One way to cut 4-by lumber is to make two passes from opposite sides of the stock with a 7 1/4-inch circular saw. The extra labor is okay in a pinch, but it’s unacceptable for production framing. In California, besides the usual 4-by posts, beams, and headers, we often have to install lots of 4x4 hold-down posts to meet the seismic requirements of the California building code.
Many framing contractors avoid making dual cuts by using a 10 1/4-inch Big Foot Tools wormdrive saw, which has a maximum cutting capacity of about 3 7/8 inches. It’s actually a 7 1/4-inch Skilsaw wormdrive fitted with oversize upper and lower blade guards and a compatible baseplate. The saw is also used for cutting doubled 2-bys, cutting thicker beams with two opposing cuts, and gang-cutting thick stacks of plywood.
We bought our first Big Foot in 2002 and have used one almost daily ever since. But these are demanding cuts, and we’ve had to transfer our Big Foot guards and baseplates to new 7 1/4-inch Skilsaws several times after burning out the motors. When JLC asked if we’d like to try the new 10 1/4-inch Skilsaw Sawsquatch wormdrive, we jumped on it. After using it for two months, we think it’s definitely an upgrade.
POWER BOOST
If you look past the imposing blade guards and baseplate and the reversible side handle, the new Sawsquatch resembles the other premium Skilsaw wormdrives. It has the same levers, a legible bevel scale that’s divided into degrees, an accurately calibrated depth bracket for quickly setting the desired cutting depth, a folding rafter hook, and a blade wrench that stows on the baseplate. The versatile wrench can also pry the diamond knockout from a new blade, loosen an overtightened bevel or depth lever, and remove or install the oil plug and brush caps. The saw has the same brawny wormdrive gearing as the smaller models and, like all Skilsaw wormdrives manufactured over the past several decades, is powered by a “Dual-Field” motor that runs cooler than competing ones for improved durability. But the Sawsquatch motor has more steel laminations in the field and armature than the other Skilsaw Dual-Field motors, which adds length and weight but generates more torque.
The gear housing, blade guards, and baseplate are made of magnesium. The motor housing is made of aluminum.
ON THE JOb
Out of the box, the Sawsquatch we tested made a perfectly square crosscut through a 4-by at the 0-degree bevel setting, but you can quickly fine-tune this setting if necessary by turning a screw on the baseplate. The saw bevels to 51 degrees and has a positive stop at 45. On our saw, however, this stop set the bevel to 44.1 degrees, forcing us to pull on the stop spring to adjust to 45 degrees. We rarely make bevel cuts with our 10 1/4-inch saws, though, so this is a minor nuisance. Also, the rafter hook was slightly bent, preventing us from hanging the saw from a 2-by. I have no idea if it arrived that way or if we accidentally whacked it hard in our truck box right after we received the saw, but I think it would take a pretty big blow to bend it. The hook looks just like the ones on our other Skilsaws and we’ve never had a problem, so that was probably just a fluke.
To gauge whether the Sawsquatch was indeed more powerful than the Big Foot, we used both saws interchangeably while framing a 3,100-square-foot residential addition. The Big Foot was powered by a Skilsaw SHD77 and equipped with the same general-purpose 40-tooth Diablo thin-kerf blade that’s included with the Sawsquatch. In all, we crosscut about 90 4x4 posts along with 65 4-by girders and headers. We also ripped some 3-by and 4-by for various reasons, which we routinely do. All of this lumber was Douglas fir. Unlike the Big Foot, which occasionally bogged down when ripping green lumber, the Sawsquatch powered right through every cut.
The 18 1/2-pound Sawsquatch also seems to have the perfect power-to-weight ratio and is beautifully balanced. In fact, we like it so much that I even cut some single 2x4s with it, which I never do with our Big Foots. We also noticed that you can easily check or change the brushes on the Sawsquatch. You have to disassemble the Big Foot saw to access both brush caps.
I wish I could report that we love the Diablo blade that comes with the saw, but we don’t. After making about 40 crosscuts with both saws, the blades wouldn’t make a perfectly square cut. The blades are super thin, which might be the problem. The 36-tooth blades included with our Big Foot saws have also warped, but not as quickly. Unfortunately, those are the only two 10 1/4-inch diamond-knockout blades I’ve seen, so our choices are limited. We would really appreciate a stiffer blade.
THE BOTTOM LINE
The new 10 1/4-inch Skilsaw Sawsquatch felt great in the hand and didn’t struggle with any of our crosscuts or rips in 4-by Douglas fir—and it costs about the same as a 10 1/4-inch Big Foot saw. We already own two Big Foots, and they have served us well. But if we were starting from scratch, we’d definitely buy the Sawsquatch for its more powerful motor and better ergonomics. A warp-resistant blade would make it even better.
The model SPT70WM-22 that we tried has a three-prong plug, while the model SPT70WM-72 has a twist-lock plug. The rip fence is sold separately. By the way, the Sawsquatch comes with a reassuring 180-day money-back guarantee.