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Hello Mitch & Eric, I bought 2 x slabs of pine for my L shaped benchtop for my pantry (2100 x 900 x 30). I cut it them down to around 1300 x 630 with circular saw, clamps and guide with help of trusty neighbour, however I've just put them in place and one benchtop is 3mm too long, thr other is OK but doesn't quite fit as not 'quite' square at end. I'm not confident taking thr circular saw to such a tiny excess would be successful. My grandad was a Master carpenter in the city of a 1000 trades, and I'm pretty sure he'd have whipped out his plane to take these few mm's off and straighten up the end. I have an old plane, but it just takes chunks out of things! SO...how do I take a couple of mm's off the ends, and why don't we see planes used today?
You'd likely need to trim the end with the circular saw again, @ezzie. It's the same as cutting it to size, so use the straight edge again. The majority of the base plate of the saw will be travelling on the benchtop, so it's not much more difficult than a standard cut. Cut from the side that places the whole base plate on the timber, not from the side that allows only a small portion to be on the timber.
People still use planes, but with the advancement of trimming and finishing blades, it is just easier now to get a good finish to your cut. Unfortunately, we sometimes need to re-trim an end. It happened to me hundreds of times before.
Please let me know if you have questions.
Mitchell
