Any opinions on the Makita Plunge Saw?

[David Weaver]

At some point, I'm going to need to get a plunge saw to comply with building requests from SWMBO.

The first choice, money no object and no bias (on my part) would probably be the TS55. I don't, however, want to patronize festool at a higher price for no reason if there is no need to, and my bias is against them to begin with.

I couldn't find anything in search on the makita 6000 series plunge saw on here, but have found online that it is basically an english-made clone of the TS55 and the reviews are favorable.

Anyone with any experience? I am a hand tool woodwork, I just want something that cuts ply reasonably precisely, i don't want to live and die by the thing. I don't do any more with power tools than I have to.

If there has already been a thread on this saw vs. the ts55, please direct me to it.

Also, i have no interest in the dewalt plunge saw. It's either the makita saw or the TS55.

[Ryan Hellmer]

I have the SPK6001 kit with a 55" rail and LOVE it. I too was hung up on which tracksaw option to pursue. I got mine to complete a cabinet project and have used it to break down 12 sheets of ply so far, works like a charm. Perfect splinter free cuts top and bottom. I think it is certainly comparable to the festool. My only beef is that the kit doesn't come with clamps to hold the track down. I've heard that DeWalt clamps work the best as they are the quick-grip style. I can't decide if I'll go with those or stick with Makita, but certainly get some clamps with your track. The Makita is also (from what I understand) compatible with the Festool rails, but Festool rails don't have a hold-down feature that is on the Makitas (to keep the saw from tipping when beveled). I got mine for $368 with free shipping (yes that included the rail) from dynamite tool. I'd do it again and recommend it to anyone.

Ryan

[David Weaver]

Is it necessary to buy a long rail instead of two short ones and a connector?

I have a 4ft starrett edge, and I'm assuming if I have to, i can attach the connectors and line up the joint with that and be OK?

I have to build a few hardwood ply pieces of furniture, thus the question on the saw.

[Greg R Bradley]

I used an earlier Festool tracksaw 30 years ago and was impressed. The newer ones are even better. I regularly borrowed both the Makita and Festool and liked both. The differences between them are pretty minor. I have a few friends that have the Dewalt Tracksaw and it seems very similar. For limited use, I doubt you would ever notice any difference. Festool does have more accessories and they work with each other better. It also tends to be a bit more expensive. The price difference is mostly better discounts available on Makita and Dewalt.

You can hook two tracks together with connectors pretty easily. It is extra work and not quite as rigid but acceptable when you need it. Reason #3 for choosing the TS55 was it was onsale for 10% off, making the price the same. Reason #2 was Makita only has two track lengths available, which did not include two that I had used and assumed I would eventually buy. Reason #1 was the accessory kit with the "magic" angle kit. The reason I didn't know at the time was how fabulous the parallel guides are and that my neighbor would buy them so that I could borrow them when I need them.

Disclaimer: I have a mild preference against Dewalt. I have a mild preference toward both Makita and Festool.

[David Weaver]

My understanding is that you can just use the makita saw on the festool tracks as they are basically an exact copy with the new ones, is that correct?

A makita saw is $360 with a piece of track. Festool might've been on my list two price increases ago, but at $500, they've run themselves above my tolerance level with price increases in the last couple of years if there isn't a serious difference for me, as a casual user and generally non-enthusiast when it comes to power tools.

[Van Huskey]

The biggest difference between the Makita and the Dewalt/Festool is the riving knife, for sheet good I see that as a non-issue.

I understand Dewalt is off the table but the Dewalt has been available on Amazon for the about the price of the Makita, the difference between the Dewalt and Festool in function is far smaller (basically non-existent) than many people think. I have the TS55 and the Cordless Dewalt.

[David Weaver]

Can the dewalt use track from the festool, like it appears that the makita does?

Not a big difference to me on the RK, either, given it's on a guide.

I just went through the dewally reviews and the track gets a couple of negatives. I didn't see a comment about the length, but why is their track only 102 inches long? Not much room to work with on a 96" sheet with that. That said, the long track for the makita and the festool is so expensive that maybe one could live with it? (so far price comparison, festool at $500 plus $260 for a long guide rail, dewally is $500 including the long rail, and the makita is $360 + 250 for the long rail - $610 total). Not necessarily going to back out of a $110 price difference, but the festool is not close, and neither the dewally or makita appear to be third-world made.

Strange that I saw reviews both in makita and dewally where people claimed their 12 amp saws a noticeably higher power output than the festool. I normally use hand tools, I doubt I would ever notice it.

[Van Huskey]

Can the dewalt use track from the festool, like it appears that the makita does?

Not a big difference to me on the RK, either, given it's on a guide.

I just went through the dewally reviews and the track gets a couple of negatives. I didn't see a comment about the length, but why is their track only 102 inches long? Not much room to work with on a 96" sheet with that. That said, the long track for the makita and the festool is so expensive that maybe one could live with it? (so far price comparison, festool at $500 plus $260 for a long guide rail, dewally is $500 including the long rail, and the makita is $360 + 250 for the long rail - $610 total). Not necessarily going to back out of a $110 price difference, but the festool is not close, and neither the dewally or makita appear to be third-world made.

Strange that I saw reviews both in makita and dewally where people claimed their 12 amp saws a noticeably higher power output than the festool. I normally use hand tools, I doubt I would ever notice it.


