Hand held circular saws...

[Shane]

Hi All, Newbie here, and this thread is exactly the reason I've joined. I have been in the woodworking industry for about 17 years, starting with a cabinet making apprenticeship straight after leaving school. I have always been employed, up until last November when I decided to go it alone. Now I have the unenviable task of collecting quality tools with no spare cash. When I was employed I was lucky to have the use of a lot of festool stuff, but there is no way I can afford those. I to bought a no-brand saw to get me going and have the same issues with inaccurate cutting and flexing base plate.

I've had a good look around and the Hitachi C7SB2 seems to be very good value for money. I've got a Hitachi electric planer, and I'm really happy with it, so I'm hoping their saw will be of equal quality. Does anyone have one and have any opinions on them?

I'll also by making myself a few of those home made guides in various lengths as described in this thread earlier, very useful info - thanks

 

[George_N]

The Makita 5704RK is currently on offer at Axminster for £95. I have one and although I only use it at home for sheet goods, it is a real pro quality piece of kit. Thoroughly recommended.

 

[Shane]

Nice one mate, at the mo it's a choice between the makita 5704RK for £95, and the hitachi C7SB2 for £91, either brand I'm happy to go for. My mate has the makita, so I will have a drash on that one in the next couple of days...

 

[OPJ]

Shane, I have a Makita 5704RK that I'm looking to sell (because I now own and much bigger Hitachi saw and don't have the room for both). It's two-years old and is still in very good condition. It is 110v though... Send me a PM if you might be interested.

 

[Shane]

Hi Olly,

I was looking at getting 240v because I haven't got a 110 transformer

Thanks anyway

 

[neilyweely]

Hi Shane
We use a few different saws. We have 2 Festools, a Mafell, a Makita, a Hitachi 7, a Skil, a Ryobi, a Hilti and a Wickes 5year (grey; made by Kress).
They are all good saws. The festools speak for themselves. The Hitachi is a good site saw. The Wickes saw is suprisingly good, but is over a hundred quid. For the money? Definitely the Skil. Simply the best? Hilti.

I think Skil invented the circ saw, didn't they? Mine is an older model; the classic without a laser.

Hope this helps - truth is they all have good points. I guess it's down to personal preference. A lot of people like the Skil though.

Neil

 

[Shane]

Hi Neil, I know what you mean about the hilti, we had a couple, and they were brilliant, the only ones that I've come across with the fence held front and back. Comes back to price again, If I could find a cheap second hand 240v hilti on Eblag I'd go for it, but again, too pricey to buy new.

 

[Shane]

What I like about the hitachi C7SB2 is that it has a 1670w motor, and a decent ali base with scale

 

[neilyweely]

Hi shane
Whilst I am fairly sure the Skil is not over 1300w power it will cut up to it's full depth of cut in Elm - as I found out last week. Mine is rigged up to use a guide rail (Axminster) when needed and, albeit without the plunge facility built in, because it has no riving knife I was able to plunge cut a 2" piece of Beech some time ago.

HTH

Neil

Shane - PM sent

 

[Racers]

Hi,

I have the Makita 5703 its a bit more powerfull than the 5704 and its a cracking saw, the blade can be bettered, but apart from that its a faultless saw.

Pete

 

[Shane]

Judging by all of the positive makita comments (which I'm not at all surprised about - I have one of their mitre saws and it is superb) and I've googled other reviews, and the Hitachi isn't looking so great, so my decision is made, just gotta find a good deal now, Thanks all...

 

[big soft moose]

I (well work) recently bought a new dewalt plunge saw and rail , and my high expectations have now turned to bitter disapointment.

theres nothing wrong with the saw itself - its seems to be well engineered and produced , but the damn rail wont stay still and there is no way of clamping it to the work piece as this would interfere with the saws sliding ability.

after three or four ruined cuts where the rail slid while the saw was being run along it (holding it isnt an option because you need two hands on the saw) i said the hell with it and stuck it back int box - that will be a back of cupboard never used again item then - 400 notes well spent ... not , but at least it wasnt my money

work has a TS200 table saw as well so next time i need to cut up sheet material i'll use that instead me thinks.

 

[Shane]

Dewalt was never on my want list anyway

 

[FatFreddysCat]

but the damn [dewalt] rail wont stay still and there is no way of clamping it to the work piece as this would interfere with the saws sliding ability.

after three or four ruined cuts where the rail slid while the saw was being run along it (holding it isnt an option because you need two hands on the saw)

deWalt do make a clamp set to fit their rails. High price, but then so are Festool's offerings. I agree with you about the need to use two hands being a bummer. I've tried out the deWalt, Festool, Makita and Hilti (bought a Hilti). The Festool AT55 and Makita SP6000 both allow single handed plunge and push, the Hilti requires two hands to make the plunge but after that it pushes single handed. I chose the Hilti because it will work as both a rail saw (and I use Festool guide rails, no adaptor required) and as a conventional saw where I can see the blade. It's also the only one with a worm drive gearbox meaning it just doesn't bog down on heavy rips. Downside is the price - about £240 new although they do come up on eBay for a lot less than that. The models are WSC 255-KE (160mm blade/55mm doc) and WSC 265-KE (180mm blade/65mm doc). Dust extraction isn't as good as the Festool either, but still not too bad

 

[Shane]

Got my bargain on Ebay, makita 5704RK, very little use, £53 inc postage, arrival due early next week. Gonna be a pleasure using it compared to the previous junk