track saws

[opticsguy]

Curious about the variety of uses for a track saw. My interest comes from watching a guy use a track saw and short track for cutting beams for his post and beam building. he used it for cutting angles and tenons and other. I have very little use for cutting sheet goods but a lot of interest in cutting boards and thicker materials. The one limit I see with a track saw is the small depth of cut. Your comments about your first hand experiences appreciated. I also see Bosch has come out with a track saw but is it available in North America?

[fredhargis]

Mine gets as much use straight edging rough sawn lumber as it does for sheet goods (the main reason I bought it). But I also find it handier for trimming doors than a circ saw/guide routine I used to do. I bevel ripped some 2x4 stock for a shed when I first got it (TS55) and it was great for that. I've also seen a Triton model advertised recently, though I haven't heard squat (reviews) about them.

[meackerman]

one of the mags reviewed a bunch of them not to long ago. fine homebuilding IIRC.

[JDuke]

once you have one, youll find lots of uses for it.

cutting the live edge off a piece of lumber to get a straight edge for the table saw.

Cutting an angle is as easy as marking the end points then laying the track onto the two dots and connecting with the saw.

When your laying wood floor and want to cut an edge on that last piece to scribe it to a wall thats not quite parallel to the flooring, you scribe a line, and if the line is straight just drop the track on and cut.

breaking down is not just for sheet goods, I use a piece of 1" foam on garage floor and lay 10' boards on it to cross cut with track saw.

Duke

[jppierson]

I opted to use the Eurekazone EZ system. It uses your own circular saw so you do lose depth of cut. A 7-1/2 saw won't cut through a 2x4. I did find a used 8-1/2 saw that resolves that issue. I don't own a tablesaw. I also bought their worktable (EZ-1). I like the portability, and particularly the safety. The business end of the blade is below the surface of the wood and the track acts as a hold-down. The newest edition of the base basically resolves kickback issues. I know a lot of folks like the F-tool stuff, but it is pretty pricey. Some of the others that have tracks don't have as complete a system package that you can grow into if you like. You can get a lot of system adapting your own saw to the EZ baseplate for the same money as a F-tool saw only. I'm not saying to get rid of your table saw but a track saw can do much of what a table saw can do, and it takes up much less space in the shop. You can also purchase pre-configured saws that are setup for dust collection. If you need large depth of cut for timbers and such there are videos of a 10" circular saw mounted to the base. You can use sidewinders, left or right mounted saws, what ever will fit inside the base plate. The EZ guys, I believe have a base available that can adapt to larger footprint saws, although this is a little more work than their off the shelf stuff. There is a router setup that can ride the same track that is darned useful also. Track saws, as you stated, are superb for sheet goods, but can be used for some pretty fancy taper cuts that require no jig. There is a small learning curve when doing tablesaw-like work because the cut is under the blade and not on top. If you follow the concept to secure your work there is no kickback because the cut is guided, you get great quality of cut with no splintering, the keeper and off cut are secured and the work protects your flesh from the rotating blade. You don't get the same bevel capacity nor do you have dado capability. You do get portability since you really only need the track, saw, and perhaps a couple clamps to do just about anything a table saw can do. I like the open top EZ-1 table since it affords great flexibility in securing your work. I have taken my table and tracksaw from the garage to basement to whatever room I happen to be working in by removing the 4 aluminum legs and re-assembling. It weighs about 40lbs.

Rockler

EurekaZone

[Steve N]

I separate work into smaller items (Under 6" long) that I bring to the tool, be it TS, BS, Jointer, Planer, etc. The rest of the work I bring tool to the work, because moving the work around is just too much like work. IE trying to cut full sheets of ply on a TS, etc.

The track saw jumps in as the best alternative to bring a sawing tool to the work that I own. I have a few beer powered hand saws, but they are a LOT like work. The track saw is smooth, easy, and very accurate.

[JR1]

I have the TS55 and the MFT table for it. Except for ocassional single cuts (hand saw) I use it for everything. I also have a jigsaw that fits the rails as well. With a router or router table and the track saw you can do everything that a table saw can do and a whole lot more. The only limitation on size is your ability to mark the material accurately and the amount of track that you have.

[bhh]

I keep hearing this and will never believe it.

Limitations:
* small pieces, that I can cut well with my sliding crosscut table

* cuts along a narrow edge such as edge/end-grain splines, tenons, rabbets, resawing, tapered legs

* Cuts along a mitered edge -- keyed miters, splined miters

* Any time you have to measure, mark and move gives you a chance to make an error. With a fence or stop block, you can make repeatable cuts all day long - measure once, cut many. Same for things like angled cuts. A well-tuned fixture or miter gauge can cut miters repeatably. Tenon shoulders that align.

* odd-shaped pieces such as molded profiles that need miters, bevels, scarf joint, or even straight cuts

* Joinery like box joints, machine cut dovetails, compound miters such as crown molding.

* Specialty cuts like cove cutting.

* Dadoes

* Bevel at any angle I wish, even more than 45 degrees such as raised panels & beveled edge table tops

While you might do some of these on a router table, it means having the right bit and swapping it, measuring distance to a fence, & running a sample piece. With a table saw you can just set to the scale and know it's accurate.

Maybe you can do everything that you do; I can't

JR1 said:

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I have the TS55 and the MFT table for it. Except for ocassional single cuts (hand saw) I use it for everything. I also have a jigsaw that fits the rails as well. With a router or router table and the track saw you can do everything that a table saw can do and a whole lot more. The only limitation on size is your ability to mark the material accurately and the amount of track that you have.

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[JR1]

Well I do admit that you need various attachments for some of those. For instance for cutting thin pieces the parallel guides make that easy. You also need the angle adjuster for odd angles, and the MFT is necessary for smaller parts. I'll admit that I have a horizontal router table as well as a regular and that it has a variable angle adjustment so I can cut any angle miter with just a good straight bit.

But how do you handle a large piece of sheet goods safely. A good slider does 4x8 just fine and I've seen a lot cut on a contractors saw (although some of the guys make me cringe); but how about 16x24 siding?

[JGrout]

it seems that bigger sheet stock is the forte of a tracksaw

trouble is parts continually get smaller as you cut and frankly the smaller and more accurate the cut required the less I like a track saw.