Warming up to 15 amp Skil Super Sawsquatch

[65refinyellow]

I love my regular classic 1980s 77 Model Skilsaw and it’s newer big brother that I purchased, the 10.25” inch Sawsquatch.

 

Risky?

 

To round out my plug-in saw station, I like the relatively new (always risky in tools) but very affordable large Skil 16 5/16” beam saw.

 

Pros and cons:

 

It’s a lot less expensive at $649 as a large beam saw than the pricey standards of the industry, which are the longtime medium 14” Bigfoot brand or Makita brand ($725 or more) , and large 16 5/16” Makita beamsaw ($879 or more) which my boss and everybody else has.

 

I think the basic design of LH Super Sawsquatch using common 77 engine with all potential design flaws ironed out, is a plus. It’s easier to fix if anything goes South which happens in my job.

 

But the Makita, with more sophistication and smoothness, is unfortunately harder to fix and has some design flaws that Skil 77s don’t have. The Skil 77 engine used for all pro stuff from Skil is an 80 year old design which is simple and constantly perfected.  The build of the Makita beam saw, however, is much more robust as is the case with all their tools.
 

The Makita housing and parts are heavy duty much more than all Skil 77 housings and parts which are now made in China and doesn’t have the solid per part feel of Makita.

 

What to do? 
 

I am leaning more towards the Skil 16 5/16” inch beam saw over Makita 14”, Bigfoot 14”, or Makita 16 5/16” beam saws.

 

Thoughts?

[65refinyellow]

[65refinyellow]

This thing is huge in person and no photos or videos do it justice.

 

The  Suoer Sawsquatch is 27 pounds to my regular 10 1/4” Sawsquatch saw’s 16.5 pounds and the floor sample was chained to the display so I couldn’t get a feel of if it was practical.

 

it could be a useful tool but then again they could have made it just to make it. Not every tool can work at a jobsite and maybe the equally priced Sawsquatch Carpenter Chainsaw is the better tool being lighter but it’s still on the verge of being too heavy to use being 18 pounds and long giving it a less than compact balance to it.

[Eric - TIA]

Agree, it's huge when you see it up close.  

[65refinyellow]

On 5/31/2022 at 7:42 AM, Eric - TIA said:

Agree, it's huge when you see it up close.  

I don’t know if I will ever need anything in a 14”-17” diameter category knocking down up to a 7 1/4” inch cut in a single pass (of giant beamsaw category), or even bigger machine in a circular chainsaw hybrid monster with a 12”-15” cut on a single pass.