What's up, everybody its Kyle and welcome back to another episode of tools day
Thanks for joining me and it is always great to be with you today
we are going to talk about a tool that a lot of you might not consider as a
Job site tool but it's something that I found in the last year to
Greatly increase efficiency and quality out on the job site. So let's get right into it
Alright guys
we are talking about the track saw and I know a lot of you might be thinking that is reserved for a cabinet shop or
You know a place where you're gonna do some fine carpentry
But I promise you ever since I've gotten a track saw it has become a lot more
Heavily used out on the site and I think it makes me a lot more efficient. So today we're talking about the makita track saw
specifically I also use the DeWalt track saw and I would say
comparing both of them just right
You know generically I'm gonna say the makita is more refined more comfortable to use and just in my opinion does a better job
But we're not really doing a side by side comparison
Maybe we'll do that later
The makita is gonna use two batteries to 18 volt batteries and that is going to get it
36 volt that's where they get their run time their power for this tracks off. It's a brushless motor
It runs about 60 300 max rpm
It's got a zero degree cut depth of two and three sixteenths
So it's a nice cut depth you can get to a lot of material no problem and at a 45 degree bevel
you can get one and
9/16 now another nice feature is that it has an electronic brake
Which is always nice on a tool because when you're done using it
You don't want that saw blade to just keep spinning
It also has some technology built into it that is going to automatically increase the speed or torque
Depending on what you are cutting - you know optimize efficiency, so that is nice
But you've also got a little bit of an adjustment on the backside of the saw where you can change the speed just manually
One of the other nice things when you're making plywood cuts
Specifically is there's a lot of dust especially dealing in OSB and you got this inch and a half outside diameter
Dust port so you can hook it up to a vacuum
Really easily very common vacuum size, and it does a really good job at sucking that dust up
So we'll see that probably later. Another nice thing is it's got two detent features
So it will automatically stop at twenty two and a half and 45
You can go past 45 a few degrees and you can also go negative one degree
I do believe I don't ever really go negative one always just gonna go probably positive one
So I don't ever go that way. You know, you've got your different
Adjustable depth so you can make it stop at a certain depth so you don't cut too deep when you're going through some thin sheet
Goods and you've also got an ability to put multiple tracks together. So the standard track is gonna be
55 inches and
You can put two of these together
That way you can rip either sheet goods
Like four by eight sheet Goods the the width wise or you can put two together and go lengthwise
So that's that's a nice feature and that's kind of what I wanted to talk about is more or less not just this tool
But how it can be used efficiently out on the jobsite. So I think we've talked enough about the specs
Let's get into some of that. So here we go typical
Contractor is gonna have something like this circular saw everybody's seen one
most people have used one especially as a contractor and
We're just going to go through kind of the steps that it takes to cut a simple piece of three quarter sheet good
with a circular saw so first thing you're probably going to do is you're going to come on one side of your
material you're going to make a mark and then I'm gonna walk to the other side of my material and
Make another mark
Next you're gonna take your snap line
Hook that mark
Go to your other mark
Oops
Snap now before you do any cutting you're gonna want to make sure you got your hearing and eye protection in
And then you're gonna try to cut this line as perfect as possible
So no doubt that is a perfectly good way of cutting plywood
It's you've got the tool. Most people are already gonna have this
You know, it makes a lot of dust not every circular saw is going to have a dust port
It's not going to give you a perfect cut line when it comes to being perfectly straight
Although if I must say myself that is a really straight line with the circular saw
But that doesn't always happen now
Let's talk about a way to make it happen every time so with the makita track saw you don't have to really work very hard
Because the track is gonna make sure that you're perfect
So all we have to do is we're gonna do the same sort of starting procedure. We're gonna make our mark on one end
We're gonna make our mark on another end. Then we're gonna take this sweet track
hence
The name track saw and I'm sure most of you have seen these before
