Convince me I need a track saw.

[Jim Becker]

Maybe someone could compile some type of list of the types of operations, other than breaking down sheet goods, that they use their track saws for. Not everyone knows how they can be used if their area of work doesn't expose them to certain tasks.
Just a thought

I mentioned some already earlier in the thread...

[Jim Dwight]

I've mentioned cutting boards edge for glueup for my 10 foot dining room table. I did the same thing for a cabinet in my great room a little less than 8 feet long. More recently I trimmed a gate I scribed to the opening. Simple matter of laying the track on the scribe line and cutting. I've used mine several times to cut doors to fit openings. I used mine at church to cut down pews. We had 16 foot ones that were not going to be used any more and some of the pastors wanted short ones for their homes. So we made them. Very difficult to cut down 16 foot pew backs and bottoms with other tools. With a circular saw and a really good blade and guide it could be done but it was simple with the track saw.

I made a little storage cabinet for the church about 5 feet tall and six feet long. It was sized by the scrap I had to use. I cut the subfloor plywood back with the church's track saw. There were circular saws I could have used but the track saw was much quicker.

When I cut the stringers for a new staircase in my house I started with a circular saw. But I switched to my track saw because my cuts were straighter with it so the treads would lay more flat.

I have a dresser in my house that is made mostly of softwood with 1/2 inch plywood drawers. It's 22 inches wide. All the pieces for the case were cut to final size with my track saw. They were too big to be easily cut on my table saw. All the plywood for the drawers was ripped to width with the track saw. When I made my dresser earlier this year, I ripped the glue edges for the top (cherry) with my track saw. The secondary wood in the drawers is cypress. It was ripped to width with my track saw when I needed to get a straight edge on it. But once it had a straight edge I used my table saw.

A track saw can do nearly anything you'd do with a circular saw but the depth of cut is typically less (about 2 inches). I use mine when I want a really accurate clean cut.

[Tom Bussey]

I was at Menards yesterday and I looked at their track saw for $199. I played with it for a while. And I have my doubts about how accurate it would be. given the fence would need to be assembled 4 times to get 110 inches. I do know that there are better quality ones out there that would be more accurate. If one really looks at my pictures blown up you will find that the white plastic rides in a groove. And I realized I am doing the same thing with 20 year old technology.

Chris Edwards just posted some pictures of his specially purchased table so he could utilize his track saw more efficiently. I enjoyed the pictures by the way. I am sure that that table cost more than I want to know about but, I have an Excalibur sliding table picture in a different post, for 48 inch crosscuts and angle cuts. And I realize than we have both spent some money so we could deal with larger pieces and getting square results.

I have to go now but will continue this latter. You have changed my mind though.

[Jim Becker]

Tom, check out the Makita. It's a nice tool for the money...not bottom dollar...but nice and it uses essentially the same track as the Festool and Mafele which can be helpful for third party accessories. There are alternative sources for longer tracks, too. PowerTec on Amazon is one. I do have an 8' track in addition the typical 55" or so "default" track and grabbed a shorter Makia track from a 'Creeker awhile back for in-shop utility.

I'm glad you're considering the possibilities. The value of any tool is what kinds of things it can do and what kinds of problems it can solve for the individual user. And quite often, we will acquire something for a specific task or set of tasks and then discover other things that raise the bar.

[Edward Weber]

I have to say, many of you use the word accuracy, please tell me what you mean.
When I use a curricular saw and some type of guide my cut is exactly where I want it to be. I know I might have to do more fussing around than those with a ZC track saw but I have never worried about my cuts being accurate.
Also, many have commented on quality of the cut, what were you using in you circular saw before that this is such an improvement.
I use Diablo blades in my circ saws and the finish is very, very good.
https://www.diablotools.com/explore/saw-blades

[Eric Arnsdorff]

I have to say, many of you use the word accuracy, please tell me what you mean.
When I use a curricular saw and some type of guide my cut is exactly where I want it to be. I know I might have to do more fussing around than those with a ZC track saw but I have never worried about my cuts being accurate.
Also, many have commented on quality of the cut, what were you using in you circular saw before that this is such an improvement.
I use Diablo blades in my circ saws and the finish is very, very good.
https://www.diablotools.com/explore/saw-blades

