Lidl PPTSA 20V-Li cordless plunge track saw. Quick review.

[mwinfrance]

I mentioned recently, in a different thread, started by Adam, that Lidl in France were selling a 20V battery powered plunge saw ( in their performance range ) for €139.oo on 10.04.2023 ( Easter Monday ) , well I bought one on the Saturday 9th April.A guy I know who works at our local Lidl said they had received 6 and if I was in the shop after 7 pm on Saturday I could avoid waiting till Monday.

Apparently they are allowed to sell items that are catalogue "promo" the day before the catalogue date, but not until after 7pm.

So, as some people said they'd be interested to know how these battery powered plunge saws are, I decided to do a short written review.

A short review, because the real plunge saw reviews are @petermillard's gig, but this may give Peter an idea as to whether it is worth him spending "whatever" the UK price will be "whenever" they become available in the UK in order to do a youtube 10 minutes on it.**

The model is PPTSA 20V-Li , it first went on sale in the Czech Republique, where a guy who is affiliated with Lidl reviewed it on youtube about 2 or 3 months ago.That is where I first saw ( pun unintended ) it. he also showed "performance saw blades" used in it, more about those later.

Now ( as far as I know ) it has been also on sale in Germany, Belgium and Poland.All of those countries have Lidl online websites where one can buy almost all the things Lidl sell? France does not yet have an online Lidl site, but I've been informed that one will be in place soon this year 2023.

The saw is supplied with a 140mm blade with a 20mm arbor and 1.8mm thickness 40 teeth, ref 13800414.

It is supplied with no batteries and no charger, it comes in a storage case, red and black like the other "performance tools"..it uses a brushless motor, and is guaranteed for 5 years.In the case you also get a metal guide fence, two allen keys and a manual. I already had a manual in 12 languages, including English .In France the supplied manual is in French and German only. With Lidl's performance tools the number of langauges in the supplied paper manuals can vary. It also has two 700mm lidl plunge saw tracks of the festool type, they do not have the Makita "anti kickback" profile.

It uses any of Lidls "team 20V batteries"..I have the 4 Ah 80Wh ones , so tested it with one of them fully charged. The 8 Ah batteries would be ideal, but as yet they are not available in Lidl France shops.

The bare saw weighs 4.2 kg, light compared with my Erbauer Plunge track saw* ( which is corded and has a 185mm blade ) . The lidl battery plunge saw reminds me very much of a Festool battery plunge track saw , but with the green parts in red instead.It also has the nice "clicky" depth setting system like the festool.

Feels very well made, comfortable to hold, the push to unlock catch that you have to push before the trigger works is not as stiff as the Erbauer, all together the Lidl saw is nicer to handle.

It has 6 speed settings, plus an 'eco" mode where the saw adjusts it's own speed, in real life that puts it at around the same revs as the number 4 setting.It tilts to -1° or = +47°, it has no "anti fall over" when tilted as does the Makita and the Erhbauer ( they a different track profile, Makita type ) , nor does it have an anti kickback button on the base plate, just two adjusters to snug it to the rail, like a Festool.

It says nothing about "soft start", nor "electric brake", nor built in anti kickback that brakes the motor when it senses kickback like the Festool.

But, it actually has all three, soft start, electric brake ( blade stops almost instantly on trigger release ) and when I deliberately induced kickback the blade stopped as if I'd released the trigger. The Erbauer also has "soft start" and also didn't mention it.But the Erbauer's antikick back is via a button that locks it to the rail, and does not allow you to pull it backwards along the track.

The Lidl saw is like the Festool saw, you can pull it backwards along the track..nice.

I didn't make this post until I had a new battery in my digital protractor, ( mine was dead, and no battery shops were open here on Easter Monday ).I wanted to see if the saw blade on my Lidl tracksaw was at exactly 90° to it's base plate. I had seen on the Czech youtuber's review that his had needed "fettling" out of the box by a half a degree. Turns out that mine was the same, it was at 90.4° , but easily fixed via a worm screw at the front angle adjustment, just below the turn button marked 14 in the manual.