but I'm not gonna say that everybody has all I'm gonna do is I'm gonna set it up on
This mark and on the mark on the other end of the plywood now that we've got our marks
All we're gonna do is put the saw right in the track. So it glides nice and free
Now it may look like I just cut it with the circular saw again, but that's even more perfect
That is a perfectly straight line with zero effort
I just had to make two quick marks set the track and I was gone to the races now
I didn't set the depth of the saw correctly. So you guys probably saw that I do recommend
Just like with the circular saw
set the depth so that the blade kerf just barely pops out of your
Material and you're not going full depth every time because that's going to reduce your your battery
Run time and it's gonna put unnecessary wear on your blade. So just so I don't assume anything
What I'm talking about is setting the depth of the saw
So that when you plunge cut it doesn't go too deep
So all I'm gonna do is just double check so that the blade is just barely
making its way out of the material down here so you can see that and
I've got a stopper that way I won't go too deep
next time and when I make my cut and that's going to be the most efficient way to make
Your cut through material now
The even sweeter thing about most track saws is that they're gonna have built in dust ports
We already talked about it. The makita has the inch and a half outside diameter dust port already on it
And so what that's gonna allow you to do is not only make sweet clean. Perfect cuts
But it's also gonna allow you to keep the dust down on your job site
Maybe you're inside and not always outside where the dust kind of flows now, we're gonna go ahead and hook it up to the makita
36 volt cordless or corded vacuum. This is a HEPA filter
We're not doing a review on this although I feel like we're really heavy. I'm Makita today and
You know Makita. I'm throwing you a bone
I'm just saying but anyway, this thing can run on batteries, but I don't recommend it. It doesn't have a lot of sucking power
So whenever possible I go ahead and just plug it right in because it's definitely gonna do a lot better job
So let's go ahead and make a couple cuts with the track saw the vacuum and let's see the difference
So what's nice about the vac on the track saw is that
Just the way the whole chord setup or the host setup is it doesn't really like impede on the motion
It just is part of the whole tool like it was thought out and it definitely does a great job with dust collection
So not necessary, but hey if you got it and you want to use it
You're probably gonna thank yourself in the future. So quick side note
I just realized there is a speed adjustment knob or roller on the top and I had it on like the lowest speed possible
So I'm gonna make one more cut on high speed
I think it performed quite well, but I think maybe I'm speed number five. It might do even better
So I just want to do that real quick
Now I don't even know if that made a difference
going to the high speed and that might have something to do with the auto speed adjust that's built into this saw so it's gonna
Sense that torque that I was needing even though I was down on speed number two and you know went right through it
No problem. So that's a cool feature. I think
Really didn't notice the difference between two and five take that for what it's worth
But great saw it does a great job
And it really the main part of this video is to more or less tell you guys that track saws aren't just for
the cabinet shops or the shop work
It's really a great tool out on the job site
If you're doing a lot of sheet work and just in general
It's one of those tools that once you have you're gonna find a way to use it to be more productive
And efficient and that is what it's all about. So, there you go guys. I hope this video is helpful
Maybe you guys are gonna look to maybe up your game and go out and get a track saw
There's a couple different options
You guys have seen me use the DeWalt track saw which I really do like and once again
This isn't about a Makita or Dewalt or a review on the actual tool itself as much as it is the idea behind
Going out and getting a more efficient tool for the job
The makita I think is more refined smooth and just seems to perform really well
but I use the DeWalt out on site a lot because I just feel like it's rugged and you throw a
Flex volt 12 volt battery on it and it will rip forever. So take that for what it's worth
Let's go ahead and wrap this up if you guys enjoyed the video make sure you hit that subscribe button
smash that like as Peter McKinnon would say and by all means
drop a comment down below what you guys think is a track saw a good idea on your job site or
Do you think it's a horrible idea like I'm up for that discussion, too?
Let's have it down in the comments and we'll see you guys next week on tools day