JerryNY

There's ALWAYS a reason to have a circular saw in the office. If you take the blade guard off it makes an excellent letter and package opener not to mention digit remover?

I guess you could put a 5-1/2" blade on and it would take care of that. The Diablo blade I have on it is 5-3/8 but they so make a 5-1/2" which would prob give the fraction of an inch more depth needed to avoid this problem. Like I said it's just a a scrap cutter for me. I wouldn't call it a joke. I certainly got my money's worth out of the kit it came from like a decade and a half ago. All the tools except the drill still work fine the batteries sucked but all nicads kinda sucked from that era...

The little old Ryobi most of the time gets through a 2x4 but oddly does occasionally just miss and leave a tiny bit uncut. I wonder if it's warped wood or swelled or something making it slightly thicker. I noticed it did do this more with wet pressure treated wood. I don't really use it for anything important and usually for quick cuts on non critical things though. I use the fuel for heavier stuff or when I need accuracy etc. The Ryobi basically sits in the garage near my barrel of scrap wood with a battery on it that now gets swapped with the one in my Ryobi garage door opener keeping it topped off so it's always good to go...

Yeah my fuel 7-1/4" and little beater Ryobi 5-3/8 have blades on opposite sides and I never really think twice about which side. I just either setup the cut so I can use my right hand or use my left hand if it just works out better that way. I don't really care much either way...

Yeah amazon's prices are about the same if you have prime. I don't have a 6-1/2" so I've never shopped that size blade to be honest but I did pick up a pair of Diablo's new 7-1/4" 24t blades for $9.99 at HD a few weeks ago. I don't know if they do the same deal ever with the smaller ones but even for that price of $10 for a single blade you won't find a better one IMHO.

The Diablo 24t cuts noticeably cleaner and easier than the stock Milwaukee blade. I think it's a thinner kerf so it removes less material and hence does less work for the same cut. This means more cuts because it uses less power per cut and less battery. For $10 they are a no-brainer, twofer $10 specials are hard to pass up even more. They even seem to stay really sharp for a long time. The 40t blades are slightly harder on the battery and make some cuts take longer but very smooth. On a circular saw I don't see much need to go with 60t unless it's for some specially purpose because the accuracy on a handheld saw is going to be harder to attain than say a table or miter saw anyway. The 40t isn't a bad choice for plywood if you like a smoother cut. The material is so thin anyway it's not really going to slow the saw down and it'll give you less tear out. I sometimes leave my 40t on cutting 2x4's if I only have a few to do if that's the last blade I used. It's not like you can't use a 40t all the time but for 2x4 and framing it's better to just use the framing blade, Also the framing 24t will cut through nails pretty easily if you're cutting things already in place and you'd not want to use a more expensive 40t blade and risk throwing some nice carbide teeth. I really love Diablo blades. I have an really old Ryobi 5-3/8 circ saw, over a decade old blue one, and I did two things that made it like new. I put the newer lithium batteries on it and threw a thin kerf Diablo blade and it's great as a backup garage saw for quick cuts when I need it. It's a 36 tooth finish blade too and the thing seems to have no problem cutting through almost anything. The only reason I don't have an m12 5-3/8" is because of that blade. That's not to say the m12 isn't awesome, it is, but I don't really need to have an awesome secondary saw when I have the fuel full sized one.

The Diablo 40 tooth 7-1/4 is a pretty great blade so the 40 tooth 6-1/2 is probably even a little better and smoother cut because same tooth count on a slightly smaller blade. It depends what you want though. If you need/want really smooth cuts the 40 is great. Otherwise the regular 24t Diablo framing blade gives a really nice cut and goes much easier through things and the battery will last longer. It's really up to you and what you need to cut and how clean a cut you're looking for...

What I want is one of those tool-less wheel nuts they have on the new braking grinders.

Yeah $100 is a steal for that saw. Cheaper than the m12... So with the money saved you could almost get an m12 fuel saw too ?

I think they have different statutes on dust control in different countries which require ability to have dust extractor attachments. I can see the usefulness but I do almost all my circular saw cutting outside in the garage so it's not a big deal for me, aside from annoying pvc dust...

Also I don't entirely understand the blade sided thing that much. I mean sure I get people get used to it but I have saws with blades on either side. Depending on the project and how I cut things I use either my left or right hand pretty much equally well. I'm not ambidextrous but maybe I'm better with my off hand than most so it doesn't seem like an inconvenience to me at all really.

Yeah I can you wanting to get a man sized saw instead of a girly man little baby saw ? Jk... They are all good. One thing about the dust chute; it really works!!! Just try to avoid standing directly in front of it. I was cutting some cellular pvc trim and the white dust poured out of that chute and a few times I wasn't paying attention and it coated me in super staticky white powder. I looked like a coke dealer gone wild with my merchandise. Lucky I was out garage and just used the blower to blast it off of me and the saw. The blade sliceing through the pvc really is like a static machine and that dust is soooo annoying ?

I'm not sure it's better to leave the battery hooked up to a charger while it isn't energized. The battery contacts are still on the charger and might cause some extra discharge. I'd just as soon leave it plugged in and let the battery and charger do their things respectively. If you're worriedjust pull the battery off the charger some days later at your convenience, I think people get all bent out of shape because of old school dumb chargers years ago that cause problems with different chemistry batteries that don't apply today. These chargers and batteries are smarter than you or I and know what they're doing. Any electrical device could potentially be a hazard and lithium packs store a lot of energy in a small space so things can happen even if you do everything right.

