thorswolf's Full Review: Milwaukee Tool Milwaukee Tilt - Lok 7 - 1/4" Circu...
To write a circular saw review, you have to have some sort of frame of reference. After all, for the neophyte, a circular saw is a circular saw is a circular saw... not so.
My first circular saw was an inexpensive (read cheap) Black and Decker 7-inch jobby. Not bad I thought, it cut the way I wanted it to MOST times and what more can you ask of a tool? When my birthday came around, I got permission from "she-who-must-be-obeyed" to buy a new saw. Cool! No price limit... doubly cool! I'm a research kinda guy and found some few comparison tests out there and this one and a Delta product seemed tops. I went with the Milwaukee and boy am I glad I did.
Cutting power: Awesome. That's the only word you can use. The chewing power of this baby is something that needs to be seen. Even cutting through green wood at full blade depth, something I've done when cutting the posts for my deck, the saw doesn't complain. I've had to cut through already installed hardwood, which means dropping the saw into the wood. Also no problem. The blade included with the Milwaukee is very good and will happily chew through most anything. I also keep a fishining cut blade around for the better cuts I need to do. No chattering, no kick back, no getting stuck. The power is phenomenal.
Depth adjustment and blade angle: The depth of the cut is adjusted via a quick release lever that saves on your fingertips (wing nut) or finding the right %$#@!* wrench for the job. Same with the blade angle adjustment, a simple lever releases the lock on the shoe angle, making angle adjustments a breeze. The one drawback to this is that, after some extensive use, the levers need to be thoroughly cleaned and can probably use a drop of oil to keep them moving smoothly. Also, don't overtighten these levers. Snug is what you want, or it may take one of your gorilla-type knuckle-dragging buddies to release the lever the next time. They are easy to overtighten. Otherwise, no complaints.
Sight lineOne important factor for me is sight line, the ability to see where you're cutting. With the position of the front handle on my old B&D, I had to literally lean forward to watch the blade coming towards me to see the cut. You can imagine the types of contortions I used to have to do, and the comfort level this gives you, not even mentioning the mouthfulls of sawdust ingested. Not this one. I did see another product by Bosch that had extended the front handle very far forward which provides impeccable sight line on BOTH sides of that saw, but the price of Bosch tools is in the "Gulp" category. The sightline for the Milwaukee is very good. Best on the side where there is no handle, but also very good on the other side as well due to the positionin gof the front handle. You can do just about any cut without bending over the tool itself. The shoe notch in the front that indicates the cutline is dead on also and using only that can make rough cuts, suchj as the final edging of deck boards, very easy.
Dust: A big headache on some saws. How can you see your cutline when the saw keeps sending sawdust all over it? The Milwaukee's dust disposal slot doesn't seem like much to write home about, just a little slot on the side of the upper guard, but boy does it work well. Sawdust either drops below the piece you're cutting, and I'd say 85% of the rest gets kicked out of that little dist port. I have not, in all the uses I've made of it, ever lost sight of my cutline because of excessive sawdust. High kudos on this one.
Tilt-Lok: Most of the reviews in this area have raved about the Tilt-Lok feature. Yes, I agree, it is a very handy feature, especially when you're working on a fixed piece (deck, pergola, or other) where moving the piece to fit your sawing comfort is impossible. I did find, though, that dust accumulation tended to make the Tilt-Lok mechanism quite a bit stiffer to operate. While a nice feature, I rarely use it myself. But it IS there when I need it, which is a bonus. Another nice feature right up there with the Tilt-Lok is the power cable quick release. Should you happen to damage the power cord or need to replace it, push the quick release button, turn the power cord socket 1/4 turn, and voilą! Done!
Shoe qualityThis, more than anything, is what decided me on this tool compared to the Delta. The Delta had a (sturdy) plastic shoe, and call me an old fogie, I like metal. The accuracy of the shoe to saw blade angle was dead-on out of the box and still is. Adjustment of the shoe/saw angle is pretty easily done if needed and only requires one screwdriver. The one drawback of the shoe is that it is slightly toed-in at the front end. Since I own a regular miter saw (sot a sliding one), cuts wider than six inches are done with the Milwaukee and a cutting guide. The toe-in of the shoe can make the start of the cut a tad wide as it is possible to start the cut off of true square. The result is a somewhat uneven cut. But I'm really nit-picking here and forewarned is fore-armed, right? The shoe is nice and stiff and supports the saw very well. The distance from the shoe edge to the saw blade is also a nice round number as compared to my old B&D which was 1 5/16". You can imagine the mental calculation gymnastics I had to do with that saw.
Blade change: Dirt easy. The blade release tool is stored right on the saw. Hold the blade lock button and use the tool to unscrew. I have started building pieces of furniture for around the house and use a Freud finishing blade for the cross cuts on those pieces. The combination of Freud blade and Milwaukee saw makes for cuts that are ready for FINISH (220 grit) sanding only!
Overall, you would have to pay a lot of dollars to beat this saw. It has it all. The convenience and comfort of any type of adjustment you like, coupled with quick-release everything is hard to beat. When you add the power that comes with this saw, well... I don't believe I'll ever have to replace this saw. It's that good.
UPDATE: A user asked whether the blade depth adjustment was plastic. The answer is, as always, yes and no. The Actual lever for the adjustment is plastic, but the rest of the adjustment mechanism is steel. Like I mentioned in the review, I HAVE locked this lever down too tight the first few times, and if there was an opportunity to break that plastic handle, it was when I was giving myself a hernia trying to loosen it again. No fears of stripping or breaking it here.
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