I don’t know what Dewalt was thinking with this…

Does Dewalt really exist? The Dewalt "brand" is now owned by Stanley-Black & Decker. SBD owns numerous brands of similar tools with different brand names. Compare these portable bench saws:Craftsman, Dewalt, Kobalt. If you download the owners manual for these three saws, you will notice the manuals are almost identical, word for word. The illustrations of course are changed to depict each brand. Nothing is the same as it was in years past. Craftsman had their tool made by reputable manufacturers. The "Sears Best" level of their tools were high quality, as were their outdoor power tools and garden tractors. Not any more. The quality of the Craftsman tool has declined, as has the Dewalt brand, while prices have increased. Just know what you are buying. Brand names are now licensed.

Honestly, I consider DeWalt, construction tools, by now. Heavy duty/powerful - but not for accurate woodworking.
I recently ordered a DeWalt rafter square which was about 89 degrees. I returned it and got a new one which was within acceptable tolerances. I was about to decide battery platform at this point, so this experience kind of became the last deciding factor for me and pushed me towards Makita/Festool. If you can't even trust measuring tools, then you are out of the race. "You had one job"-logic kicking in...

I know you posted this a year ago but one major deal breaker about this saw is the clip that helps prevent the saw from leaving over while cutting a 45 degree angle. I forgot what the part is called but I think every other brand except dewalt has it.

what battery do you need to run this? can someone llease link to it?

Couple things: Referencing the cut, Could that be due to a misalignment? As in, you have it assembled and aligned correctly, but the saw isn't holding up its end in terms of your accuracy being transferred through to the cut angle through the wood by the blade? More on this at the end. But spoiler, did your saw get dropped on its blade end?

With regards to the battery not being 60v, they are. There are 3 banks of cells in the flexvolt batteries. Using a 20v tool they are connected in parallel. In parallel is like stacking 2 AA batteries side by side with the terminals connected to the same bus, as in the two positive poles connect to the positive wire and same with the negative side. Two 1.5 volt batteries give you 1.5 volts out with twice the storage in amp-hours. If you take those two AA batteries and connect them tip to tail, put them in series, as in make connections between sequential positive and one negative terminals in the stack of batteries or banks of parallel cells, like in a TV remote or, more obviously, an old-school flashlight, the voltages stack. Two 1.5 volt batteries become 3v output with the same storage capacity. With a 60v tool the 3 banks of cells in a flexvolt battery are connected in series. The same battery has both connections, but the 60v tools can't take a 20v. Different terminals are addressed on the same battery by different tools. There's a lot going on in that battery terminal, which may be why they come with those locking red travel covers. If you need hands-on, visceral proof of the 60 (well, 54 really) volt nature of the flexvolt packs, get your hands on the 60v worm drive "skilsaw" rear handle circular saw. It's a beast, you should try that sometime if you haven't already.

Depth of cut: If you "account for" the track thickness, doesn't that mean that you include it in your ledger of measurements? Point is that while I am as pedantic as the next guy, if you simply measure the track and add that to the shown depth of cut, does it all add up? I mean, if you accounted for the track thickness and all. I'm honestly not sure, and I can't say that I like dewalt's manuals at all, I never read them. This being the case if I just picked the saw up I would assume the depth of cut was as shown, in total, the protrusion from the saw by the blade at its max depth. It would almost seem like a liability and safety issue in case of misuse by the consumer. "The commute to work should only have taken 20 minutes, but accounting for traffic it took an hour". It's a terrible choice of words and the technical writers' ancestors are disappointed in them. It would have been pretty easy to come up with better words than "accounting for". Even just now I tried casually to google that phrase for meaning and all I got was financial considerations, and any accounting-ese language makes my eyes cross.

Some of the controls did seem very odd. The apparent ease with which you moved that one slide-y bit was disconcerting. The blade change system is quite unlike what one would expect, but again you read the manual there, and I'll repeat that I do not like their manuals, I feel your pain.

