Macallister flip over saw. Any Good?

[rileytoolworks]

Hi all. I was in B&Q this morning and noticed they have a Macallister brand flip over saw on sale for £130. I didn't look too closely at it cos I was the only customer (the doors had just opened) and the checkout girl was looking at me scornfully. Does anyone know if it's any good? I don't really need another mitre saw but the ability to flip it over to have a limited site tablesaw is tempting me...

 

[Andy Pullen]

I just saw them for £150 at wellingboro and though I didn't examine them too closely it seems quite a lot for your money. If I was in the market I'd go back for another look at least.

 

[eggflan]

£150 at my local store ,, they were £300 before xmas :shock:
I use a dewalt flip over saw at my day job and its ace but it was £700 so at £150 i recon this is a bargain , more so if you are short of space in your workshop , just buy a good blade for it and you could have the best of both worlds

 

[BradNaylor]

A flip-over saw is an invaluable tool for site work - I have an old Elu which has seen better days but still gets a lot of use.

I had a look at the McAllister one in B&Q the other day while SWMBO was loading up on discounted Christmas decorations for next year :roll: :roll: :roll:

I was reasonably impressed with the build quality for the price until...

... I managed to get the mitre saw locked down and couldn't get it loose again. 10 minutes of shoving and pushing and pulling later I gave up and nonchalantly strolled away whistling a tune.

Has anyone actually used one?

At £150 I could be tempted.

 

[Andy Pullen]

I found the thing that lets all flip over saws down is the fact that they have a fine ish tooth blade in them which is great for mitreing but as soon as you try and rip thick timber down the motor bogs down. They need a proper coarse ripping blade to change to when you flip it over unless you are only working with sheet material, IME.

 

[BradNaylor]

I found the thing that lets all flip over saws down is the fact that they have a fine ish tooth blade in them which is great for mitreing but as soon as you try and rip thick timber down the motor bogs down. They need a proper coarse ripping blade to change to when you flip it over unless you are only working with sheet material, IME.

Yes, I guess this would be a problem if you were a site joiner having to rip joists or something, but for fitting kitchens and bedrooms, which is pretty much all I do on site, it has never been an issue.

 

[The Welsh Workshop]

I would be interested in finding out what type of motor it has, induction/brushed.

I have used a 10" Draper table saw with a brushed motor and the noise was unbearable. Definite need to wear ear protection.

I would expect at that price it has a brushed motor.

Does anyone know if the more expensive models have induction or brushed motors???

Cheers Matt.

 

[mrat42]

I bought one on new years eve after checking them over a couple of times and looking at other options. Its a LOT of machine for the money - 58Kg weight. Its got a 36 month warranty for non professional use as long as you register it. I tried registration on-line and am not sure that the registration worked.

I was surprised to see it fully assembled (apart from guards / fences etc). The manual has a step by step set of instructions with pictures on a separate page. The pictures are small and not that clear. The instructions tell you to loosen the riving knife and relocate to the storage position when flipping over - you can't see this on the picture.

The power lead was a couple of metres of thick cable - much too short in my opinion - you can't easily move it to the closer to a power socket as you need the space around it.

The flip over function works easily and its reasonably well balanced with warning labels not to get you fingers in the way - could be very nasty if you did. However to flip over you have to adjust the blade to the fully up position, other wise the motor casing catches on the stand. When I first tried this the motor was fouling - in transit the blade had moved to about 10 degrees of tilt - when this was adjusted so the blade was vertical it was fine. (this does not seem to be mentioned in the manual). I have not got any further than this but i have had the motor running - takes a couple of seconds to get up to full speed. Not sure what sort of motor its got - but was surprised at it being so quiet (relatively for such a big motor). Technical specs give no clue as to the type of motor. It does say 2000W S6 40% 4 min load / 6 min no load --- I assume this is something to do with the duty cycle.

More to come once I have used it in anger.