Review: Swanson's portable cutting guide

I’m just throwing it out there: I’m kind of frugal. I’ve spent several weekends milling craftsman style trim to specific dimensions in my back yard out of inexpensive pieces of poplar and MDF sheets instead of buying finished 1x material.

To get the straight lines typical of craftsman interiors I had to rip eight foot long sheets of 1/2-3/4-inch thick MDF. The fastest and safety way to do this is with a circular saw and a cutting guide. I picked up Swanson’s CG100 cutting guide at Lowe’s for about $20, because it was longer than my previous straight edge—a 6 foot level that I’d clam to the work surface.

The system consists of two 50-inch long, 2-inch wide, 1/4-inch tall aluminum sticks that are joined together with a short spleen and screws. The kit includes C-clamps with a 2-inch thick throat to secure the guide to the work. The set up was a snap.

The system worked well enough on the MDF, but on a few key pieces I took to time to add tack a few finish nails to a scrap piece of plywood behind the joint to reinforce it. The set up is easy and the results are much more accurate than you would get free hand (even with a laser), or using a 2x4 as a guide but obviously not as accurate as high end plunge saw systems. Storage is not an issue either with two slim pieces to lean against the wall. Too bad Swanson doesn’t have plans to make a 100-inch long section out of one piece of aluminum.