Finally, I guess I might have some questions about the origin of the saw. Was this like a mail order deal? I have chosen to get all my tools in person at a store, in doing so it seems to me that I get a little more quality control over handling of the packages before I take over. Your bent riving knife and the disparity between sides of cut and that floopy control slide and the etc., make me wonder if that tool was dropped on its head out of the black and yellow tree on its way to you. I don't believe that saw would have made it past QA in the condition you showed. I'd return the tool if I took it "new" out of the box and a piece of steel attached to the tool was bent as if someone had taken a small hammer to it at an awkward angle. Or dropped it, or accepted it as a turn in and sent it to the next guy. Or something. Right? Something doesn't add up.

I am pretty much a dewalt fan because of their durability but recently I some milwaukee M12 stuff in which I like very much. I liked your review and I won't buy the dewalt track saw because it shouldn't have flaws at that price point. The other thing to consider is dewalts 1 year warranty not 3 as they claim and Milwaukee has a 5 year warranty.

The dewalt 60v single battery miter saw is my most favorite cordless miter saw thus far. . But it has many flaws like the 60v track saw. . Weird little things in the way of changing the blade but that is possibly my most important complaint of the 60v miter saw

Strange maybe they revised it but my saw goes to 2 and 3/8" depth without rail. I removed the riveting knife day 1. The blade change is frustrating but you get used to it. I honestly didn't even know you could marry the track but when I checked after watching your video I guess I was lucky and it was already perfectly tight

I have this saw and I use a Festool Track with TSO square and parallels guides, works great! No complaints here. Also not a "Dewalt fan-boy" but have a lot of their 20V and 60V tools, so it only made sense for me.

I bought the Milwaukee based on your review….I bought the 55” track and the 106” track. I am very excited to try this saw….have a huge plywood job to do on my home.

I have the Dewalt saw and think it is great - probably my favorite tool ! In response to your key points : The advantage of the double hinge is that the handle stays in the same orientation which I find gives more control and if you are using it all day long is far better ergonomics. The depth adjustment is slightly frustrating but you soon work out how to allow for any disrepancy. As mentioned below the blade marks on one side of the cut are because the blade is running fractionally out of parrallel with the track - this can easily be adjusted out with the adjusters and once dialled-in doesnt need to be revisited - I haven't had to redo it since doing when first new. The double sided guide is very useful cutting sheets as you can flip the saw to cut the other side of the sheet without having to rotate the track through 180 degrees, which can be a real chore when it is 2.4m long ! I have no need for any form of rail square so not having a third party one to suit is no issue to me. I plug my saw into a socket on my extractor so it switches on automatically when the saw starts. Overall I find it is a very robust, accurate and powerful tool and very good value. Re Table Saws I do agree they can be dangerous - just like any tool, however, used safetly they are perfectly Ok. However, if like many idiots you remove the blade guard and riving knife, rip cut short sections of timber and don't use a push stick then sooner or later you are going to get hurt !

I bought the corded saw and my riving knife was also bent and did not work. I spent an hour fixing it. The blade lock also did not work, at all. I had to take things apart to figure out why it didn't work. Looks like it needs to be lubricated.

Did you make your 2 inch depth cut with the CMT blade? Because they are 6.49 inches or 165mm, which would explain why you didn't get a full 2 inch cut.

Corks? Do you mean to say quirks?

Your reason for not recommending is kinda strange ngl. youre saying the best thing you can do with a tracksaw is put a guide on it to make it a square wich you "cant" with the dewalt. then you say that you actually can... whats the difference? you cant make your track a square without an aftermarket attachment... just like ALL the other tracks. so the dewalt track is worse then the others because you can do the same stuff with it plus use both sides.. i agree with most of the rest but this reasoning seems kinda.. sorry but... stupid

When I was shopping for a track saw, the biggest concern I had was accessory compatibility. This ruled out the Dewalt immediately. Also, like you, I didn't see any value in the double-sided track. Aside from being pointless, it reduces the number of slots for rail joiners to one, which isn't enough. And as long as a 118" track costs as much as the whole saw did, I'll have to keep using two 55" tracks joined together for long cuts. I chose the Makita corded saw, and love it.