So, actual test on wood , MDF and laminate ( I can't find my OSB offcuts ) atelier really needs a major tidy, but other more pressing things have to come first like removing the plaster from the kitchen wall began today, only 4 days to go .Plus splitting some of the 5 cords of firewood I just put outside and would like to get under cover in the wood store.

The saw is very quiet, much more so than the Erbauer, which sounds like a bench saw loud and metalic ...Nice, quiet is good.

Cuts through 12mm birch ply with no problem at setting 4, at 6 it breezes through it. almost no splintering, what there was was very small /slight. If the Lidl track had been fitted with a flat edge strip ( it wasn't it comes with a slightly convex profile polyurethane cutting edge strip, why they did that , is a mystery, defeats the idea of the edge strip ) the edge would have been as good as a Festool leaves. The edge strip can , and will, be changed for a flat one. Cutting MDF ( I left the saw on setting 6 ) was the same, the thickest MDF off cut I had was 40mm, cut with no problem, no "forcing", 18mm ply, the same no problem. I tried cutting 18mm ply on "eco", it did it, but more slowly, no problem, but eco and 4 or below is I think for less thick boards.

Laminate, I have a lot of 20mm thick melamine faced chipboard, so on to cutting that.
The Erbauer has a "score" setting for laminates which is about 3mm depth.The Lidl saw allows you to set the score depth to 1, 2, or 3 or "whatever", set to 3mm for the first pass, virtually no chipping " correct" very pleased, second "through cut" virtually no chipping, correct, very pleased.

So, I'm happy- with it, in my opinion €139.oo well spent, it is a keeper. The max cut depth at 90° is approx.46mm with the track and 52mm without it. At 45° max cut depth is approx.32mm and without the track is approx.38mm.

Why did I buy it ?..Well I bought the Erbauer after watching some of @petermillard's excellent youtube videos, it has a 185mm blade for deeper cuts , it is corded and will be used in the house or the atelier, our doors are thick and the 185mm blade will deal with them or almost any other thickness, I have many kitchen units and cupboards etc to make to renovate this house.The Erbauer cost me €175.oo here with two 70mm tracks ( plus sack ) and some track clamps, spare brushes, and here it has a 3 year guarrantee.

But, all the sheet goods suppliers around here do not offer cutting of full boards, one of them "offers" a single €10.oo paid cut only, no other cuts, even if you pay. None of them will allow you to plug in your own track saw and cut your own boards, so as to be able to get them in the car, I don't want to be pulling a trailor just to get a couple of boards, I no longer have my transit van. Delivery charges are stupidly expensive, and no set time. Cutting down sheet goods boards by hand gets old fast and my shoulders ( old torn rotator cuff injuries to both ) don't fancy hand sawing across 1200mm or 1800mm boards, last December I managed to get myself a brace of slipped discs in my lower back, a "twofer" of agony, and a large supply of oxycontin to be able to function. The sheet goods suppliers have no objection to me using my own battery powered track saw to cut my boards down to get them in the car. Buying the Lidl Tracksaw for €139.oo was a no brainer.

re Blades for it..Lidl have a ludicrous policy which says that you cannot buy "online" from a Lidl website in another country, with one exception Belgian residents can buy from the German site. French residents cannot buy from a non French Lidl online shop and France does not yet have a Lidl online shop, so ( catch 22 ) although the "performance blades" for this saw exist on the lidl.de site
here PARKSIDE PERFORMANCE® Kreissägeblätter, 140 mm | LIDL
and on the Lidl Czech and Lidl Polish sites. I cannot buy them, not from here in France. I can however buy the "not as good blades" ( like the one supplied with the saw ) from their German supplier's German website.The German supplier also has a French "sub company" who have a French website. They do not have the "performance blades", nor do they have the "not so good blades", so they can sell me neither,j and have no idea if nor when they might have them..

