Bosch Reaxx saw worst tool I have ever owned in my life.

[keith micinski]

Pretty much what Martin said, it is a jobsite saw. Basically like every other jobsite saw. Piece of plastic box, housing an upside down skilsaw, with a metal top and fence mounted above. I have used the Bosch, Makita, Dewalt, Ridgid, and several others. That level of quality is par for the course, across the board. When I was younger, we bought the makitas, because they were readily, and cheaply available, and it was known by my boss that they lasted about a year, then you got another one.
I have that exact Bosch you speak of, minus the special Reaxx safety feature. It is a $300-350.00 saw if I remember, with a $650 add on safety feature.
Any of them are a very miserable substitute for a proper shop saw.
They are all made to rip plywood, framing lumber, and other typical housebuilding jobsite materials, including Boral, Azek, and all the composite decking. Basically turning 1 piece into 2 or more. They don't do it well, and they don't generally do it for long.
It also makes just about no sense to put a good blade on it. There is so much runout on the arbors, that it doesn't justify the expense. The lipstick on a pig situation all over again.
All that said, when I finally broke down and bought my Bosch about 5 years ago, after hemming and hawing about wasting that kind of money on a machine with all those miserable attributes, and poor cut quality, I was thankful at the end of the day and job that I could just pick it up and slide it in the truck by myself. And it got the job done, more or less.
I hate using it, compared to any of my shop saws- Whitney, Greenlee, Martins, etc... but I can't cart any of them around.
It is not, in my mind anyway, intended as a precision instrument. It gets banged and tossed from job to job, and you toss it when it dies

This couldn’t be more wrong.I have a Dewalt job site saw that has been amazing for years unfortunately the motor is ready to give out on me and this and the sawstop are supposed to be the next generation of jobsite Saws along with finger sensing technology. I’m not asking it to be a cabinet saw I’m asking it to actually cut wood which this one really doesn’t even do. Also more of my complaint to do with the engineering and designing less with the quality of this saw, if it was just poor quality I probably could live with it.

[Mark Bolton]

Wonder if it uses slotted screws for fasteners. That'd really put you into tractor crushing mode lol.

[Mike Cutler]

"24" power cord that has to be plugged into an outlet". This is a telling statement.

Thank you for the review.
In the spring I want to do a lot of work in our house. Ripping up floors, leveling joists, new subfloor, and flooring. Window trim and case work,a nd possibly a new stairway. I have been tossing back and forth to either buy a jobsite saw, or modify my old Jet contractor saw, to have the saw in the house with me, avoiding 10,000 trips to the shop. I'm leaning toward modifying my Jet more and more.

[Robin Dobbie]

People are saying all the stuff you've mentioned is just any jobsite saw, but I don't know. They may be confusing jobsite saws with benchtop saws. I've not been terribly impressed with benchtop saws. The issues with the fence and miter gauge would certainly not surprise me on a $200 benchtop saw. I've played with some jobsite saws and my impression is that they're very much like contractor saws, just smaller. For example the Ridgid jobsite saw has a nice fence, it's just smaller. But even my old benchtop saw, as terrible as the fence and miter gauge are, vibration wasn't too bad. Oh it's loud, but I never thought about vibration.

Never bothered with the insert plate on my benchtop saw as it too is a weird shape, but maybe that's something you can make a custom replacement for? I think I saw Izzy Swan and a few other's videos about using PVC pipe that had been split, heated, flattened and cut to shape.

motor is a two speed motor so it takes 4-5 seconds of cutting before it actually ramps up into speed

This is the first thing that I'm really surprised about. Reminds me of Hondas where at 5k the VTEC would kick in.

It weighs about a ton and a half.

I suppose it weighs 30+ pounds more than the Ridgid, and that's not nothing, but I don't know if this is as legit a complaint as everything else.

The cut quality stinks.

It's important to find out why this is. Is it the arbor, is it the blade? The motor changing speeds mid-cut?

...

you have to start reading a second scale backwards

Stop reading scales. I almost always use a measuring tape, burn 10 inches, then mark my cut with a knife, then line that mark up with a blade tooth, with careful consideration of the offcut side. Then again, that's not the kind of woodworking this saw was even designed for.

After looking through this post I am for sure running this thing over repeatedly with my tractor.