Edward the track provides a very robust way to cut straight along the measured distance. It's the simplicity of laying the track exactly on the mark and cutting very straight while the track does all the work of maintaining the saw in line. You can achieve the same accuracy with a circular saw. But the ability to simply lay a track exactly on the cut line and quickly cut it is a feature of a track saw that really stands out. It isn't that the accuracy isn't achievable by a regular circular saw because it is. But it is much simpler and less error prone than using a circular saw. There's no argument that you can do the same things with a circular saw. It's really the same as most tools. You could use a hand saw and I've seen people make amazing cuts with a hand saw. I'm not that skilled and power saws (whether it's a skill saw, bandsaw, table saw, etc.) can make those cuts easier as will as not requiring as much skill from the user. I'd love to have incredible artistic skill that I can make straight lines or circles or whatever the need is. I'm not that person and will never acquire those skills without tools to make that happen. I think this is the progression that the track saw lends itself to. It's a tool that has features that improve certain cuts that are common in a woodshop or jobsite.

The quality of cut that you asked about is improved as well from the track creating an equivalent zero clearance cut on one side by supporting the wood fibers with the track and rubber strip essentially touching the teeth as they the blade rotates the teeth upward out of the cut. My saw is the cordless Makita and it came with a very nice blade that makes a very clean cut. The same blade could be used on my circular saw and get a very good cut. I don't have a zero clearance setup for my circular saw. I could make such a device. But that's the same as a lot of my tools. I could make them but typically buying an tool engineered and constructed with methods not available to my home shop yields a much better result. This is the thing with my track saw. The entire package that is my track saw provides features that result in a cut that I'm unable to achieve with my circular saw.

There's no requirement for buying a track saw. I didn't understand the advantages but was intrigued why so many seemed to advocate them. When I finally purchased one it was one of those realizations that there is a new tool that advances the art. I'm certain that a truly gifted and skilled woodworker can do way more with much less tools than I have. Being an engineer I also like tools and enjoy learning of the details. There's that part of it as well.

[ChrisA Edwards]

Chris Edwards just posted some pictures of his specially purchased table so he could utilize his track saw more efficiently. I enjoyed the pictures by the way. I am sure that that table cost more than I want to know about but,

Just a heads up, that table was sheet of MDF from Home Depot, followed by holes drilled with a Parf System Jig ($200). Yes the jig was a bit pricey upfront, but as that table gets abused and destroyed, I can make as many of these tables/work surface just for the cost of a new sheet of MDF and my time, which is feee according to my wife.

When not in use, I just stack this top away alongside my spare sheets of plywood.

[Edward Weber]

Thanks,
It seems when people say accuracy, what they really mean is easy, convenient or less hassle.

[Eric Arnsdorff]

Thanks,
It seems when people say accuracy, what they really mean is easy, convenient or less hassle.

I think this is true when the term is used qualitatively. I couldn't resist discussing the technical aspects of accuracy and precision.

One other way to look at it is the technical definition of precision. Technically, being precise involves statistically having a small variation about the mean. Said another way it is doing something repeatedly and getting very close to the same results. The track saw does improve the precision in the sense that it reduces the occurrence of drift from the cut line and such. In this way it does improve the precision.

It also improves the overall accuracy once again by providing a less error prone way to get a cut at the distance desired (true value would be the technical term).

While you can achieve both the accuracy and precision from a circular saw the track saw excels at reducing the errors associated with each such that statistically the deviation from the true value along with the spread are reduced.

[Jim Dwight]

Getting the offset from the blade to the edge of the base of a circular saw was not an easy thing for me to do real accurately. I used a "shoot board" of plywood cut by the blade at first use but the edge would get worn, presumably by the blade wobbling a bit or something. So it became less precise over time. If you can get the offset right and if the edge of the base and the blade are parallel, and if you use a really good blade, and if you do not wander away from the straight edge, you can cut accurately with a circular saw. But the iffs are not applicable to a track saw.

