of plywood and large timbers are tough on that too. One way to do the plywood is to buy a sheet of 1" thick styrofoam at your home center and use this for a cutting surface for your plywood. Lay the plywood on top of the foam, set the depth-of-cut for the blade to just go thru the plywood, and if you want, get one of the cutting guide clamps that let you make long, straight cuts with the circular saw. You can climb up on the foam to follow the saw so you can see that you are making a straight cut and, since you don't have that much blade exposed, it might seem safer and easier for you to handle. Having a good sharp blade with many carbide teeth makes cutting the plywood easier and more pleasant also. The blade that comes with the saw might not be the best for your needs.

The 4x4 can be very tough and intimidating to cut on a table saw. If you have to just cut a little off a long piece, lay the 4x4 on some kind of table and clamp it so the wood doesn't move around. That way, you are only concerned about keeping the saw in the right relationship to what you want to cut and not trying to keep track of both of them. If you have saw horses, you can use them but, again, clamp the 4x4 to at least one saw horse.

I do have a table saw and use it mostly for cutting short pieces and for making special cuts like rabbets and miters. My favorite saw accessory is a drill press that I have set up for sanding those cuts with a scroll saw or jig saw to get the part right up to the line. You can buy a drill press for $50 and spend another $20 for the parts to do the sanding and end up with something really useful. I have even set mine up to run as a jointer for sanding one edge of a board really flat.

Henry in MI