I know that this review is a year old but I thought that it should be made clear that the Dewalt is also compatible with the Makita, Festool and the Evolution guide tracks. I’ve used mine on all three without issues. Though you do need to recut the splinter guard on any new track that you use it on.
The advantage of the Dewalt double sided track becomes apparent when making long cuts in a small environment. It can really save time not having to rotate a track in small space. This is maybe a niche use case but once i had experienced it, going back to traditional single sided tracks was a real pain in some situations.

Love your videos Sean! Awesome honesty 😎👍

replace the brushes on you makita brushed saw easy to change cost about 10 pounds in the uk .............trust me it works your saw was arking when using it

I have been on the dewalt platform since 2005. 18V and 20V. I have this track saw and am not impressed with it. Yes 100% with the riding knife. It is bent out of the box. The locking mechanism for the blade changing system has never worked for me. The depth gauge sucks plain and simple.
I am looting at the Festool TSV 60 KEB-F-Plus as I cut a lot of laminate onsite. The dewalt will be a back up saw.

VERY-GOOD EXPLANATION :)
THANK YOU FOR SHARING :)

THANK YOU FROM ISRAEL :)

Understand and agree. What saw do you recommend?

people use track saws for things thicker than plywood?

I have this saw. Felt there was a bit of unnecessary bias coming into the review due to prior brand preference. I'm not a Dewalt fanboi - some of their tools are great, some not so much. Dislike how the brand has experienced some pretty obvious cost cutting over the years. My thoughts 1) The riving knife in mine is fine and straight for whatever that's worth. If its out of line the alignment dimples might be secured out of place. Easy fix but have to remove cover to do it. Would be nice if you could remove the riving knife without removing the cover. 2) The double edge on the track has utility in not requiring rotation when cutting sheet goods. If that doesn't matter to you and/or if you like/use Festool, their track is compatible. 3) It says right in the manual you don't need to remove the cover to change the blade. I didn't find the instructions difficult (did the reviewer read them?) but perhaps use of other brands influenced expectations. Ideally no manual should be needed though. 4) Agree on the needlessly fiddly alignment to the track with the screws. Fortunately it's not something one has to do too often but Dewalt should have made this easier. 5) I wish Dewalt had been more consisted in their choices of fasteners so when you do take it apart you don't need a bunch of different wrenches. (Dewalt is not uniquely guilty of this - most tools have this problem) 6) The flexvolt is really nice 7) There is a small amount of adjustability in the depth stop if you take the cover off. 8) Agree the angle cut indicator should be easier and should have a detente at 45. For the record the indicator is measured flush with the top. Not the easiest to set accurately in a hurry. 9) The case is nice and compatible with Dewalt's Tstak storage systems if you are invested in that system. 10) It cuts fine when set up properly.

Would I buy it again? If you are in the Dewalt ecosystem yeah its a fine track saw. No showstopper problems IMO. If you use another battery system it's nothing special that should make you switch.

I don't get it, why being a fan of a tool brand? they couldn't care less of you as a fan. A company is not your friend.

I have an old corded version of the dewalt tracksaw. My comments:

- I love the double sided track. I use both sides. Maybe because I’m always doing big cuts on plywood on my hands and knees on floor. Much nicer not to have to 180 the track very often.

- mine must be set up, but it NEVER kicks back. There’s no sideways play. It’s great.

- depth stop is indeed rubbish. You get used to it and can always work around it. But it’s rubbish.

- STUPID STUPID blade change! This video doesn’t address the fact that you still need to remove the side panel first. Why?!! Stupid design. So many levers and mechanical buttons up top and none of them work for anything. Ridiculous.

- Dust extraction is excellent

I get good repeatable cuts with my really old hand down corded track saw. It’s great for a cheap item (second hand). I’d love an upgrade but the quality of cuts won’t improve so I can’t justify upgrading just for the “user interface”.

