Track Saw Shootout

[Rick Lee]

Wow! You're really doing your homework!

For me, another big advantage of the track saw (in fact, the biggest reason I bought one) is the dust collection capability. Sheppach has a dust collector for around $100 that works well. I use it for my portable tools and it has plenty of suction.

Also, the blade makes a huge difference. My understanding is the sheppach can take the slightly bigger (smaller?) blade that's readily available. Haven't tried that one yet. All I know is that the current blade cuts just fine. I'm not building furniture with it. Like you said, the cabs get covered in duratex anyway.

[escapemcp]

Wow! You're really doing your homework!

Yes, I always do with stuff like this. No point blowing money on a cheap item and then regretting it when it turns out bad. Been there done that! I still love a bargain however, but now I know how to find the good stuff amongst the bad (research, recherche, Forschung ). I was thinking that this Scheppach is one of the decent products and your comments confirm this, so many thanks for those. It just shows that you don't always have to buy the best to get the job done. It also shows that not everything from China is shit. If you can find the diamond in the rough, you can get some really decent bargains.

On the flip side used to work at a catalogue company and is all their buying team did was to go to Chinese trade exhibitions and order stuff that was already being made. For sure, we would get them to slap our logo on many of the items, but underneath it was still really cheap chinese junk which we'd sell on for a ridiculous amount and it's this sort of thing that gives Chinese manufacturing a bad name. People expected more for the price they were paying, so they blamed it on the manufacturer, rather than the seller who was selling it for more than double the purchase price!

Sorry, I was digressing a bit there (as I often do!). Meanwhile...

Can I enquire whether you have the Scheppach PL45 or PL55 (also called CS55 I think) please. Can I possibly ask a favour as well and get you to check the mitre cuts at some point - no hurry as I won't be ordering until the 31st Could you could check at both 45° AND somewhere around 22° - I'm suspicious that it will have been designed to cut on the line at 0° and 45°, but it will stray when going between those 2 figures (looking at what I believe to be the pivot point). As far as I can see it, you would need to have the pivot point right on the cutline, but NO saws seem to do this (as you wouldn't be able to use it without the track then). I was wondering if the saws used a fancy pivoting method where the saw pivots in 2 places to provide a 'virtual' pivot point on the cutline, without the need to actually have a physical pivot there? Or do they provide a pivot point as close as they can get to the cutline, which surely has to mean that the saw doesn't always cut on the line? Or is the pivot point close enough to the cutline that it only affects it by fractions of a fraction of an inch? This is a question I am eager to know the answer to - I just cannot see how you get an accurate cutting point without having the pivot point bang on the cutline.

Many thanks

[Rick Lee]

Disclaimer: I built my own woodworking shop set up with workflow exactly how I want it. Don't always keep it spotless but it's one spot on my property that I love being in. The main tool is my table saw that can make 50" cuts with tables around it to easily handle 5x5 and 4x8 sheets. Most of the cuts are made on the table saw so I don't use the track saw continuously. However, since I'm in the shop almost every day the track saw has seen a lot of use through the past year. IF I didn't have the space for a table saw and the track saw would be my "go to" every day I would probably get something like the Festool. That said, the Sheppach is a nice saw. It's definitely honest in it's pricing and has a lot of bang for the buck. I would choose it over a regular circular saw in a heartbeat and if woodworking wasn't an every day thing for me it would be the one to get for sure.

Ok. The wood I'll cut is scrap cheap Chinese birch with the thin veneer that splinters like crazy. (From a job requiring 3/4" ply without regard to using Baltic.)

First picture is setup showing the handy dandy sheppach dust collector:

Lines I'll cut with waste side to the top:

Track on the mark:

Result of 90 degree cut:

Here's the 22 degree cut:

[Rick Lee]

Here's the 22 degree cut with the track removed. First time I've tried an angle cut with the track saw and as you can see it slipped a little bit. It would be worthwhile to clamp for angle cuts:

Shot showing the riving knife (which works well) and the model number. Also shows how well the dust collecting works. Just a little bit beside the blade:

And two shots of the front angle stop and rear angle stop:

Didn't do 45 degrees but the way it pivots it looks like it would be about as accurate as any other angle.

I didn't take the time to really set up the cuts accurately. It's quick and easy to get 1/16" accuracy but tighter than that is possible if you take the time to set it up.

The first time you use the saw you first cut the rubber splinter guard to set up the track. The guard is cut by the saw blade so there are little nicks where the blade doesn't cut absolutely smoothly. I guess if you bought a really nice blade it would cut smoother but it's not really a problem IMO.

As you can see the wood splintered a little bit but well within the bounds that is required for cabs covered in duratex. And this is with a used blade. BB of course doesn't splinter as much.

Also, I've never had a problem with track wobble. Mine is perfectly straight.

All in all a pretty good saw for me.

