I have the Makita and love it. As far as the riving knife is concerned I see no use for it the track keeps the saw straight. It is great for breaking down large sheets of plywood.

 

I m curious which bit you went with to cut the holes. I see a lot of positive reports on the Festool 20mm cutter but the price is half way to an MFT rplacement top. Some people use the top with a template bit with good results. I m thinking their must be more afordabke options to the Festool bit.

Thanks,
George

I used the raven template for I think $40. it works on pegboard. I can t say it is exactly the same as an MFT, but the holes are in line and at 90 or at least as close as I can see.

TSO has a square for $160. https://tsoproducts.com/tso-guide-rail-squares/grs-16-guide-rail-square/

- RobS888

- gtrgeo

Bosch 20mm bit, $30 on Amazon, but you need an 8mm adaptor as well.

The designer of the raven template suggests making the holes in the pegboard first. I would do that if I was making it again.

 

I have the Makita and love it. As far as the riving knife is concerned I see no use for it the track keeps the saw straight. It is great for breaking down large sheets of plywood.

- ToughCut

What if the wood closes up? Not a problem with plywood, but how does the riving knife cause any issues if installed? I'm not really aware of mine except when changing blades and then it is oh yeah, I have a riving knife.

 

I plan on using a 4X8 sheet of 1/4 PEG board, as a templet, to locate the Pilot Holes (4 inches apart) for my 20MM Dog holes in my Assembly Table. This should locate the Holes at 90 degrees to each other and be 99.9% accurate, I think.

 

I plan on using a 4X8 sheet of 1/4 PEG board, as a templet, to locate the Pilot Holes (4 inches apart) for my 20MM Dog holes in my Assembly Table. This should locate the Holes at 90 degrees to each other and be 99.9% accurate, I think.

- BigPapaPorsche1

Put a set of crosscutting holes outside of the grid, but aligned with it, then you won't have large pieces butting up to the crosscutting dogs. I cut a set that were 7 inches from the edge of my assembly table so the track was 1/4 past the edge as well and designated them for crosscutting.

 

Over the years I've used straight edges with a circular saw and last year I built a couple of guides that controlled the saw to prevent me from wandering off course. One was for cross cutting panels and the other would go the full 8'. The longer one used a strip of aluminum that screwed to the base of the saw but to use the shorter guide or to use the circular saw as a regular saw I had to remove the aluminum strip. There was also the issue of the huge amount of sawdust it threw everywhere.

A month ago I bought a Kreg track saw on the Woodcraft sale where the second track and joiners were included at no additional charge. I've used it several times so far and don't regret the purchase one bit. The cuts are smooth and straight. It has a riving knife. I use it with my Shop Vac and Dust Deputy. The dust collection is amazingly good. The only down side is that the braking when the trigger is released is much louder than the sawing so I quickly decided to only use it with hearing protection.

 

I've had a DeWalt since they had them. Currently I have both the long, and short rail, and there is nothing on a 4' x 8' sheet I can't get with the long one, and most crosscuts I find the 4' just about right.

Provided you miss the rail the saw locks in, and stay out of the bearing strips you can screw it to a wall, and use it as a panel saw. The DeWalt has a riving knife, and once it's on the track it will not go backward while under power. Both are anti kickback related safeties, so I can't talk about kickback.

Plenty of power to make up to 2 1/8" cuts, and for me through anything I have tried it on. Pretty easy through hard Maple, and Oak.

Tilt works as you would want it to. Goes up to 47* About 1 5/8 " at 45.

I've found my cuts even with their blade to be splinter free, but I almost always cut into a pink foam board, or a beater plywood sheet. Freud sells a really good blade that fits, and using them takes your cuts to a special place. The DeWalt spec is 6.5" and the Freud is 160mm, so you are something like 4 to 5mm shy of the DeWalt size. All you lose is a spec of the depth of cut, but at 90 I can do 8/4 all day long.

I'm on my 4th one. People keep buying them off of me, so I have to go get another one. I've yet to have any problems with any of them new, and I have worked them pretty hard. Nice saws.

 

I love my Makita cordless plunge saw - I actually have two of them now. For deep straight line rip cuts I bought a Makita 9-1/4" circular saw that works on the rail (they also have a 7-1/4" version).

Warning - this becomes a vortex. Next you will need accessories like TSO square and parallel guides.

 

If you use the saw to cut thin strips as for woodstrip canoes, a riving knife can keep the strips from wobbling into the back of the blade, making the cut much cleaner.

 

I have the Makita corded, So far it works flawlessly, I can't see any need for a riving knife on track saw.

 

If you are just looking to break down sheet good, save your money. If you are looking for not have to wrestle with large pieces on a table saw, get ready to spend more on tracksaw accessories to make perpendicular and parallel cuts.

Yeah, it's a slippery slope.

A tracksaw is easy to setup for long straight cuts. It's more work to make long or short precise perpendicular and parallel cuts without additional accessories. If all you need is a 1/8" to 1/16" out of square or parallel you can do it without much effort or accessories.

For available accessories, Festool and Makita seem to have the most options, followed my dewalt and then is quickly goes down from there. Aftermarket accessories seem to work better than mfg ones (although Festool does have good ones).

I have a cordless Makita tracksaw, I got it for free, it works really well. I have spent more on accessories than the the value of the saw and medium length track.

A diy track and circular saw and a nice table saw is my recommendation for most bang for the buck.