Dewalt Track Saw and Solid Surface Laminates

[Adrian Mc Millan]

Good Day,

I was wondering if the Dewalt Track Saw can be used to cut Solid Surface Laminates. I was watching a video on Youtube with a guy doing this and one of the comments (the only comment and dislike) stated that this was not to be done according to the documentation. However I am not seeing where it explicitly forbids the this saw for this purpose. Can anyone guide me. it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[Bruce Volden]

Well, I for one don't see why it can't be done. That being said I would recommend a solid surface blade on the saw--it will not create any "tear out" like a ww'ing blade will do. Also, welcome to the creek.
Bruce

[Bill White]

Solid surface "laminates" is a misnomer. Laminates indicate a product like Formica. Solid surfaces are acrillic, granite, man made such as Silestone, etc. What are ya tryin' to cut?
Bill

[Adrian Mc Millan]

Thank you for the warm welcome Bruce and also to you Bill for the guidance and clarification. I have been looking into thicker, acrylic based solid surfaces.
I suspect that granite or any type of stone regardless the thickness would use a different tool? When choosing a track saw I had the Dewalt and Festool Brands to choose from and chose the Dewalt because of the simplicity of the accessories and price without continuously buying into an entire system (small work area...garage, driveway). In the line up of uses I realized that the Festool marketed itself as an all purpose cutting tool for a variety of surfaces in their videos. however I really like my Dewalt TS since I have started using it. It also seems to be able to use the Festool specialty blades, however I am not sure if the tool was necessarily designed to work with harder materials (motor design, etc).

Thank you for the attention given guys.

[Charles Brown]

Adrian, we use both the large and small size festool track saws to cut corian, hi-macs, etc. (those are just the brand names of some solid surface acrylic products). I know we use the solid surface blade available from festool but we also had one that was from the Forrest blade company that fit these saws. We would use the track saws to cut in sinks on site as well as scribe in tapers, etc. In fact, using the festool saw with the dust collector while cutting the acrylic was amazing. Very little dust escaped and that kept clean up time to a minimum.

[Adrian Mc Millan]

Hi Charles,

Thanks for the reply, can you tell me the exact blade that you purchased. I will be buying a secondary track saw at some point because I am becoming very reliant on this type tool for cabinet making. I was thinking the Festool but I see that Bosch is also coming out with their own version. I must say regardless of brands these are very good tools.

I am also interested in anyone's experiences regarding the Dewalt specifically, in cutting harder materials. I know I must sound nervous, I guess I am looking to be reassured that I am not putting the tool through a process that can potentially damage the tool. The Festool is tried tested and true according to the experiences here, I hear very little about the same application with the Dewalt. Thanks.

[Jeff Bartley]

Adrian,
The Dewalt and the Festool are both capable of cutting laminates, neither saw is intended to cut solids like granite or other stones. Blades will have the biggest impact on cut quality.....the good laminate blades are worth the money. Make sure when purchasing a blade that it's the same size as the stock blade or your depth adjustment scale will be off.
And I'll second the advise to run that saw with dust collection; it's so easy to hook up a vac to it there's really no reason not to do it!
Now if I could just save up for that 102" guide for my saw!

[Bill White]

Duh! I really do know how to spell acrylic.
Bill

[Charles Brown]

Adrian, the festool blade is their solid surface / laminate 60T blade. I think it's only available for the bigger saw. Call forrest and ask them if they have blades, etc. for the various track saws. They usually have the saw diameter you're looking for and if they need to can bore a custom hole pattern to mount it on the saw.

[Brian Ross]

I just bought the 106 track and the blade that Festool recommends for solid surface. I have the smaller Festool saw. Festool have a solid surface fabrication course at their facility and IIRC it is at Indianapolis. This is not recognized as a certification course by the solid surface Industry but undoubtly would be worthwhile.Thanks to those that posted their experiences with the track saw cutting solid surface. I could not see why it wouldn't work but nice to hear from those that have done it.

Brian