The Dewalt will run on the Festool track (but not the other way around). I got Festool track since I only have to have one set of tracks BUT had the Festool run on the Dewalt track I would have gotten the Dewalt, I like the ability to use both sides of the rail so you can have strips cut for two different blades.

[David Weaver]

Thanks, van. Very helpful.

If they will all run on festool track, then i'm not so closed to the dewally.

[Tru Thach]

I just bought the Makita Plunge Saw last the Black Friday sale. It's great saw. I had used to cross 2" thick hard maple for
my bed project. I was surprise it held up for the cross cut. I'm sure it will be great for the plywood.

I like the scoring cut feature. If you get this, you can buy the Bosch clamp and rail connectors. Bosch clamps are much
cheaper than Makita and Festool. I got mine at allprotools.com.

[David Weaver]

I ordered the makita saw and short track. I have some reservations about their being able to ship the track in the first place, especially the long track, so I'll buy a long festool track at one of the 367 local stores that carry festool.

Amazon went nutty and increased the price $70, so i ordered it from some place called dynamitetool (which just looks like another drop shipper, anyway). All of the reviews said that amazon straps the systainer to the rail and the rail gets bent, and not to order it from them, anyway.

I looked around for the dewalt briefly, but the only tempting deal was from tool king, and after a previous experience where I'm still left with a broken tool that they never did anything about, I won't be testing their customer service again on something that is likely to get bent in transit. My last experience with them was only resolved after a month when I just used my own coin to buy replacement parts and gave up on them telling me that their not getting back to me multiple times was out of character, each time followed by them ....not getting back to me. Fool me once....

Dynamite tools reviews aren't the greatest, either....should've checked that first! They all drop ship, anyway - hopefully it shows up OK.

The only one of these saws that I've seen locally anywhere is the festool.

[Ryan Hellmer]

I don't think you'll have any issues. Dynamite ships in 2 separate boxes and the track is very well packaged in my estimation. Mine got here just fine. Did you order clamps with it?

Ryan

[David Weaver]

Thanks Ryan, i'm glad to hear the two box thing.

I didn't order camps, I have clamps and hold downs of all shapes and sizes coming out of my rear end, and want to see if I have something that will work with it before i order more.

I agree with your comment, though - if I do have to get clamps, since it's not something that needs to be held down like railroad tracks, I'll probably go with the dewalt clamps. I don't want any more threaded hold downs if I can help it.

[Mark Denovich]

I like mine... haven't used the Festool to compare... but I do have Festool rails (came with a used MFT1080 table) and Festool clamps and it works fine with them.

[David Weaver]

Well, (edited this post) a lot of confusion with dynamite tools, but it seems like the problem with the order may have been a glitch in paypal's system, that makes the order go through to them and then doesn't fund it with paypal dollars. Not pleased with paypal at this point, thought it was dynamite's fault, but I think it should be put on paypal because paypal's dumb "confirmed" address system wants you to add a new credit card every single time you have to reconfirm an address - it will not use their own (paypal's) credit card, which they provide to confirm an address, to confirm the address and authorize the transfer of money to the merchant. What a pain. In order to continue to make orders to merchants who require a reconfirmation of the address each time you order, you have to either have an infinite number of active credit cards or go back through paypal and remove all of your credit cards so you can fake the system out and re-add them each time.

Back to square one - ordered from tools plus.

[Julian Tracy]

No one's ever accused the TS55 of being super powerful, so it wouldn't surprise me if the Makita had a bit more oomph. I have a TS55, but from the reviews I've read, the Makita basically meets or exceeds it and we all know it's cheaper, so I'd say buy the Mak with no regrets.

And having a scoring cut feature would be worth it right there - the Festool has no such feature.

Not sure if the Mak has the outboard anti-splinter attach though - that does come it handy at times.

JT

[David Weaver]

I should know in about a week. I almost bought the dewalt again (almost did the first time, too) when putting my order in, but the fact that I can't really get anything locally other than festool track parts and connectors put me back on the makita.

tools plus had the same price as the other lowest-price drop shippers, and I've had better experience with them than tool king (who had the best price on the dewalt, and i probably would've gone with that if it was someone else other than TK filling the orders.

Given the comments that the connectors are tolerable, I ordered a second 59" rail, and I'll just pick up the festool connectors up the street at rockler. I have some reservations about getting a long rail shipped, but maybe that's just unreasonable fear.

I have not had great experiences with damaged items from the drop shippers (several times it's been less hassle just to eat it), and from what I can tell, not many places actually stock any of the saws other than the festool. The ones that do have the comment "in stock" appear to be just updating their stock information from wherever they're drop shipping.

All of the local places that I could order any of them from have awful prices. They are about $150 off from the mail order prices. that's too bad.

[Tru Thach]

I ordered my Mak from Toolbarn.com and absolutely had positive experience, shipped right away after ordering.
I took my rail into WoodCraft in Chicago's suburbs just to make sure the Festool's clamp would fit. The Festool
clamp fits perfectly. However, I was going to purchase the Festool clamps but its employee was giving me attitude
about my Mak rail, saying something about "how much did I paid for that chinese tools?"

So I ended up ordering the Bosch's clamps and connectors from Allprotools.com.

You'll enjoy this Makita tool.