Anyone remember "Soap" trying to buy some things in France is like the intro to Soap.

My verdict on the saw..it is a bargain..and 5 years guarantee for what is a very good clone of a Festool, at far less money.

Maybe Peter will do a video of it or a comparison when it becomes available in the UK..meanwhile, to anyone who was interested, I hope this was useful , apologies for the length of the post and for anything I may have missed, and for typos, it is 03.22 am here..and that was a lot of typing.

ps.the tiny Allen key ( 2mm I think ) required to do the "fettling" is not supplied in the case, the grubscrew has a dab of blue thread lock on it.

 

[clogs]

MWinFrance......
thanks for the detailed review.........
I wont be buying one although now tempted......
I still have my own full size sheet cutting device....a 16" wide full length strip of decent 19mm ply with another small strip glued and pinned onto it...using a normal size circ saw.......it's going on to 20-30 years old.....
u still need to set it square tho....does a track saw auto set it to cut square ?
apart from sheet mats I also cut quite a bit of live edged boards with it....

When I lived in the Charente Maretime, different world to Brittany, i bought full packs of ply from the UK....that's 60 odd sheets of 1/2 and 50'ish at 3/4..
x 10 mixed packs.....1/2 a truck load......

So for other sheets like specialist ply and MDF I bought from BricoMarche´.....similar money to the wood stores but for a drink they would cut up sheets to my sizes....any amount of cuts......

As for buying or not from outside France, it's just typical of them.....
apart from better weather one of the main reasons for getting out of Frogland after 17 years was their blxxdy mindedness........

Example
I bought an antique motor cycle engine on a small pallet from just outside Milan.....sleepless night on Ebay.....hahaha.....
Found a UK trucking firm that drove by my farm on it's return journey but due to French transport rules they could not deliver to me direct....
Found a French transp firm that would do it for €1,300 euro's....
So,
Got the same UK comp to do it by taking it to the UK then redilivering to France......£250.....so much for going green.....!!!!!

 

[mwinfrance]

Ah, just realised that I forgot something.
The Lidl saw also has an "app" ( I forgot to mention it because it will be a cold day in hell before I install some company's potentially shonky data grabbing software on my phone) ..fortunately the saw works 100% perfectly well without the app.What does the "app" do ? ..it allows your phone ( and Lidl, and potentially world plus dog ) to know that you have a saw .it allows MK1 eyeballs to know ( by looking at the phone ) how much charge is left in the battery, but, the battery, and the saw can already tell you that via their own colour coded displays.

It allows you to know ( via looking at the phone ) the revs you are using..You should be concentrating on looking at the saw and the cut.

It wants access to your address book camera etc etc etc ..Like 99% of apps.

I can write "apps", and I can disassemble apps ( software to do so is available for all operating systems ) , in my experience 99% of all apps ( including those for ishiny ), when you look at the underlying code, are badly written, intrusive, data hoovering, security nightmares, and are full of badly handled race conditions and memory leaks etc.Plus they can brick your phone or your ( in this case ) saw or any devices that they are talking to via bluetooth at any moment, especially after updates..in which case the item is then banjaxed..often for good.

My advice ( for this and any other item that you buy ) is do not install the app, if the thing will work without it..and if you have to install the app, bear it in mind that it all can go t*tsup at any moment, or the server that the app talks to can be shut down or just stop working. Also the day that the "app)" gets hacked ( it will ) all your data belongs to some kid who is part of a group in Russia or NK..Including your passwords and credit card details if you are silly enough to keep them on your phone.

Did I mention I don't like other people's apps .

I have very few on my phones, I have looked deeply into all of them, most of the ones that the phones came with were removed with extreme prejudice. Especially the faceache and tw*tter ones, and all the G stuff except the underlying OS.

