Small Circular Saw Advice

[kmp]

I have an issue with a small cheap circular saw I bought just before last christmas. I bought a lightweight one to do a small area of flooring. Although I have only used it a couple of times it seemed to be OK and produced reasonable cuts with little breakout, today I tried to cut some 18mm plywood and couldn't get a straight line (cut seemed to vary in thickness) and the breakout was awful. Fitting a new blade made no improvement so I have had a better look, the blade arbor has a fair bit of play, about 2mm at the blade teeth which I think is excessive. Any advice on if this is typical of this type of saw or is it likely a bearing has failed? The saw is a Mac Allister 1200w from B&Q, my old Black and Decker Pro saw from some 30 years ago has absolutely no play at all.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Keith

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Don't buy MacAllister again?

 

[longinthetooth]

If you buy crap then you will get crap. In my view, since the purchaser (you in this case) is often innocent, it is unethical to sell such poorly-conceived products.

Not worth repairing.

 

[kmp]

Thanks guys, I'll just have to except that this tool buying business is a bit of an expensive learning curve. While it seems that it could be exchanged I'm not sure another one is worth getting.

I am thinking about replacing it with a "plunge saw" but again can't really justify the expense of a Festool etc so have been looking at the Scheppach/Woodstar version. Any experience with this type? I'm looking for an affordable tool which will stand up to typical DIY use and last a little longer than a few months.

Any help would be very useful.

Keith

 

[marcros]

There are a few threads on the scheppach ts55. One was started by me. The current model is different to the early ones- the current model is a couple of years old now. The consensus seems to be that it is not quite a festool but is good value for money and performs very well. There are a couple of things that arent quite as good as the festool- splinter guard for instance. The woodstar IIRC is a bit of a dog.

For 219 including the 2 rails I thing the scheppach would be a good choice for non professional use and probably more besides. If you are using it all day every day, the festool is probably a no brainier, but is a bit harder to justify if it is only needed a few times a year.

 

[marcros]

Sorry it is the cs55 not ts55.

This is my old thread

post750966.html?hilit=Scheppach%20cs55#p750966

 

[kmp]

Marcros, thanks very much for that it answers the questions I had in mind. Having looked for one I find that very few places have them available. I see the Screwfix do a PL45 version but the pictures don't seem to match the later version of the CS55 you reviewed. I will have to have a better look to see if I can find a supplier as it looks and sounds just the thing for my type of use.

Thanks again for your help

Keith