A Track Saw or Plunge Saw is an extremely useful power tool in the workshop or on the job site. As both names suggest, it rides along a track with the grooves in the base plate to create an accurate straight cut, and plunges into the work piece with the ability to control depth accurately, meaning you could cut long dadoes, rabbets & grooves in a work piece.
You can buy the saw unit individually with many of the top brands - the cheapest decent unit I’ve seen is around £370, but I’d advise buying a kit including the tracks (at least 2 with a joining bar) & additional batteries. They are a real upgrade on a normal circular saw (which still has a significant place in the toolkit), and they excel when ripping & cutting sheets, including 8’x4’ boards along the middle (by using 2 tracks with a joining bar). Dewalt, Makita, Bosch & Festool all have popular versions, but the awesome 54v 6ah batteries I got with this Dewalt kit are a no brainer for me, as they run on all my other yellow tools, significantly extending run time!
This unit has a great 55m cutting depth, a 47 deg bevel angle & can cut 75m+ of plywood before needing a charge! It’s got the performance of a mains powered tool, but without the wires, whcih make it the ideal jobsite saw, but equally as productive in the workshop for cabinetry work
KEY FEATURES
High power, high torque brushless motor
Variable speed for cutting wide range of materials
The enclosed guard gives a 90% dust extraction capability
The anti kickback function stops the saw from moving backwards along the rail and helps stop the saw from climbing out of the work piece when making plunge cuts
SPECIFICATIONS
2 Batteries Included 6.0 Ah, 54v
Cordless
165mm Blade Diameter, 20mm Bore Size
5.5kg nett weight
Sound level 93.2 dB(A) [2.9 dB]
Max Cut Depth at 90 deg 55mm (with rails, 59mm without)
Max Cut Depth at 45 deg 4omm (with rails, 44mm without)
Blade Speed 1,750-5,000 rpm
42-tooth precision saw blade
T-STAK case
DCB118 charger
2x 1.5m guide rail, plus joining bar
Rating - Industrial
What I like…
It runs forever! I’m using it mainly to rip down 3/4” plywood for cabinetry & worktops - no performance loss on 6 sheets of baltic birch plywood in one session
It’s got a small footprint in the tool cupboard & the box its really well organised for batteries, chargers etc
Its very accurate & makes very clean cuts with the 42-tooth blade
I used it to bevel the ends of a hardwood live edge slab - the cut was so clean it hardly needed sanding!
Dust extraction port works with my Festool Midi - very useful!
What I didn’t like…
The charger is almost louder than the unit! Sounds like its going to take-off, but for the power I’ll accept a noisy charger - reasonable quick charging time to be fair!
The joining bar is a tad fiddly, and not supplied with an allan key to lock in place
One to see how it holds up for the future, but the adjustment knobs for the plunge depth & angle don’t seem the greatest quality compared to the rest of the unit & I’m sligthly worried about their longevity with heavy use - fine at the moment though