 

[mwinfrance]

@clogs .. I agree with most of what you say about France, but SWMBO is French, and this part looks like Ireland (ish) so... although there are far more friendly parts of France to be a foreigner in. Plywood is still horrifically expensive here compared with UK, although when we lived near St Tropez, I had a french mate who has the biggest pallet making company in France who used to sell me full sheets of 18mm Marine ply at 100.oo new francs ( not Euros, but francs lourde ) for a sheet, his "cost" +10% , the 10% was because it is illegal in France to sell at cost.

The difficulty in this case about getting the better "performance saw blades" is not from the french, it is Lidl head office in Germany who think that the free movement of goods and services doesn't apply to Lidl. Lidl prices are not the same in all EU countries, France is often one of the cheapest places to buy Lidl tools, but until it gets an online Lidl store the actual ,range of Lidl tools and accessories is smaller than that in Germany or Czech Republic, Poland etc.

French horror stories, I'll maybe tell one day* how after paying into the mandatory state retirement system here for over 30 years, I got a letter around my 65th ( two years ago ) telling me that I was not entitled to a state pension. Short version..Me and around 3000 others who paid mandatorily ( what were basically our retirement stamps ) into "la maison des artistes" or the equivalent for authors ( AGESSA ), no choice, it had to go to them. Because said "maison" had c*cked up our dossiers, they did not pass on what we paid, so we are considered to have not paid in, or to have not paid in enough. Lawyers have told us that we'll all be long dead before it gets to court, the other party ( who took over "la maison and l'AGESSA is URSSAF ) URSSAF is technically a para state entity, so they have "on tap" lawyers, we are barred by french law from doing a class action .They admit their errors, but basically says we can all just "do one". Lot of well known french authors, artists and comic book artists and illustrators in that boat with me..So, rather than throw money away to lawyers, we'll all work 'til we drop.

When I began here, private pension schemes were not legal here, so most do not have one, I thus didn't / don't.

* actually finished up telling it today..ah well...you have to laugh..or else..

 

[Yuri]

Have to agree with you , fantastic saw for the money, my son lives in Spain and picked me one up for €99.99 there , free delivery to me when him came to visit at x-mas
I also run it with one of the 8ah smart batteries and it makes a great combo

 

[wwn]

@mwinfrance how does it handle without the track? Is the base plate completely flat/level? Do you think it doubles up well as a circular saw(w.r.t to doing full sheet cuts with non track straight edge?)

we have these in our local store for €150 plus another 35/40 for the 4aH battery.
my use case is v. limited - diy-er breaking down 5/6 sheets and cross cutting some 2 by 4's etc.. down to size.

it's slightly more expensive(~€30) than the cordless 20v parkside circular saw.
i already have 2 20v Ah batteries for some other tools along with charger etc.

thanks

 

[Jonwar]

@mwinfrance how does it handle without the track? Is the base plate completely flat/level? Do you think it doubles up well as a circular saw(w.r.t to doing full sheet cuts with non track straight edge?)

we have these in our local store for €150 plus another 35/40 for the 4aH battery.
my use case is v. limited - diy-er breaking down 5/6 sheets and cross cutting some 2 by 4's etc.. down to size.

it's slightly more expensive(~€30) than the cordless 20v parkside circular saw.
i already have 2 20v Ah batteries for some other tools along with charger etc.

thanks

Hi Wwn, I picked one up today in Cavan, I had to change it as the base plate was warped so watch that if your picking one up, otherwise impressed with it so far and I've had a mac Alistair corded for years. Even though it says you an use it with out track I'd be inclined to stick to the track and cut half the lenght of a full board and then slide the rail forward. The push down action on a plunge saw doesn't leave good control of the saw if your not using the track. Amazing with the track but off balance with out the track. Hope this helps

 

[wwn]

@Jonwar It does indeed help -thanks.

I'm new to doing work with wood beyond using hand saw & terrible plastic screwfix mitre box. Also have jigsaw but nothing suitable for sheets etc.

