Milwaukee Track/Plunge Saw

[Jronman]

Earlier today I was reading a thread and it was brought up that there are all these tools Milwaukee has that DeWALT does not have. This got me thinking if DeWALT had any other tools that Milwaukee does not. I also happened to read a revived old thread talking about the Flexvolt tracksaw. The post that revived it showed the Festool corded plunge saw vs the Flexvolt plunge saw (power and speed of the flexvolt was very impressive) 

 

Milwaukee tends to be one of DeWALT's toughest competitors so I wondered does Milwaukee have a good track saw? I checked on Milwaukee's website and they do not offer a track saw. Any chance Milwaukee would be coming out with one?

[Renner_construction]

They currently don't, if they are going to come out with one I'd suggest they fix their mess of their junk cordless nailers first.


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[tugnut1]

Its my opinion, from being at a couple Milwaukee Media events and looking at them from a woodworkers perspective, Milwaukee doesn't have much interest in anything other than the trades.  They deal with plumbers, electricians, drills, recip saws, crimping tools, lights (for contractors), specialty tools and that is about it.  I know that they have recently come out with a cordless miter saw, but again, that is meant to a contractor on the go.  

 

Their focus is on the contractor and going cordless. 

 

If you think about it, they have nothing in the way of a woodworking tool.  I know a track saw could be used by contractors, but if you look at it, they don't even have a jobsite saw.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if they came out with a track saw, but if they do, it will be cordless.

[Jronman]

16 minutes ago, tugnut1 said:

Its my opinion, from being at a couple Milwaukee Media events and looking at them from a woodworkers perspective, Milwaukee doesn't have much interest in anything other than the trades.  They deal with plumbers, electricians, drills, recip saws, crimping tools, lights (for contractors), specialty tools and that is about it.  I know that they have recently come out with a cordless miter saw, but again, that is meant to a contractor on the go.  

 

Their focus is on the contractor and going cordless. 

 

If you think about it, they have nothing in the way of a woodworking tool.  I know a track saw could be used by contractors, but if you look at it, they don't even have a jobsite saw.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if they came out with a track saw, but if they do, it will be cordless.

I forgot about table saw. I know a plumber who uses a miter saw so the m18 miter could in their plumbers line haha.

[khariV]

I think that a high end track saw that would compete with Festool / Mafell probably wouldn't be in their product roadmap.  However, there are plenty of carpenters that do finish work that could use one - from decks to built-ins.  A cordless track saw base / shroud on their fuel circular saw wouldn't be that difficult to assemble and would certainly be useful to a lot of people in the reno/new construction trades.  You could make the same argument for a cordless trim router. Perhaps after they flesh out plumbing and electrical trades, the product guys will take a look at carpentry again.

[Jronman]

14 minutes ago, khariV said:

I think that a high end track saw that would compete with Festool / Mafell probably wouldn't be in their product roadmap.  However, there are plenty of carpenters that do finish work that could use one - from decks to built-ins.  A cordless track saw base / shroud on their fuel circular saw wouldn't be that difficult to assemble and would certainly be useful to a lot of people in the reno/new construction trades.  You could make the same argument for a cordless trim router. Perhaps after they flesh out plumbing and electrical trades, the product guys will take a look at carpentry again.

even something as simple as a dust port on their circular saw shroud and track groves on the base would be sufficient.

[Logan]

Milwaukee doesn't really put out a lot of tools for woodworking 

[Bremon]

Yep their disruptive innovation didn't extend to putting a "powerstate brushless motor" in their planer. 

[khariV]

35 minutes ago, Bremon said:

Yep their disruptive innovation didn't extend to putting a "powerstate brushless motor" in their planer. 

Does it need one? Other than the "it's cool because it's brushless" factor, what would be gained by having it brushless?  You don't need tons of torque or massive runtime on a planer. 

