Best Cordless Circular Saw?

I have the 18V Dewalt, it is very light duty, but works pretty well.

I have the 24V Hilti, use it all the time I love it.

I borrowed the 36V Hilti and it is insane and now I need it.

IMHO the only one to get at the moment is the 36V Hilti....but beware it only comes with one battery....and the price with 2 batteries is high....if your going to buy it then get the kit with the sawzall and TE-7A (awesome drill).

Oh and tell your kids they can't go to college anymore.

Gonna have to paint the Hilti green Warner, cause it will spank your handsaw hard.

That's a very good point, and one of the reasons I'm wanting a cordless. I had a small Delta that died a couple of years ago, and every so often it got used just because of that left-blade feature.

Thanks for all the quick responses, guys.

Hilti would be nice, but I want bang for my buck, not banged.

I've never cared for the ergonomics of DeWalt tools, and their cordless circ follows the pattern and fails to satisfy in that respect. Though Neo's happy with his, I'm a bit dubious about the new Porter Cable line in general. Still waiting for a consensus on that.

Right now, I'm leaning toward Makita. They have a good track record, and the cordless circ has been getting good reviews.

well i do not like the blade on the left. cant seem to cut straight at all. i have always had a saw whit the blade on the right, so i am not used to it.

but for me, the blade on a cordless has to be on the right.

my bro has a ridged and i really like it, another contractor has a bosh with the blade on the left...just cant get the hang of it

Hey WTH, my Ridgid cordless is blade left! That's cool though, I like it like that.

I have never gotten more value out of a power tool than I have with Hilti, they stand behind the product far better than any other manufacturer, two years ago my ancient TE-22 had the drive shaft break, I took it in for repair and was told that the tool was obsolete and well out of warranty, but that they would replace it for one third the price of the current model, which at the time was a TE-16-C. Twenty years from now when that tool breaks down the same replacement deal will apply, show me another company that will do that.

the only hilti i have is a 20 year old angle grinder that won't quit

Oh, I don't doubt that one bit. I've heard many stories similar to yours.

But for Hilti prices, I can use lesser brand tools as expendable throwaways and still come out ahead. For the work I do, that level of precision/ruggedness/service just isn't needed.

Mashed potatoes taste pretty much the same whether you're eating 'em off a paper plate or fine china.

I still like buying something one time. That just saves me time.

Not if it's a hand saw when you could be using a circ saw.

I really liked my Milwaukee cordless, but it got stolen. The DeWalt's do well & the Nano batteries are great, but the construction & design is better on the Milwaukee IMO.
Steve

He's got you there green boy.

I'm a fan of big red too, after 2 years I returned my cordless drill since the chuck was a little warn. It was a week and a half out of warrenty and I fully expected to pay, 3 days later purolator shows up with a new drill in a new case for free.

Tin, why not title the thread "whats a cheap throwaway circular saw that I will be happy with" instead of "best circular saw"?

The HILTI also rides the RAil




Lookout Festool
Craig

I have a Dewalt and a Makita, Both 18v, both 6 1/2". The Dewalt has more power and longer battery life. The Makita has better balance.

There's that ergonomic factor again. I like to work as comfortably as possible and not wind up being Little Gay Wrist by the end of the day.

What kind of batteries in each?

Ni Cad in the Dewalt and Lithium in the Makita. I generally grab the Makita first cause it looks so cool, and it's lighter and better balanced. The Dewalt is 3 years old, the Makita is a few months old. I put Freud Diablo blades on the Dewalt, but still have the original Makita blade on the other one, so maybe with a better blade the Makita would be better all-round. I remember it cut like butter when I first used it.

Here's a good test of a bunch of them. They test the 36v Dewalt though, not the 18v. Like others have noted here, the Hilti looks like it has insane amounts of power. There's a good chart there that compares the # of cuts and speed for each. The Makita was voted #2.

http://www.toolsofthetrade.net/indus...71677&artnum=1

You must have something wrong with your Makita. Dewalt only uses a 2.4ah cell configuration and makita uses a 3.0ah config so you should have quite a bit longer run time. Makita also uses a more efficient motor. This is also based on The Li-ion cells both company's use. If you are comparing with dewalts ni-cd then the makita should be lots better. Also remember that the blade quality can make almost as much difference as the cell Ah rating. If you put the exact same blade in each tool then the Makita will be more powerful and run for longer. It has an extra 6amps of available amp draw and 0.6ah runtime.

What a strange test. They put a set of 18v tools up against 36v tools and then give rateing across the sets as a whole. They should have tested the 18's and 36's in different groups

Whats also strange is the bosch 36v has a lower AH than the 18v model.