It ok to leave them on a tool short term but it's a bad habit for long term and never when the batteries are nearly dead. The controller in most modern tools will prevent you from overheating the battery and shut power down when voltage drops too low in the pack with a safety margin to ensure the battery doesn't go too low a voltage state and become irrecoverable, an old pack can wear out over time and become irrecoverable anyway, but leaving the nearly dead pack on a tool for a long time will allow the pack to lose power naturally and cause issues with weaker cells in the pack. Also some tools drain packs more than others. I think we had a discussion a while back where some Makita die grinder or something could deplete a large pack in a matter of weeks just sitting on the shelf so ymmv...

Wow you must have loved the samples I sent you!!!! I really like them, now you seem to have more than I do? Where did you get them from? Mine came in boxes not bags though...

Lithium batteries need a controller to handle charging so it doesn't really matter if you leave it on the charger. Basically most decent modern chargers will periodically top off the battery but lithium batteries don't drain quickly standing by so it's prob better to remove it from the charger but you don't have to worry about leaving it on the charger either. The things to avoid with lithium batteries is overheating them constantly and never leave them on a tool, especially when nearly depleted. If a tool goes into shutdown mode and the battery is depleted the battery should be removed immediately. Some experts seem to say it's good to deplete them to near zero once a month to condition them but I'm not sure that's necessary. The reason it's really bad to leave a nearly dead battery on a tool is the battery is made up of a bunch of cells. All the cells aren't identical and some might be a little weaker and have a slightly lower voltage. If a single cell's voltage drops too low the controller on the pack will determine the whole pack is fubared and will refuse to charge it. That's why it's dangerous to leave a nearly depleted pack on a tool; as it discharges slowly over time the weakest cell might start to drop to or below the safe voltage threshold and when you go to pull the trigger it might do the cell in taking the whole pack out. It's possible if you have a voltage meter to take the pack apart and find the bad cell and either try to save it individually or replace it but if you avoid leaving depleted packs on your tools you can avoid all that.

The sc600 is super nice but not really a direct comparison either. This is a larger spot to flood adjustable light and you still have to fiddle with individual cells and plop them on a charger with the zebra. This is just more convenient to be able to use m12 battery packs for me than fiddling with individual cells and swap them on a charger. I think the zebra cost the same too. The m12 light is more akin to a Streamlight Stinger DS HPL Flashlight at $100 with adjustable light. Different strokes and all I guess. I've never been quite so impressed with a flashlight's beam adjustment mechanism. It's much more slick than the twist types and more akin to an SLR style zoom ring where you just smoothly slide it forward and back. I hate the Maglite style where it twists and you never quite get it where you want or aren't sure if you're past the stops and have to go back, not to mention they seem to have dark spots all over. It adjusts from a super tight spot that can probably go hundreds of yards to a very broad flood that can cover a whole wall uniformly from only about 3-4 yards away. Like really surprisingly wide. The color rendition is also super nice, no annoying blue tint and looks almost like the color of a slightly warm halogen, not yellow either. The lens design is pretty interesting with a deep reflector and a diffuser in the middle on top. I'm not sure exactly what they're doing here, the diffuser might actually be something of a TIR lens and bounce the spread out light back toward the reflector to spread it out and not leave a dark spot though the entire range of spot-to-flood. It's an impressive mechanism and prob wasn't cheap to develop and produce.

One thing to keep in mind that unless you're in dire need of more packs you might want to hold off purchasing batteries because Milwaukee is releasing 6.0's and 9.0's relatively soon so there may be new packages and discounts on older packs soonish.

I don't have the 6.5 but it looks like the base plate is similar if I recall correctly so it should be ok. The Bora guide is great but I can see how the plate is limited by how well it interfaces with each type of saw. I'm pretty happy with how it works on the 7-1/4 fuel. The stainless plate that has a ruler with inscribed markings on the front of the fuel makes for a good area for the two cone shapped mounting screws to grab on and prevent lateral movement.

Yeah true but you're paying for the convenience of using m12 rechargable packs, of which I have an assload of, and popping them on and off a separate charger. Many of the higher end ones seem to use individual cells that have to be thrown into a separate charger which is tedious or you have to throw the whole flashlight into a cradle of hook it up to a USB cable rendering it useless until it's topped off. I like the convenience of using my tool batteries which I have lying around anyway.

The red thing on my saw? It's a Bora saw plate for their saw guide. Basically it's pseudo track saw with the plate which sits in channels on the metal guide. It works pretty well, once you get the saw secured it keeps it from wandering better than if you just pressed the saw against the side of the guide.

Masking tapes helps for sure but if tear out is any consideration at all a higher tooth blade is in order. Not only teeth but quality too. My Diablo framing blades are thinner kerf and have way less tear out because they cut more efficiently and with less friction than the stock blade.

Tear out and feathering are much less if you go with a 40t finish blade, I used one to make some cuts on a maple kitchen cabinet to fit a gas range top and it left such a smooth edge I didn't even need to sand it. The edge wasn't going to really show but it was painted and you never want to chip the edge and start having the finish be compromised and crack along a chip. If you do lots of plywood it's not a bad idea to go with a higher tooth blade because the saw isn't struggling much with the shallow depth so you can afford to add a little drag with more teeth and get a nicer cut...

Try replacing that stock blade with a Diablo; you can buy two of the new ones for $10. You won't believe the difference it makes. The stock one isn't horrible but the Diablo's just slices through stuff with so little effort it even makes the battery seem 50% bigger. Remember a mediocre blade is exactly the same as having mediocre tires on a great car. If where the rubber meets the road is sub par all performance will suffer, no way around it. Heck, I have a 40 tooth Diablo finish blade and I think it cuts with less effort than the OEM blade the saw came with.

Yeah but when compared to a rechargable Maglite LED it isn't THAT expensive and it's much brighter, uniform and better color light and has the ability to swap out batteries instantly off a charger. It's not cheap but it's a quality light and has a slick beam adjustment. I'm pretty happy with it so far.