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DeWalt Track saw?

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tadg

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Joined
Apr 10, 2009
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16
Location
San Diego, CA
I bought one to build a 10' high wall full of bookshelves, it did a great job ripping plywood, way easier to move the saw than to move the sheet over a tablesaw. Since then I seem to use it anytime I am concerned about getting a really straight cut. You can find endless debates on the web on Makita vs Festool vs Dewalt, but I think any of them would work great.

I bought the combo kit (saw, 59" and 102" tracks) from Amazon and it took 3 tries to get it home, it shipped via a trucking company because of the length. The first attempt was saw only, 2nd was saw plus bent track, 3rd time all three boxes were in good shape.

Get the clamps that slide in the track, DWS5026, they are overpriced but really useful to hold the track in place.

Tad
 
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zkling

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Jan 23, 2007
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Looks like DeWalt was tired of Festool hogging the market. :lol_hitti
 
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Zeke

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Aug 13, 2009
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Location
Long Beach CA, the sewer by the sea.
I wouldn't buy a dedicate saw motor for this. There are many kits available that will transform your existing saw into one that is guided. Often you can use a router with the same systems. I think you will pay a lot less. Just Google saw guides.
 
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zer0cell

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Aug 25, 2010
Messages
1,325
tadg said:
I bought one to build a 10' high wall full of bookshelves, it did a great job ripping plywood, way easier to move the saw than to move the sheet over a tablesaw. Since then I seem to use it anytime I am concerned about getting a really straight cut. You can find endless debates on the web on Makita vs Festool vs Dewalt, but I think any of them would work great.

I bought the combo kit (saw, 59" and 102" tracks) from Amazon and it took 3 tries to get it home, it shipped via a trucking company because of the length. The first attempt was saw only, 2nd was saw plus bent track, 3rd time all three boxes were in good shape.

Get the clamps that slide in the track, DWS5026, they are overpriced but really useful to hold the track in place.

Tad
Click to expand...

Thanks for your input. I have a huge project coming up and thought it would help. Heck, I could even resell it on amazon for maybe -$100 and the logic is that it would be worth the 'rental' because of the time savings/increased accuracy. Yes, I looked at festool first but at about 1/2 the price the dewalt is tempting on my more modest budget. Hopefully when I decide to pull the trigger I will have better luck than you did with the shipping!
 
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zer0cell

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Zeke said:
I wouldn't buy a dedicate saw motor for this. There are many kits available that will transform your existing saw into one that is guided. Often you can use a router with the same systems. I think you will pay a lot less. Just Google saw guides.
Click to expand...

Interesting point... I will do some research in this area first...
 
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Lawson4450

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Apr 2, 2010
Messages
419
Location
somerset NJ
Grizzly just came out with a lot cheaper then dewalts.. I saw there at the store a couple of weeks ago and almost bought it.
 
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theoldwizard1

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Feb 22, 2011
Messages
43,106
Location
SE MI
Zeke said:
I wouldn't buy a dedicate saw motor for this. There are many kits available that will transform your existing saw into one that is guided. Often you can use a router with the same systems. I think you will pay a lot less. Just Google saw guides.
Click to expand...

Better yet, go to YouTube and enter saw guides. Lots of home made ones if you have a friend with a table saw.

And. like Zeke said, don't buy a dedicated saw motor !
 
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Fizbin

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Jan 11, 2012
Messages
150
zer0cell said:
That's about half price of the Dewalt! I wonder how it compares since it has no reviews yet...

If anyone buys it, I'd love to hear about it.
Click to expand...

There's a whole thread on it over at SawMill Creek. That should lay to rest any questions you have about it. ;)
 
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RKA

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NJ
I haven't used the dewalt specifically, but I had the Festool and recently got a Mafell. I love them! Small differences differentiate them, but I love throwing the track on my cut line and cutting, no calculating offsets. The track never moves, cuts are straight as can be and splinter free. If I need to join to boards, I lay them against one another, rip a line down the center and they match perfectly. Aftermarket accessories are available that allow me to set it up for rip cuts. It doesn't match the speed of a table saw, but once set up, it does. Look into similar accessories for the dewalt tracks. Dust collection is huge for me. It allows me to work indoors with the saw without creating a mess and frankly, I'm tired of breathing and wearing saw dust. The dewalt has a dust extraction port. Lay down foam board for support and it will improve the dust extraction as well. This is one area where a circular saw and jig can not match a track saw.

The tracks can be expensive (haven't looked into dewalt specifically) and look at the mechanism for joining tracks if you expect to do this frequently. You need those rails dead straight. Some tracks are fussy to get lined up just right.
 
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Monte

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Dec 23, 2008
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Location
Germany
btw. Bosch offers a track saw too, not yet released in the US afaik but i bet it will come....Made by Mafell in Germany for Bosch...
813776_BB_00_FB.EPS_1000.jpg
 
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zer0cell

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I wish I could afford the festool one, but at $700 + accessories its out of my budget currently.
 
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tadg

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Apr 10, 2009
Messages
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Location
San Diego, CA
zer0cell said:
Interesting point... I will do some research in this area first...
Click to expand...

I started with a PSI saw guide system which was basically a beefy aluminum L extrusions and a steel plate that you clamped onto your existing circular saw, and it did work nicely once you got it all set up and aligned with the saw, the dedicated track saw works so much easier and faster it isn't really a contest. If you weren't using the track the plate was in the way but you didn't want to take it off because it would take 20 minutes to line it back up and clamp it down.

The way the Dewalt or Festool tracks line up with the cut means that alignment is trivial.

Plus the tracksaw on its own is a pretty nice circular saw, with soft start and a riving knife, you could take dedicate your existing saw to framing and outside work and this becomes your indoor / precision saw.

Tad
 
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RKA

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Location
NJ
acer66 said:
How does the Festool compare to the Mafell?
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Too soon for a hands on review. The mafell just got delivered last week. On paper, it has more power 1400w vs. 1200) and has thinner kerf blades (1.8 vs 2.2). Its also significantly more $. The other differences are minor in my view. For my purposes, I suspect I will be equally impressed with the mafell. The festool was returned under an impending recall. I had waited almost 2 mos. for the fix for a blade that wouldn't retract reliably and finally lost patience. To festool's credit, they offered a full refund or exchange for their larger track saw if I didn't want to wait for the fix. Were it not for this issue I would have been happy to keep the festool. I still plan to use their rails since I'm already invested. Unfortunately this means the depth settings and bevel cuts will need to be offset because the festool track is a different height than the Bosch/Mafell tracks.
 
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Monte

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Dec 23, 2008
Messages
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Location
Germany
TheGrooveking said:
Monte, thank you very much, as soon as its released in the US it will be mine

TheGrooveking
Click to expand...

here a video of the saw:

<iframe width="853" height="480" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/DctLWuScX10" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
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