Was thinking the cost of new shiny toy would be somewhat within the cost of 2 hour van rental & B&Q sheet & timber higher prices but it's never so straightforward!

Back to looking at circular saws maybe!

 

[Jonwar]

I know how

@Jonwar It does indeed help -thanks.

I'm new to doing work with wood beyond using hand saw & terrible plastic screwfix mitre box. Also have jigsaw but nothing suitable for sheets etc.

Was thinking the cost of new shiny toy would be somewhat within the cost of 2 hour van rental & B&Q sheet & timber higher prices but it's never so straightforward!

Back to looking at

@Jonwar It does indeed help -thanks.

I'm new to doing work with wood beyond using hand saw & terrible plastic screwfix mitre box. Also have jigsaw but nothing suitable for sheets etc.

Was thinking the cost of new shiny toy would be somewhat within the cost of 2 hour van rental & B&Q sheet & timber higher prices but it's never so straightforward!

Back to looking at circular saws maybe!

I know how you feel, it's either a battered full sheet from the local hardware of a fortune for a quarter sheet in woodies. I've used my plunge saw to cut 2 by 4 and built my workbench with it and I've even ripped some decking boards down too, circular saw is great if your outside (dust) and for rough work as such like framing or cutting osb for boarding. If your working indoors with the likes of mdf, melamine and building shelfs, cabinets kitten counter tops even Wainscott panelling you can't beat the tracksaw. I used my jigsaw over the weekend to cut 2 by 6 preasure treated to build a frame for a gravel pad over the weekend and just used framing Square to guide the saw worked a treat.

 

[AndyMc]

Thanks for the comprehensive review, very interesting. How's the dust extraction on this saw? The one thing that I really like about the battery powered Festool (TSC55) is that it barely needs a vac attached. Just the bundled bag seems to catch most of what it produces.

 

[Jonwar]

Also check amazon they have a evolution circular saw and track for about €125 gives you the best of both worlds you can use it with or with out the track, you will only lose the better dust control from a plunge saw

 

[Jonwar]

Hi A

Thanks for the comprehensive review, very interesting. How's the dust extraction on this saw? The one thing that I really like about the battery powered Festool (TSC55) is that it barely needs a vac attached. Just the bundled bag seems to catch most of what it produces.

Hi Andy, I haven't used the Lidl saw in anger yet but I've never used a plunge saw with out the vac so I couldn't tell you.

 

[wwn]

Also check amazon they have a evolution circular saw and track for about €125 gives you the best of both worlds you can use it with or with out the track, you will only lose the better dust control from a plunge saw

Cheers.

Had been looking at them. 10MW covered it and commented on a diff thread about it.
Cordless - handy for chopping timber to size in builders yard (i'm now using future potential purchases to offset the ever increasing spend of what is, in essence, toys for me!) but if not parkside would mean another battery + another charger also.

Just bought a not-entirely-necessary 16 line aliexpress laser level for €160 (at a discount price!) along with some other measuring/hand tool things so really trying not to go too far overboard with the saw!

 

[JimJay]

@clogs .. I agree with most of what you say about France, but SWMBO is French, and this part looks like Ireland (ish) so... although there are far more friendly parts of France to be a foreigner in. Plywood is still horrifically expensive here compared with UK, although when we lived near St Tropez, I had a french mate who has the biggest pallet making company in France who used to sell me full sheets of 18mm Marine ply at 100.oo new francs ( not Euros, but francs lourde ) for a sheet, his "cost" +10% , the 10% was because it is illegal in France to sell at cost.

The difficulty in this case about getting the better "performance saw blades" is not from the french, it is Lidl head office in Germany who think that the free movement of goods and services doesn't apply to Lidl. Lidl prices are not the same in all EU countries, France is often one of the cheapest places to buy Lidl tools, but until it gets an online Lidl store the actual ,range of Lidl tools and accessories is smaller than that in Germany or Czech Republic, Poland etc.

