Working as a remodeling contractor on multiple jobsites, I need my tools to be compact and easily transportable. Though my eight-year-old portable table saw—a key and constant companion on my jobsites—was starting to show its age, I hadn’t found a replacement saw that interested me until I saw Skilsaw’s new wormdrive table saw. I was eager to give it a try.
One feature I appreciated right away is its built-in carrying handle, which makes it easy to transport between jobsites. It has a compact footprint, too, so it doesn’t take up much space in my box truck. A folding stand can be purchased separately, but I just used one of my other table-saw stands, which worked fine. It also didn’t come with a dust bag, but I attached one from another saw, and it did a good job of controlling most of the saw dust. The saw can also be hooked up to a shop vacuum.
On the Job
In use, the wormdrive motor smoothly powered through anything from mahogany and pressure-treated 2-by lumber to pine and PVC trim. Using the Diablo 30-tooth blade that came with the saw, it cut cleanly and easily, showing no signs of stopping. It has a good riving knife, which helped keep the saw kerf open, preventing kickback and bodily injury.
I didn’t spend much time calibrating the saw prior to use, so while the fence scale was easy to read, it wasn’t particularly accurate until I dialed it in. And the fence wasn’t exactly straight either; I had to measure both ends with my tape measure whenever I readjusted the fence until I took the time to adjust it so that it was parallel to the blade. The fence was also a little tough to move with one hand and required both hands to move it smoothly. But I appreciated the extendable fence rails, which glided back and forth nicely and were easy to lock in place when I needed to rip wider boards (up to 25 inches wide).
The hand wheel that raises and lowers the blade turned easily. And while the table-top surface didn’t seem to be as smooth as on other table saws I’ve owned, I didn’t notice that it had an effect when I fed boards through the saw. I liked the convenient push-stick holder mounted on the front lower right side of the saw, along with the clips built into the saw to help hold the power cord in place when not in use. And I liked the saw’s open design, which makes it easy to clean up at the end of the day.