[Bremon]

Do you have one? Set it to a moderate depth and you can stall a cordless planer fairly easily and they burn through batteries quickly enough. Brushless can add both power and efficiency. "Does it need one?" can be applied to literally any power tool, and if we wanted to be redundant about it we could say the same about batteries and just keep our extension cords. The M18 planer is more costly everywhere I've seen it compared to the brushless unit from Dewalt, and both are substantially more expensive than the brushed version from Makita. What does that cost get you with Milwaukee? Less power, red plastic and a white lightning bolt. For the price they want, yes, absolutely, it does need one. 

[JimboS1ice]

Do you have one? Set it to a moderate depth and you can stall a cordless planer fairly easily and they burn through batteries quickly enough. Brushless can add both power and efficiency. "Does it need one?" can be applied to literally any power tool, and if we wanted to be redundant about it we could say the same about batteries and just keep our extension cords. The M18 planer is more costly everywhere I've seen it compared to the brushless unit from Dewalt, and both are substantially more expensive than the brushed version from Makita. What does that cost get you with Milwaukee? Less power, red plastic and a white lightning bolt. For the price they want, yes, absolutely, it does need one. 

@dwain did a tool fight with these, him and mike found the brushed makita to be the most powerful followed by dewalt


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[Bremon]

Yep, I remember that @JimboS1ice, the Makita is the best value by far. 

[khariV]

7 hours ago, Bremon said:

Do you have one? Set it to a moderate depth and you can stall a cordless planer fairly easily and they burn through batteries quickly enough. Brushless can add both power and efficiency. "Does it need one?" can be applied to literally any power tool, and if we wanted to be redundant about it we could say the same about batteries and just keep our extension cords. The M18 planer is more costly everywhere I've seen it compared to the brushless unit from Dewalt, and both are substantially more expensive than the brushed version from Makita. What does that cost get you with Milwaukee? Less power, red plastic and a white lightning bolt. For the price they want, yes, absolutely, it does need one. 

 

Actually, I do have one. I admit though that I've only used it a few times and never really tried to stall it taking off more than a very small amount to even out some maple and poplar face frames.  I'll accept your argument though that more power would be nice and leave it at that. 

[jtkendall]

If you think about it, they have nothing in the way of a woodworking tool.

They have routers, jigsaws, and sanders. The jigsaw and sander could be argued are for trades, but I don't see anyone dragging one of their routers out to a job site. They're made for shop production.


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[Bremon]

6 hours ago, jtkendall said:

 

They have routers, jigsaws, and sanders. The jigsaw and sander could be argued are for trades, but I don't see anyone dragging one of their routers out to a job site. They're made for shop production.


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I think the general sentiment was with regards to cordless tools, as far as cords go it seems most companies have almost all the boxes checked. 

[KnarlyCarl]

15 hours ago, Jronman said:

I forgot about table saw. I know a plumber who uses a miter saw so the m18 miter could in their plumbers line haha.

 

Done before on a larger rough in and cut my pipe with a DeWalt 12" miter, just take it easy so it doesn't chip the PVC ha

 

14 hours ago, Jronman said:

even something as simple as a dust port on their circular saw shroud and track groves on the base would be sufficient.

I'm halfway there already lol

[Doneright]

On ‎2‎/‎8‎/‎2017 at 1:20 PM, Logan said:

Milwaukee doesn't really put out a lot of tools for woodworking 

I see your point as there are always going to be tools we wish certain manufacturers would make.

But I haven't seen a Dewalt panel saw to match Milwaukee's.

Track saws hold no interest for me. I can cut a fairly straight line freehand and if I need it perfectly straight I use a table saw or clamp (or screw) a 4' T-square as a guide.

Not saying track saws aren't great, just not great for me.

[tugnut1]

12 minutes ago, Doneright said:

I see your point as there are always going to be tools we wish certain manufacturers would make.

But I haven't seen a Dewalt panel saw to match Milwaukee's.