French horror stories, I'll maybe tell one day* how after paying into the mandatory state retirement system here for over 30 years, I got a letter around my 65th ( two years ago ) telling me that I was not entitled to a state pension. Short version..Me and around 3000 others who paid mandatorily ( what were basically our retirement stamps ) into "la maison des artistes" or the equivalent for authors ( AGESSA ), no choice, it had to go to them. Because said "maison" had c*cked up our dossiers, they did not pass on what we paid, so we are considered to have not paid in, or to have not paid in enough. Lawyers have told us that we'll all be long dead before it gets to court, the other party ( who took over "la maison and l'AGESSA is URSSAF ) URSSAF is technically a para state entity, so they have "on tap" lawyers, we are barred by french law from doing a class action .They admit their errors, but basically says we can all just "do one". Lot of well known french authors, artists and comic book artists and illustrators in that boat with me..So, rather than throw money away to lawyers, we'll all work 'til we drop.

When I began here, private pension schemes were not legal here, so most do not have one, I thus didn't / don't.

* actually finished up telling it today..ah well...you have to laugh..or else..

We get an even worse selection of Lidl tools here in BG but luckily there's a couple of cheap shipping companies here operating between BG and UK/Germany/Spain, so I buy kit from Lidl in Germany and it's with me around a week later. Spares and accessories are available direct from Kompernaß (eg additional lengths of track for the saws) and they ship all over the EU - they used to ship to UK also, maybe still do.

If there's a shipping company operating between France and Germany you're in business. Just as a comparison, DE-BG is around €2/kg but pallet prices are a lot cheaper pro rata.

 

[Jonwar]

Cheers.

Had been looking at them. 10MW covered it and commented on a diff thread about it.
Cordless - handy for chopping timber to size in builders yard (i'm now using future potential purchases to offset the ever increasing spend of what is, in essence, toys for me!) but if not parkside would mean another battery + another charger also.

Just bought a not-entirely-necessary 16 line aliexpress laser level for €160 (at a discount price!) along with some other measuring/hand tool things so really trying not to go too far overboard with the saw!

Never even though about cutting the timber down in the yard that's a great idea, you can pick a half decent board and I've a saloon so can't get anything into it with out cutting it to pieces.

 

[Jameshow]

Who makes Lidl power tools? Must be a tie up with a battery / manufacturer??

 

[spiritburner]

I mentioned recently, in a different thread, started by Adam, that Lidl in France were selling a 20V battery powered plunge saw ( in their performance range ) for €139.oo on 10.04.2023 ( Easter Monday ) , well I bought one on the Saturday 9th April.A guy I know who works at our local Lidl said they had received 6 and if I was in the shop after 7 pm on Saturday I could avoid waiting till Monday.

Apparently they are allowed to sell items that are catalogue "promo" the day before the catalogue date, but not until after 7pm.

So, as some people said they'd be interested to know how these battery powered plunge saws are, I decided to do a short written review.

A short review, because the real plunge saw reviews are @petermillard's gig, but this may give Peter an idea as to whether it is worth him spending "whatever" the UK price will be "whenever" they become available in the UK in order to do a youtube 10 minutes on it.**

The model is PPTSA 20V-Li , it first went on sale in the Czech Republique, where a guy who is affiliated with Lidl reviewed it on youtube about 2 or 3 months ago.That is where I first saw ( pun unintended ) it. he also showed "performance saw blades" used in it, more about those later.

Now ( as far as I know ) it has been also on sale in Germany, Belgium and Poland.All of those countries have Lidl online websites where one can buy almost all the things Lidl sell? France does not yet have an online Lidl site, but I've been informed that one will be in place soon this year 2023.

The saw is supplied with a 140mm blade with a 20mm arbor and 1.8mm thickness 40 teeth, ref 13800414.

