For the gazebo I built, you can get by with a couple of decent hand saws and a 7 1/4″ circular saw. However, if you plan to make a living at timber framing or are just timber framing a single house with lots of timbers that need cutting, there is a larger circular saw available that can really save a lot of time. The Makita Beam Saw (a 16-5/16 inch circular saw) is designed for cutting beams. It will cut a 6″ beam in one pass.
It looks like a monster of a saw.
Here it is in use. It is funny to note that it didn’t quite make it all the way through that beam.
And one more view of it in action with a jig for beam cutting. A saw this large can be hard to steer and keep from binding, so a jig like this would increase both the quality of the cuts and the safety of the operation.
I have this saw & it is great, but for occasional users, it would be much better to have a friend that you can borrow one from.
Thanks for the videos!
Quin
Hi Quin, Absolutely it is too much saw for occasional use. Borrowing one is good, or if you are only doing a relatively small project, a buck saw with a wooden frame works pretty well.