Jim Dwight
12-13-2017, 1:00 PM
I am finishing up making a bed based upon plans from the Woodworking for Engineers website. It has some curves in it and my wife likes beds with curved lines. The plans call for construction lumber and that is what I used. I bought 5 10 foot 2x12s at the local Home Depot. They were supposed to be southern yellow pine (SYP) and seemed to be. Somebody posted difficulties with a Festool track saw cutting up softwood so I thought I would post a short thread about my DeWalt cutting up the SYP.
I both cross cut and ripped the SYP with the stock 48 tooth blade of the DeWalt. On some of the crosscuts, the saw bogged down because the wood was pinching it. I switched the kickback protection off so I could back out of the cuts and that helped a lot. Once I did that and adjusted to the fact I might have to back off and recut when the wood was doing this, those cuts went well. Rips went better but sometimes they would pinch the blade too. I did not have to back off but did notice some extra effort by the saw sometimes. I made something over 50 feet of ripping cuts in total.
I added a ripping blade to my Christmas list but overall it went well. I can say with some certainty that the DeWalt track saw does pretty well cutting up construction lumber. Cuts were smooth and straight. Saw is powerfull enough, even without the "right" blade.
I do not think I have cut hardwood thicker than 1 inch yet with it. Given the greater power requirements I suspect it will be less forgiving of use of the wrong blade. But I would expect the saw to be fine with a ripping blade up to it's full 2 inch capacity.
I both cross cut and ripped the SYP with the stock 48 tooth blade of the DeWalt. On some of the crosscuts, the saw bogged down because the wood was pinching it. I switched the kickback protection off so I could back out of the cuts and that helped a lot. Once I did that and adjusted to the fact I might have to back off and recut when the wood was doing this, those cuts went well. Rips went better but sometimes they would pinch the blade too. I did not have to back off but did notice some extra effort by the saw sometimes. I made something over 50 feet of ripping cuts in total.
I added a ripping blade to my Christmas list but overall it went well. I can say with some certainty that the DeWalt track saw does pretty well cutting up construction lumber. Cuts were smooth and straight. Saw is powerfull enough, even without the "right" blade.
I do not think I have cut hardwood thicker than 1 inch yet with it. Given the greater power requirements I suspect it will be less forgiving of use of the wrong blade. But I would expect the saw to be fine with a ripping blade up to it's full 2 inch capacity.