It is supplied with no batteries and no charger, it comes in a storage case, red and black like the other "performance tools"..it uses a brushless motor, and is guaranteed for 5 years.In the case you also get a metal guide fence, two allen keys and a manual. I already had a manual in 12 languages, including English .In France the supplied manual is in French and German only. With Lidl's performance tools the number of langauges in the supplied paper manuals can vary. It also has two 700mm lidl plunge saw tracks of the festool type, they do not have the Makita "anti kickback" profile.

It uses any of Lidls "team 20V batteries"..I have the 4 Ah 80Wh ones , so tested it with one of them fully charged. The 8 Ah batteries would be ideal, but as yet they are not available in Lidl France shops.

The bare saw weighs 4.2 kg, light compared with my Erbauer Plunge track saw* ( which is corded and has a 185mm blade ) . The lidl battery plunge saw reminds me very much of a Festool battery plunge track saw , but with the green parts in red instead.It also has the nice "clicky" depth setting system like the festool.

Feels very well made, comfortable to hold, the push to unlock catch that you have to push before the trigger works is not as stiff as the Erbauer, all together the Lidl saw is nicer to handle.

It has 6 speed settings, plus an 'eco" mode where the saw adjusts it's own speed, in real life that puts it at around the same revs as the number 4 setting.It tilts to -1° or = +47°, it has no "anti fall over" when tilted as does the Makita and the Erhbauer ( they a different track profile, Makita type ) , nor does it have an anti kickback button on the base plate, just two adjusters to snug it to the rail, like a Festool.

It says nothing about "soft start", nor "electric brake", nor built in anti kickback that brakes the motor when it senses kickback like the Festool.

But, it actually has all three, soft start, electric brake ( blade stops almost instantly on trigger release ) and when I deliberately induced kickback the blade stopped as if I'd released the trigger. The Erbauer also has "soft start" and also didn't mention it.But the Erbauer's antikick back is via a button that locks it to the rail, and does not allow you to pull it backwards along the track.

The Lidl saw is like the Festool saw, you can pull it backwards along the track..nice.

I didn't make this post until I had a new battery in my digital protractor, ( mine was dead, and no battery shops were open here on Easter Monday ).I wanted to see if the saw blade on my Lidl tracksaw was at exactly 90° to it's base plate. I had seen on the Czech youtuber's review that his had needed "fettling" out of the box by a half a degree. Turns out that mine was the same, it was at 90.4° , but easily fixed via a worm screw at the front angle adjustment, just below the turn button marked 14 in the manual.

So, actual test on wood , MDF and laminate ( I can't find my OSB offcuts ) atelier really needs a major tidy, but other more pressing things have to come first like removing the plaster from the kitchen wall began today, only 4 days to go .Plus splitting some of the 5 cords of firewood I just put outside and would like to get under cover in the wood store.

The saw is very quiet, much more so than the Erbauer, which sounds like a bench saw loud and metalic ...Nice, quiet is good.

Cuts through 12mm birch ply with no problem at setting 4, at 6 it breezes through it. almost no splintering, what there was was very small /slight. If the Lidl track had been fitted with a flat edge strip ( it wasn't it comes with a slightly convex profile polyurethane cutting edge strip, why they did that , is a mystery, defeats the idea of the edge strip ) the edge would have been as good as a Festool leaves. The edge strip can , and will, be changed for a flat one. Cutting MDF ( I left the saw on setting 6 ) was the same, the thickest MDF off cut I had was 40mm, cut with no problem, no "forcing", 18mm ply, the same no problem. I tried cutting 18mm ply on "eco", it did it, but more slowly, no problem, but eco and 4 or below is I think for less thick boards.

Laminate, I have a lot of 20mm thick melamine faced chipboard, so on to cutting that.
The Erbauer has a "score" setting for laminates which is about 3mm depth.The Lidl saw allows you to set the score depth to 1, 2, or 3 or "whatever", set to 3mm for the first pass, virtually no chipping " correct" very pleased, second "through cut" virtually no chipping, correct, very pleased.

