Ole Anderson
02-06-2012, 9:31 AM
My son and I spent an evening and a full Saturday installing $1500 worth of Pergo flooring in his home. All he had was a cheap 10" miter saw with a steel plywood blade and a jig saw, and a circ saw we didn't use. Pergro just looks like paper and MDF but there is some mineral content in it as his steel miter saw blade was throwing some serious sparks and dulled very quickly. I was glad I did think to throw a carbide blade in my HD orange bucket of tools to take with me. The first segment didn't require much ripping so we got by with the jig saw as I didn't see an easy or safe way to use the circ saw. But I could see that the next segment entailed a lot of ripping as we circled around a closet and bathroom , into the kitchen and back to the previous nights work going down the hall. I was also wondering if we would be able to match up the planks as we joined them together in the kitchen coming from 2 directions.
I could see that we needed something to rip the planks with and also that the 10" miter saw wasn't big enough to crosscut the planks as they were nearly 8" wide, and they needed to be flipped to complete the each 90 degree cut. My Griz 1023 sure wasn't going to make the trip so I started looking around to see what I could pick up quickly to do the job. My first thought was a cheap job site table saw. I was looking at Lowe's as they have the best tool selection. The cheapest TS they had in stock was a $180 Skil, their even cheaper Skil was out of stock. Then while wandering around in the flooring section I ran across a Skil sliding flooring saw. It looked a lot like some tile saws I have seen.
http://demandware.edgesuite.net/aaea_prd/on/demandware.static/Sites-skil-Site/Sites-cpo-master-catalog/default/v1328517639882/product_media/skl/skln3600-02/images/large/skln3600-02_d.jpg
It looked like it had the features I needed, and I was sure there were some other flooring projects coming up, so I picked one up for the job. I think I paid $170, although I have since seen them on Amazon for $140. It really worked quite well. It was much easier to transport than a TS, and it just fit on top of the Workmate sawhorse/bench my son had. We hooked it up to a shop vac and was able to catch most of the sawdust it generated. It took less than a minute to move the fence from the crosscut position to the rip position. I found that we didn't need the hold down clamp provided, but it was nice to know it was there. The foam backing on the Pergo Max kept the material from slipping. There is a knob which releases a pin into one of the rails to lock it down for ripping, which at the same time locks out the finger trigger to allow use of the flip switch used for ripping. Overall I was quite happy with it and had no regrets, the only downside so far is that the 4 3/8" 40 T carbide blade only made it through the work on Saturday before it started burning on the rips. But with adequate pressure it still cut. I will pick up a new blade (only $10) for the next project. I presume that if the flooring had no mineral content, the blade would last quite a long time. And at 7 amps of power, it might be a bit underpowered to rip 3/4" Oak T&G flooring. Oh, when we circled the kitchen to connect the planks, they were only an 1/4" off which we were able to make up with a little persuasion. Finished the project with a 10 hour day on Saturday. Life is good.
Edit: rereading this post, it sounds like I am pitching the saw, so I just want you to know I am just a retired civil engineer with no connection whatsoever to Skil. One item I would change is minor and it is the fence hold-down screw/knob. Way too many turns to lock down the fence and it needs to have the end of the screw unthreaded to help find the sliding nut that it screws into.
I could see that we needed something to rip the planks with and also that the 10" miter saw wasn't big enough to crosscut the planks as they were nearly 8" wide, and they needed to be flipped to complete the each 90 degree cut. My Griz 1023 sure wasn't going to make the trip so I started looking around to see what I could pick up quickly to do the job. My first thought was a cheap job site table saw. I was looking at Lowe's as they have the best tool selection. The cheapest TS they had in stock was a $180 Skil, their even cheaper Skil was out of stock. Then while wandering around in the flooring section I ran across a Skil sliding flooring saw. It looked a lot like some tile saws I have seen.
http://demandware.edgesuite.net/aaea_prd/on/demandware.static/Sites-skil-Site/Sites-cpo-master-catalog/default/v1328517639882/product_media/skl/skln3600-02/images/large/skln3600-02_d.jpg
It looked like it had the features I needed, and I was sure there were some other flooring projects coming up, so I picked one up for the job. I think I paid $170, although I have since seen them on Amazon for $140. It really worked quite well. It was much easier to transport than a TS, and it just fit on top of the Workmate sawhorse/bench my son had. We hooked it up to a shop vac and was able to catch most of the sawdust it generated. It took less than a minute to move the fence from the crosscut position to the rip position. I found that we didn't need the hold down clamp provided, but it was nice to know it was there. The foam backing on the Pergo Max kept the material from slipping. There is a knob which releases a pin into one of the rails to lock it down for ripping, which at the same time locks out the finger trigger to allow use of the flip switch used for ripping. Overall I was quite happy with it and had no regrets, the only downside so far is that the 4 3/8" 40 T carbide blade only made it through the work on Saturday before it started burning on the rips. But with adequate pressure it still cut. I will pick up a new blade (only $10) for the next project. I presume that if the flooring had no mineral content, the blade would last quite a long time. And at 7 amps of power, it might be a bit underpowered to rip 3/4" Oak T&G flooring. Oh, when we circled the kitchen to connect the planks, they were only an 1/4" off which we were able to make up with a little persuasion. Finished the project with a 10 hour day on Saturday. Life is good.
Edit: rereading this post, it sounds like I am pitching the saw, so I just want you to know I am just a retired civil engineer with no connection whatsoever to Skil. One item I would change is minor and it is the fence hold-down screw/knob. Way too many turns to lock down the fence and it needs to have the end of the screw unthreaded to help find the sliding nut that it screws into.