Circular saw recommendations? (I know it's a bit off-topic)

[pdqdl]

My DeWalt miter saw has the built-in "cut line" light. I particularly like that light! It is a better feature than I have ever seen on any other saw. The saw cuts exactly where the light says it will. The final cut is just as wide as the displayed line, and there is no deviation to either side.

 

[esshup]

^^^ I have a saber saw like that.

 

[fields_mj]

I only made it through the first page, but here's my thoughts. It really depends on what you want the saw to do. I spent 6 years doing residential construction in the mid 90's. Lots of roofing jobs, framed a few houses, lots of room remodels, and so on. We used 2 different types of saws. One was a Milwaukee (actually we had 2 of them). It was heavy, but it was extremely accurate, and the adjustments were always easy to make and on the money. Even the rip fence worked really well. The other saws we ran were Makitas. They were good saws, but they were lighter duty and lighter weight. These saws did the lions share of the work on the job site which consisted of cutting OSB for roofing, cutting 2x4 and 2x6 wall studs and headers, and other random miscellaneous cuts where you could be off by 1/4" without causing any issues. Pretty much any "contractor" grade saw would have worked, but we stuck with the Makitas because we had several of them for spare parts. We were always wearing out the cords at the strain relief. The main reason that we didn't use the Milwaukee saws for everything was the weight. When you're leaning out over the edge of a roof cutting fly rafters, a heavy saw is a bad thing. Not to mention the fact that we would occasionally drop one from a roof on new construction, adding to the collection of parts saws There was a limit to how cheap we would go though. We wouldn't even consider the cheap Skil and Craftsman saws of the day. After graduating college, I bough myself a Makita, and I bought my dad a Milwaukee to replace his crappy Skil saw which had replaced his 1960's vintage Milwaukee a few years prior. I knew he wasn't going to be climbing on any roofs any time soon and could put the accuracy to good use, while I fully expected to drop mine a few times Happy to report that 25 years later, both saws are still running strong.

 

[LondonNeil]

Maefell or festool track/plunge saw ftw

 

[Ian178]

I can see the benefit of having a cordless saw. Now as a replacement for a normal electric one though.

I would have thought that but, Get a good one, and you might find that it does replace it. Just saying.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I have several corded saws, my fav by far is a Bosch I've had for many years, it's like the energize bunny, it just keeps going.

My cordless is a 20v Dewalt, so far it's been a pretty good saw.

SR