Which 8-1/4" Circular saw?

[Ljohnsaw]

By awkward, I mean the motor location relative to the blade.  Every saw I've ever used the motor is on the right and I'm right handed.  So that puts the view of the blade right in front of me.  I can see what I'm cutting without any unnatural body contortions.  With the Makita, I had to lean to the right to see what I was cutting.

I found the Milwaukee saw.  Heavier than I remembered.  I'm heading up the hill today and will be back on Wednesday to weigh it and check the cutting (it works, just want to remind myself what I didn't like about it) and I'll get back to you on Thursday.

[Old Greenhorn]

No rush. We leave Wednesday morning for VT, get back on Sunday night or Monday, then I leave for another 6 or 7 days to work at a festival. So the only time I might be home to take care of stuff before 7/18 is next Monday. So no rush, then I'll be in a hurry. :D

 I don't mind leaning over the saw to see. It makes it easier to get my head out of the way when nasty chips are spitting in my face.

[Tom King]

I just stumbled on a 9-1/4" Makita circular saw that uses 2 18V batteries.  I already have those batteries, so this was looking interesting.  Then I read farther and saw that it would work on several different types of track saw tracks, and that made it more interesting.

Then I got down to the part where it said maximum depth of cut at 90 degrees was 3-3/8".  That is Really stupid, so I quit looking at it.

[Old Greenhorn]

Seems like it's do-able. But I note that the saw has a $519. tag on it. No thank you, all the 10 1/4  corded ones are 175 cheaper. For only a few cuts a year, I will stick with the frugal approach. ;D :D

[21incher]

I was looking  at the 10 1/4 Makitas a while back and saw one was $300.00 but that didn't  have a blade brake and another  had a brake for over $100 more. Seems like a brake would  be a good option to have. I wound up buying their tracksaw instead. I can cut the face and then flip the board for thicker boards with about .06 offset and cut from the back. Then use a piloted router bit to make an even glue line for the few thicker slabs I deal with. I get more use from the tracksaw and its safer to use. 

[Don P]

On big saws, to me they are just one more destabilizing force. My built in gyrocopter can handle releasing a blade and it winding down. Release the trigger and hit a brake on that mass and P-force kicks in, the plane turns right and there's a wallow in the line.

[Hilltop366]

I've been through a few saws  :D. The most memorable lasted about 4 hours. I bought a new saw, was doing soffit returns on a step ladder and yup. left the saw perched on top of the ladder "for just a second"  :. Back to the store that evening. I'da been money ahead to stay in bed some days!

My carpenter brother always puts the circular saw on the ground so I asked once why he didn't put it on the saw horse? he replied "it hasn't fell off the ground yet".

This was before chop saws were common so it got used all day framing houses.

[Old Greenhorn]

By awkward, I mean the motor location relative to the blade.  Every saw I've ever used the motor is on the right and I'm right handed.  So that puts the view of the blade right in front of me.  I can see what I'm cutting without any unnatural body contortions.  With the Makita, I had to lean to the right to see what I was cutting.

I found the Milwaukee saw.  Heavier than I remembered.  I'm heading up the hill today and will be back on Wednesday to weigh it and check the cutting (it works, just want to remind myself what I didn't like about it) and I'll get back to you on Thursday.

John I know you are busy with your build, but did you get a chance to weigh that saw yet?

[Ljohnsaw]

For the life of me, I could not find this thread!  Yeah, I weighed it but I've forgotten what it was :

Here's a few pictures of it.  The guy cheeped out and just put a regular 10" blade on it so he marked what it can cut :


 If you want a full 4" cut, you'll need the right blade.   So on the front, you loosen this black knob and can slide the motor up on a semi-dovetail track.

 When at full height (minimum cut depth), there is a lot of play.  It gets better the closer to the shoe the motor is.  Look closely at the gray part that the knob is on and relative to the chrome track.  Here it is flopped one way.

And now flopped the other way.  Not a precision device.  This is what I really don't like about it!  Probably a good 5° shift from one side to the other.

 I'm heading home tomorrow and I'll weigh it again (and write it down!).

[Old Greenhorn]

Yeah if that were a daily driver it would make me nuts too. But for me, just occaiaionally trimming slabs, I will just have to fuss with it a bit, it seems, to get it set right, then leave it. Probably leave it at full depth 99% of the time.
 Weigh it when you can and let me know.
 Thanks again.

[kantuckid]

The model # and google will tell you the weight of the saw.

[Old Greenhorn]

Aw, where is your sense of sport?! :D It's a more fun to guess. I am going to guess 17 pounds without any case of blade. 

 I need more excitement in my life.

[Ljohnsaw]

My bathroom scale says it's 20.0 pounds.  It's a beast.

[Old Greenhorn]

For the record, John sent the 10-1/4" saw which arrived just in time for a current table build. I used it yesterday to square up a slab table top and it worked just fine! It won't be my favorite saw to use by any means, but it does the job and I am grateful to have it for sure. Not the kind of tool I would use with one hand though! :D