So, I'm happy- with it, in my opinion €139.oo well spent, it is a keeper. The max cut depth at 90° is approx.46mm with the track and 52mm without it. At 45° max cut depth is approx.32mm and without the track is approx.38mm.

Why did I buy it ?..Well I bought the Erbauer after watching some of @petermillard's excellent youtube videos, it has a 185mm blade for deeper cuts , it is corded and will be used in the house or the atelier, our doors are thick and the 185mm blade will deal with them or almost any other thickness, I have many kitchen units and cupboards etc to make to renovate this house.The Erbauer cost me €175.oo here with two 70mm tracks ( plus sack ) and some track clamps, spare brushes, and here it has a 3 year guarrantee.

But, all the sheet goods suppliers around here do not offer cutting of full boards, one of them "offers" a single €10.oo paid cut only, no other cuts, even if you pay. None of them will allow you to plug in your own track saw and cut your own boards, so as to be able to get them in the car, I don't want to be pulling a trailor just to get a couple of boards, I no longer have my transit van. Delivery charges are stupidly expensive, and no set time. Cutting down sheet goods boards by hand gets old fast and my shoulders ( old torn rotator cuff injuries to both ) don't fancy hand sawing across 1200mm or 1800mm boards, last December I managed to get myself a brace of slipped discs in my lower back, a "twofer" of agony, and a large supply of oxycontin to be able to function. The sheet goods suppliers have no objection to me using my own battery powered track saw to cut my boards down to get them in the car. Buying the Lidl Tracksaw for €139.oo was a no brainer.

re Blades for it..Lidl have a ludicrous policy which says that you cannot buy "online" from a Lidl website in another country, with one exception Belgian residents can buy from the German site. French residents cannot buy from a non French Lidl online shop and France does not yet have a Lidl online shop, so ( catch 22 ) although the "performance blades" for this saw exist on the lidl.de site
here PARKSIDE PERFORMANCE® Kreissägeblätter, 140 mm | LIDL
and on the Lidl Czech and Lidl Polish sites. I cannot buy them, not from here in France. I can however buy the "not as good blades" ( like the one supplied with the saw ) from their German supplier's German website.The German supplier also has a French "sub company" who have a French website. They do not have the "performance blades", nor do they have the "not so good blades", so they can sell me neither,j and have no idea if nor when they might have them..

Anyone remember "Soap" trying to buy some things in France is like the intro to Soap.

My verdict on the saw..it is a bargain..and 5 years guarantee for what is a very good clone of a Festool, at far less money.

Maybe Peter will do a video of it or a comparison when it becomes available in the UK..meanwhile, to anyone who was interested, I hope this was useful , apologies for the length of the post and for anything I may have missed, and for typos, it is 03.22 am here..and that was a lot of typing.

ps.the tiny Allen key ( 2mm I think ) required to do the "fettling" is not supplied in the case, the grubscrew has a dab of blue thread lock on it.

This damn saw was €89:00 in Spain in October last year with the Tracks and I flipping well missed it! Waiting on the next batch now!! It is good a friend of mine has one over here....

The online presence of Lidl is huge in Spain yet you can not reserve one or pay for one in advance, its a lottery and you dont really get a pre-notice. The only way is to check the website every day or so to see if its in stock and hope that its in their weekly email leaflet . Irritating system .....

 

[JimJay]

Isn't there a shipping company operating between Germany and France, Spain* et al? Living in Bulgaria, I buy a lot of kit from Lidl.de which I get delivered to my shipper's German address and a few days later it's here in Sofia.

*I'm pretty sure that the company I use, Gabieli, ships between Germany and Spain.

 

[spiritburner]

Isn't there a shipping company operating between Germany and France, Spain* et al? Living in Bulgaria, I buy a lot of kit from Lidl.de which I get delivered to my shipper's German address and a few days later it's here in Sofia.

*I'm pretty sure that the company I use, Gabieli, ships between Germany and Spain.

interesting I will take a look thanks.