Circular Saws

[Joseph Cascio]

Is Festool the only company that makes a saw with a guide? I do not have room for a table saw that can rip 4X8 sheets and this looks really nice..... Think the wife will mind a small charge on the plastic >>> LMK Joseph

[Joe Jensen]

There is a competing guide system, but I can't remember the name. Do a search here for Festool and guide. Should find you a ton of posts comparing them. I personally have the Festool...joe

[Steve Rowe]

Mafell makes a saw with a guide. As I recall, it is a lot more money than the Festool.
Steve

[Joseph Cascio]

I think it would solve alot of hurdels that is keeping me from trying some things at home.. I could just do it all at work but I want to be able to do it at home and continue to improve my skills as well as completing all these projects on my to do list... J

[Mike Cutler]

Joseph.

The Eureka Zone( EZ Smart) Forum at the bottom of the Opening Sawmill Creek Home page will give you a different option, and show you what can be accomplished with an edge guided circular saw system, no matter what company make it.

The Festool is definitely nice. Consider the package that includes the vacuum if you can swing it. It's slick

[ryan smythe]

Hilti also makes one haven't heard much about it though i got a price on it a while ago and it was $495.

[Charles Wilson]

www.eurekazone.com

[Phil Pritchard]

Mafell do three different systems - conventional hard rail, a rail which rolls up into a loop and a panel saw with a self-feeding mechanism. Bosch have a rail system (I have one) and deWalt certainly used to do one.

Phil

[jason lambert]

Bang for buck the festool is the best. Infact it just is the best. Think about the price of a table saw it is alot cheaper than a good table saw. Also with the plunge and other features alot safer to me that is worth the price alone.

[Tim Sproul]

If you will do most of your work with sheetgoods, I'd consider constructing a panel saw or getting a good used one. You can cut sheets faster than Festool or EZ or similar.

[frank shic]

joseph, if you don't have the room for a table saw, you're probably going to have to go the route of the guided circular saw system. i've used the eurekazone which sports very robust rails but the porter cable circular saw that i'm using with it will just not give clean cuts on BOTH sides of melamine. john lucas on woodshopdemos.com found that he could get clean cuts on both sides with the festool using one of their specialty blades. the only frustrating part about using any of these guided circular saw systems is aligning the guide for the cut. a pencil mark is NOT my idea of precision woodworking!

i'm currently using a powermatic 64 contractor's saw with an excalibur sliding table and a digifence and i can tell you that this is MUCH faster than using a guided circular saw system. in addition, i can just stack a bunch of melamine next to the saw and just lift one sheet at a time on to the table saw rather than having to move a sheet on to a separate cutting table and then fussing around with all the alignment issues.

[Dan Gill]

There are many options. I break down full size sheets using a guide made from a 4-inch strip of 1/2 inch ply and a piece of hardboard screwed to it. Cut the ply straight, countersink and screw the hardboard to it, then cut the hardboard with the circular saw, holding the base of the saw agains the ply. That yields a guide that you can place right on your cut line. I actually made two, one 96 inches long and another 50 inches.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

I had my own brand of guided circular saw for years. IT was highly sophisticated and involved some serious trade skills to use.

I used the factory edge from a rip of decent ply and a couple of clamps. It worked.

[frank shic]

cliff, makes a good point: you can EASILY make your own guided circular saw system. i've done that in the past but the aluminum rails and the zero clearance circular saw guide really do improve the quality of the cut. of course, you can build your own zero clearance saw guide as well...

[Burt Waddell]

Joseph,

If you don't have space for a table saw, the answer is EZ Smart. Festool, Mafell, etc also make table saws. To them the guide is a supplement to the table saw.

The EZ Smart is made as a replacement for a table saw. It offers repeatability that the others do not have.

The EZ is so misunderstood. I almost laughed at some of the untrue comments made in other replys to this thread. I realize that most of these were only because the people don't understand the EZ system or have little or no experience with it.

Burt

[Tom Cowie]

I have the Festool guide system and what I have learned is contrary to what many seem to think. I used to cut all sheet goods on a Delta contractor saw which I like very much. I also have a friend that works at a woodworking shop that has a pretty nice panel saw.

From a different view I have found the guided system to be much faster and much more versatile (portable) than anything that I have ever used before.

So I would suggest that you take a closer look at the guided saws. It took me way too long to change my way of thinking on this one.

Take a look at all the guided saws ( even the shop made ) and get what best suits your needs if they are acceptable to you.

Just my 2 cents:

Tom

[Joseph Cascio]

Thanks for all the info... You could spend hours on - line researching all this but I found a quick question on this forum does the trick.. I will look at some of the saw that were mentioned.. Just doing the research I did do I saw a great table used to cut large sheets. Basically it was a 4X8 with 1X3 glued to it which solves one issue. As far as the other I can not for my life cut a straigh line , I could go mabey a foot with a jig saw but.... I thaugh about just making a jig for the straight line to get me going as I really want to get a few projects done soon. And as fas as the pencile mark and lining up the jig it does not sound perfect but.. Thanks guys J