Track saws hold no interest for me. I can cut a fairly straight line freehand and if I need it perfectly straight I use a table saw or clamp (or screw) a 4' T-square as a guide.

Not saying track saws aren't great, just not great for me.

 

 

I don't own a track saw either.  I'm using a Bora 100" Clamp Edge Saw Guide for my very large plywood cuts which is held up by a large centipede saw horse setup.

 

http://www.boratool.com/bora-wtx-clamp-edge-saw-guide-100-inch

 

[khariV]

3 hours ago, tugnut1 said:

 

 

I don't own a track saw either.  I'm using a Bora 100" Clamp Edge Saw Guide for my very large plywood cuts which is held up by a large centipede saw horse setup.

 

http://www.boratool.com/bora-wtx-clamp-edge-saw-guide-100-inch

 

I use the same edge guide.  It works fairly well, but doesn't do anything to prevent chip out on plywood but I know that scoring the cut line and / or making two passes would solve this.  However, a bigger problem is that, on longer cuts, for me it's difficult to keep the saw tight against the guide without having the guide slip laterally.  Tracks for track saws are much wider and I imagine have significantly less / no horizontal flex.  The fact that there's a track to keep the saw straight without having to apply horizontal pressure also helps to eliminate this problem.

[tugnut1]

39 minutes ago, khariV said:

I use the same edge guide.  It works fairly well, but doesn't do anything to prevent chip out on plywood but I know that scoring the cut line and / or making two passes would solve this.  However, a bigger problem is that, on longer cuts, for me it's difficult to keep the saw tight against the guide without having the guide slip laterally.  Tracks for track saws are much wider and I imagine have significantly less / no horizontal flex.  The fact that there's a track to keep the saw straight without having to apply horizontal pressure also helps to eliminate this problem.

 

This is why I like the larger Centipede sawhorse.  It supports the long sheets of plywood throughout the length of the wood.  Also, to prevent tear out, you can always use some masking or painters tape to cover the line where you are going to cut.  This works extremely well to prevent tear out.  If I need to make a clean cut on any plywood, I use this trick...even on the tablesaw.

 

[khariV]

29 minutes ago, tugnut1 said:

 

This is why I like the larger Centipede sawhorse.  It supports the long sheets of plywood throughout the length of the wood.  

 

I probably didn't do a great job communicating what I really meant.  I was referring to the edge guide bar itself deflecting laterally. I cut plywood sitting on the ground on top of a 2" piece of foam, so there's no vertical movement at all.  However, the guide bar itself bends and my straight line turns into a curved line if I press too tightly against it while making a cut.  This is only a problem on longer cuts where I have to put the 2 pieces together.  On shorter cuts, the bar is sufficiently rigid not to have this problem.

[tugnut1]

I probably didn't do a great job communicating what I really meant.  I was referring to the edge guide bar itself deflecting laterally. I cut plywood sitting on the ground on top of a 2" piece of foam, so there's no vertical movement at all.  However, the guide bar itself bends and my straight line turns into a curved line if I press too tightly against it while making a cut.  This is only a problem on longer cuts where I have to put the 2 pieces together.  On shorter cuts, the bar is sufficiently rigid not to have this problem.

Oops. I misunderstood you. I haven't seen that issue.

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[JimboS1ice]

On an interesting note at menards, masterforce sells a track saw for 100 bucks, totally shocked, 4 1/2" blade, 1" cut depth with the track, track comes in pieces and snaps together for up to a few pubes shy of 54


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[tugnut1]

10 hours ago, JimboS1ice said:

On an interesting note at menards, masterforce sells a track saw for 100 bucks, totally shocked, 4 1/2" blade, 1" cut depth with the track, track comes in pieces and snaps together for up to a few pubes shy of 54
 

  Bahahaha!  Few Pubes.  Bahahahaha!  Love that!

[KnarlyCarl]

Well if this is a joke, I have a bridge to sell you...

 

..

 

 

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BQ_bYH6gDlX/

 

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