Can I ask why you didn't return it immediately after purchase? Why not sell it? Be completely honest about all the issues you have, but I'm sure someone would buy it.

[terry mccammon]

There was, and I think still is, a "machine gun show" near Louisville. Really a hoot folks brought automatic weapons of all types from M-16's through water cooled anti-aircraft type 50 cal. Out on the range was all sorts of appliances, cars, you name it. Plus they had small charges of explosives that firing would set off to the delight of the crowd.

[Mike Kreinhop]

"24" power cord that has to be plugged into an outlet". This is a telling statement.

I don't know why Bosch didn't manufacture the saw with a longer power cord, but this statement is more likely a liability clause required by the attorneys. With a short power cord, Bosch cannot possibly test every combination of extension cords that owners might use and still retain the various certifications for its consumers.

I do not have a way to compare tools between the two markets, but all of my European Bosch and Dewalt corded tools have very long power cords and I rarely need an extension cord. The REAXX saw is not sold in Europe, most likely because there is no market for it.

[Robin Dobbie]

The REAXX saw is not sold in Europe, most likely because there is no market for it.

That's so weird considering all the "safety" regulations involving woodworking they have there(it's illegal to use a dado blade in a production shop).

[Martin Wasner]

I've used a lot of job site saws. I can't think of one that I was impressed with. They're all comprises coated with disappointment.

I own the Bosch with the flip you stand, I thought it was the best of the offerings, but it's nothing great or easy to use.
If you hook a Oneida dust cobra hop to it, the collection is actually pretty impressive, but it better be.

I really want to try the Mafell one out, but that thing costs more than most cabinet saws.

If you really want to go hog wild, a buddy of mine set a powermatic 66 up so he could slide it in the job trailer.

[Roger Marty]

Get over your grudge for one man and buy the better product. I've never read a negative review of the SawStop jobsite saw

[Joe Jensen]

Get over your grudge for one man and buy the better product. I've never read a negative review of the SawStop jobsite saw

That's a rational option

[Mike Kreinhop]

That's so weird considering all the "safety" regulations involving woodworking they have there(it's illegal to use a dado blade in a production shop).

I don't know that dado blades are illegal, but they are certainly not common here and I can't use them on my Minimax SC2.

I've been in only two production shops and all of the saws there were large sliders such as the Felder or Altendorf. There were specialist tools for cutting dado slots, but I didn't look at them. I have been to hundreds of small and large construction sites, and have yet to see a job site saw at any of them. The only saws I see are hand saws or circular saws, and these are used mainly during the formwork tasks. From my experience and observations, wood is not commonly used in residential structure construction and masonry is the primary resource. Any timber frame or exposed wood is normally made off-site and fitted into place during construction.

When I contracted to have my garage completed, it was just four masonry walls, all of the exposed and finished timber beams and trusses were made at the factory and dropped into place. The contractor did not have or use any type of saw during the installation. The wooden structure was installed and secured in less than an hour, and the tile shingles were finished an hour after that. The gutter fitter took almost a full day to install the gutters, but he was an apprentice.

[keith micinski]

Wonder if it uses slotted screws for fasteners. That'd really put you into tractor crushing mode lol.

Hehe I wouldn’t put it past this thing to have some on it.

[scott vroom]

I bought my son a Bosch 4100-09 with the gravity stand in 2010. He's a full time construction carpenter and uses the saw occasionally on site for small work...trim, dimensional lumber short cuts, rips, ply....not the best saw but the portability is nice. They sell for $499 today including that nice gravity stand. Put on a thin kerf blade and it performs well enough for the price. Seems lots of folks expect too much from a low cost job site saw.

[Robin Dobbie]

I don't know that dado blades are illegal, but they are certainly not common here and I can't use them on my Minimax SC2.

I'll admit my knowledge is second-hand at best. What I understood is that in order to be safety compliant in completing any given task, a shop has to use the safest operation possible. If the shop has a router, that's decidedly safer, so that's one way dados could be construed as illegal. Another way their use is illegal is that in order to be safety compliant, any saw in a production shop has to be able to brake completely in 10 seconds. The weight of a dado blade might extend that.

[Mike Henderson]

I have to say that I laughed when reading many of these post. The best was Mark's comment about the slotted screws

Mike