At home I use an over 8 foot track to cut sheet goods so I do not have to join tracks. At church we only have 2 50 inch tracks so I have to join them. It works fine as long as I take a straight edge and align the two pieces prior to tightening the grub screws. The Evolution saw came with 4 really short, nearly useless pieces of track. The Wen tracks we use at church are OK but I suspect the PowerTec are better. I have not seen over 8 foot tracks from PowerTec or Wen or another less expensive brand. The long tracks can be more expensive than the cheaper saws. But joining tracks is a viable option (but not 4 pieces a foot long).

If I was starting over I think I would buy a Makita saw and a couple pieces of PowerTec track to start. I also like my little 40 inch track too, however, but you could cut a longer one down if you can't find one. DeWalt is fine but can only use one bar to join tracks. The Festool style tracks can use two. One will work but two is better IMHO. Makita and DeWalt both use a slightly larger blade for a little deeper depth of cut and have bigger motors than the Festool. For less money.

My holey table is also home made. I used a special router base, pegboard, and a plunge router with 20mm bit to make it. Because of the pegboard it is not terribly accurate but It works fine. But the holes not being perfectly laid out is why I have to true the fence.

[Jim Becker]

Edward, I will add that accuracy and quality of cut go hand-in-hand here. I mentioned it earlier and Eric also brought it up, but a "yuge" benefit of the saw being literally captured by the track, as opposed to just using a straight edge, is that the saw cannot move laterally as you move it through the cut with your hand. Even if you have the "steadiest" hands on the planet, it's hard to maintain that smooth, straight path manually, especially if you're "bending funny" to reach with your hand on the tool, etc. That smoothness of action as you slide the saw along means you maintain things perfectly perpendicular to the surface and have no wavering of path which pretty much eliminates any scoring of the edge of the cut with the teeth on the saw. It's a "little" thing, but something that makes it far easier to obtain "finished" cuts rather than move to another tool with more opportunity for Mr Murphy to smile upon you.

[Edwin Santos]

Edward, I will add that accuracy and quality of cut go hand-in-hand here. I mentioned it earlier and Eric also brought it up, but a "yuge" benefit of the saw being literally captured by the track, as opposed to just using a straight edge, is that the saw cannot move laterally as you move it through the cut with your hand. Even if you have the "steadiest" hands on the planet, it's hard to maintain that smooth, straight path manually, especially if you're "bending funny" to reach with your hand on the tool, etc. That smoothness of action as you slide the saw along means you maintain things perfectly perpendicular to the surface and have no wavering of path which pretty much eliminates any scoring of the edge of the cut with the teeth on the saw. It's a "little" thing, but something that makes it far easier to obtain "finished" cuts rather than move to another tool with more opportunity for Mr Murphy to smile upon you.

If I may add on to Jim's comment, the aluminum track from a track saw is precisely straight. A shop made circular saw guide will only be as straight as the saw that cut the guide.
Some people have very well tuned saws and fences, but if we're talking about accuracy, I'd be surprised if a shop made guide made on even a well tuned saw will be as perfectly straight as the aluminum extrusion track.

Whether that difference in accuracy is meaningful in woodworking is a whole other debate. But the question on the table was a request for an example of why the track saw accuracy would be superior.

[Edward Weber]

I understand how and why a track and carriage operate. I simply had a question about the choice of words many use when describing these tools
I was trying to figure out if everyone was talking about the same thing when using the word accurate and it seems we were not.
Many of you say "more accurate" or "better cut".
If I don't have an issue with making a straight quality cut, then I ask, what else can it do.
The title of the thread is Convince me I need a Track Saw after all.
This is why I suggested making a list of tasks a track saw excels at above other tools.
Maybe something like making perfectly straight cuts easier would be a better description than accurate.
JMHO

[Jim Becker]

Edward, many of us already put quite a few scenarios where the track saw is a great problem solver in our individual posts. Tom, the OP. appears to have found benefit from those comments based on his most recent post.

[Brian Holcombe]

Incentivize us to further convince you, let’s see a commission schedule first

Frankly, I’d have no trouble living without a track saw at this point but they're quick and handy. The accuracy and precision are both debatable but they do cut a straight line. I’d rather rip on the bandsaw and then edge joint. I have a wood master ct 1.3 tooth so most wood can be ripped as fast as i can feed it and I’m going to joint it anyways so quality of the cut is not super important.