De-walt plunge saw

[BECKS]

Greetings, Has anybody got any thoughts on crosscutting 18mm veneered ply with the 18v version? I have lots of batteries and thought I would buy just the naked saw + guide-rail for around £150. It is just a one off job and can"t justify the cost of the bigger boy. Many thanks :?:

 

[big soft moose]

We've got the mains version and the main things i'd say are that

a) the rail slides arround if not clamped down - the anti slide matting on its underside is useless - so i'd buy the optional clamps as well when you get the rail

and

b) in my experience the anti chip isnt great so i'd be inclined to stick masking tape along the cut or clapm some sacrificial mdf along it to protect the veneer.

 

[BECKS]

Thanks for that, I see the dewalt clamps are £47! I suppose you could adapt a normal pair. Mayby stick with scribing with a stanley + straight edge and plane back to the line? How do others cut veneered stuff?

 

[big soft moose]

Thanks for that, I see the dewalt clamps are £47! I suppose you could adapt a normal pair. Mayby stick with scribing with a stanley + straight edge and plane back to the line? How do others cut veneered stuff?

some people reckon you can use the bog standard spring clamps on the edge of the track and the saw will pass over them - in my experience that isnt the case but that may be down to my spring clamps having fat ends.

you can also stick doubleside sticky tape to the underside of the track to hold it in place - but of course this makes swaping from one work piece to the next slower work

I tried all the dodges and in theend just said the hell with it and bought the dewalt clamps - helped to the decision admittedly by the fact that work were paying rather than myself.

regarding the chipping the nice men at axminster suggest that this may be down to the blade - if i was cutting veneer regularly (which we dont - its main use is ripping down 8x4 sheets of ply for notice boards) i'd be inclined to buy a finer toothed cmt blade to replace the one the saw comes with

 

[ndbrown]

I have the 18v version, I have not cut a huge amount of veneered board, but have changed the blade to a fine pitch one and suffered no chipping. Agree the rail is inclined to move, but the last time I looked, the local dealer was able to do clamps at around £35 including VAT. On my list of things to get soon. Happy with saw and bought the bare one and one rail. Using this with 18v Makita Li-ion batteries as I dont have any Dewalt cordless kit but do have several 18v Makita LXT items (covered in a previous post by me a few weeks ago).
Regards
Nigel

 

[petermillard]

...the rail slides arround if not clamped down - the anti slide matting on its underside is useless...

Wow, that's bad. The only time I clamp a Festool rail is if I'm doing a bevel cut, or repeat passes with a router.

I guess the other option for the veneer cut would be to run a shallow scoring cut first - usually backwards - but of course, you'd need to clamp the rail for that...

£47 may seem like a lot for a pair of clamps, but how much were those sheets of veneered ply again?? Be a shame to screw one of them up just 'cos the rail slipped eh?

Cheers, Pete