[escapemcp]

WOW! Thanks for the prompt reply Rick. Very informative. Very interesting to hear that angle cuts (which will be the majority) need clamping. I think the quick clamping clamps (£20/$35) will come in very handy (as opposed to screw clamps which would almost be akin to the all the screwing and unscrewing of my current sled):



So thanks to your review, the Scheppach is back on the menu. I am thinking that either the Scheppach or the Batavia saw would fit my needs perfectly - I really don't need anything more. Now I've just got to pick one

I have finally found a review of the Batavia/Triton saw on amazon US:

I would really like to be able to give 4.5 stars. I purchased the saw because it is a great price point between the jump from $249 to $600 that I was able to find. I have made several cuts and the results have been smooth and accurate. The saw is fairly quiet and offers decent dust collection using the including connectors. The saw rides smoothly on the track and needed no adjustment to eliminate play. Included bladed appears to be of high quality. Track is slightly longer than 4 feet and can be joined with a second to exceed 8. Stays put reasonably well but it's probably worth picking up the available clamps.

As he mentions, the Triton variant is going for 600 of your American dollars The Batavia 1400W (which is the same saw) is $290 at today's exchange rates FINALLY something which we get a better deal on in the EU The Triton doesn't even come with a track to justify that price! Shocker!

Thanks again Rick, much obliged

EDIT: Rick - the track wobble that I spoke about was due to the 2 low-friction slips on the top of the track being so close together. have seen a video online where they removed the strips, and reattached them at the edges of the track for better stability. In fact, I'll post the video below. If a picture is worth a thousand words, and a video is 25 pictures a second, then this video should be worth almost 14 million words:


You can see the wobble that I am on about and then the fix in this. 3:10-4:25 for the wobble bit.

[escapemcp]

We have a winner!... I actually had one last month, but the supplier spent so long getting the saw from Europe, the card transaction has been cancelled and I had spent the money that had been returned into my account As such I have had to wait for payday to come back around to get my hands on the thing!!

This is what I chose:



First thoughts are that it is a pretty nice saw. A few gripes though. The plastic cams for tightening the play between the saw and the track only just adjust enough to stop the play. After a while these may wear (due to the plastic), so I may have to mod the saw slightly to allow for this. The anti-tilt is not very good either - you wouldn't want to make a 45° cut using only the anti-tilt knob to hold the saw in place, or it would probably be 5-10° out! This is a bit of a disappointment, but I just need to ensure that I have one hand on the base of the saw when doing these extreme mitre angles to ensure that it stays flat on the track. It also takes a while for the soft start to get going, but this actually works ok when combined with my energy saving PC & peripherals plug that takes about 5 sec to switch on the peripheral sockets - by the time the saw is at full speed, the plug kicks in very shortly after. I'm on about one of these:



As for plusses:

Shop vac fits firmly onto the saw without adjustment
Cut is very smooth
All cuts ARE on the line (e.g. 0°, 22°, 45°) - I was worried it may move a little as it tilts, but this doesn't seem to be the case
The saw comes in a nice flight case to keep it sawdust free

I soon realised that the 'standard' BFM table wasn't going to work with this tool, so last night went about converting the table:



I basically used a bit of 1/4" ply, cut it to size and glued it onto the old work table that I had built (as per the instructions) right at the start of all this. If I made this again, I would have only rough cut it to size and then made the final cuts when it was stuck down, but hindsight 50/50 and all that.

Making this table was also a good opportunity to use up quite a bit of the bottle (not tube) of PL that I had bought previously - you can see it in the final pic - green & white bottle above the big bag o'stuffing. It is PL, but runnier than normal and doesn't seem to stick quite as well as the tube stuff. For this though, it was ideal. You can see how runny it is by the sides of the new table

[Tom Smit]

Haha, I'm going to call you out on this one Aiden since I know you can handle it.

but hindsight 50/50 and all that.

It's a mixed metaphor, that's the problem. When one has near-perfect vision, it is termed "20/20" in that one can see with clarity an object at 20 feet. If one has poor vision, they might seem something at 20 feet with the clarity of an object that is at 50, or 100 or ..... feet.
50/50 is about : 50% in favour, 50% against.

Enough rambling.

Thanks for sharing the info about the track saw.

[escapemcp]

You got me! I even stopped when I wrote it and thought it should be 20/20. I just figured that that the saying was wrong. Oops

Can't wait to get home and start using saw+table. First job is to cut the 3 degree angles for the array back. Annoyingly they are the only 2 angled cuts remaining on my DRs. I set it up last night before taking the pic... The 2 cuts will probably take me 2 mins compared to the 20 I would have needed with the circular saw of old.

Then it's time to complete the module and the rest of speaker 2. Got a free party to do in 10 days, so can't mess about.

[Rick Lee]

Hmm... For some reasons your pictures aren't posting on my computer.

[Tom Smit]

Rick, his post from Wed. afternoon had no pics; the post from Wed early morning had 5(?).

[escapemcp]

Hmm... For some reasons your pictures aren't posting on my computer.

Try:

http://postimg.org/image/k2eaw7y1l/
http://postimg.org/image/jffe6p15l/
http://postimg.org/image/qhdbsw4rd/
http://postimg.org/image/sohkgta1l/
http://postimg.org/image/l3ejlcf15/

[escapemcp]

Or perhaps:

[byacey]

If your interested in building your own zero clearance track, I think a 5mm plexiglass or Lexan base would be the way to go, using baltic birch saw guides fastened with wood screws through the plastic base. The clear plastic would help in lining up with your marks until it eventually gets too scratched to see through.

[Geordie]

i bought the schepach (hafco.com.au) if any aussie guys are interested....

heres a pretty fair review for anyone interested

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbPLc0lGdFw