The Dewalt is actually the most compatible of all the different saws - it can be used on all the Festool compatible tracks whilst the Festool/Makita et al cannot be used on the Dewalt track. The Dewalt is also, technically, them most ergonomic in design and specifically this is in the plunging action - the technique keep things more square that the other method of plunging... as in alignment of body parts. It is a moot point really but marginally is a better technique.
To me the only really problem is when you cut a bevel as the central guide system means that the saw can tip. It is interesting how little this aspect is commented on.
When all said and done it comes down to your battery platform, or simply buy a corded version, but this comes down to your user-case!

The double hinge is a huge safety feature. If you are plunge cutting mid ply or solid wood it 100% will not grab the wood and slam down. That hige motion from ever other track saw has messed up more boards and track edges I lost count. It's the biggest safety feature that nobody else does putting this tool at the top of any track saw list because a safe tool lets me do woodworking longer with all of my fingers.

The good & bad about tool these days is that ppl scrutinise the smallest of things which makes almost 0 difference on the job site but & the same time scrutiny drives innovation 🤷

Surprised you didn’t say anything about the jungle gym you have to go through to change the blade. You almost have to relearn it every blade change.

The tracksaw is what has me looking at the Makita 40V platform when all of my other stuff is DeWalt. Rather expensive to have 1 tool using different batteries though.

I’m on my second dewalt. Riving knife straight in the bin.
I put thin kerf porcelain blades in and cut large format porcelain tiles and 30mm granite all day long. The motor has plenty of torque- more than the others. Great for stone.

The double sided track is brilliant when using in tight places. Ie; small kitchens where you’ll never swing a cat.
I have an an original dewalt rail square accessory. Never seen one for sale. I bought it from an old chippy that retired a few years ago.
You haven’t mentioned the dewalt saw runs on all the festool style tracks also.

Great video. Thank you. Since you asked, changing battery platforms now that I am so far in is the deal breaker. I wish I was on the Milwaukee platform but they were slow to the cordless game and missed me. So ultimately even though there are weaknesses in this saw I will still stick to Dewalt.

I love your honesty. I hate listening to full-blown salesmen o these types of videos

The best track saw one the market , vacuum compatibility , kickback, most powerful, festool ripp fence compatibility, but when it comes to the track, you need a half a meter more, because that designer prick put the knobs right on the end off the table .

I had to you tube how to remove the blade and the knife jams

The Saw fits on festool tracks for all the fancy gizmos - the double side track is genius because you can have 1 side for 45° cuts and 1 for straight cuts that’s always accurate.

If you didn’t know. This track saw works with the festool track. So you can use their ecosystem of accessories. I’ve been doing it for years.

Brilliant Review! Every point you make is absolutely "on target"! You should never apologize for your opinion about this DeWalt Track Saw. Your final "dislike," the reason you won't recommend the DeWalt Track Saw is something that even Matt Outlaw of "731 Woodworks" missed. I feel the inaccurate gage for depth of cut is critical. Also, when Matt reviewed it, I felt the undefined gage for depth of cut is a BIG failure. And, I also concluded the ridiculous difficulty in changing out blades is just as big of a failure. This tool has a fairly hefty price. It's a real disappointment from a brand that has previously had a good name. After seeing Matt's review, I bought the Milwaukee and got an extra track and add-ons from his friend which he recommends. Again, Brilliant Review!

Just an FYI. The Dewalt track saw works on the Festool track. I bought a festool track and started using that with the accessories. The only catch is, every time you switch between tracks, you need to readjust the saw to the track. Not a big deal in my book though.

A lot of noise in this video. The one gripe I agree with is the riving knife not being aligned with the blade. I removed my knife, flattened it with a couple taps, and reinstalled. No issues since. But it is a problem out of the box, one that should be remedied.
The plunge mechanism being different? That's so in a plunge cut, the blade enters the wood first and allows the riving knife to enter the kerf just cut by the blade. Not a design flaw. It's actually a well thought out design. It's simply different.
The cut edge showing tooth marks? Take a moment to properly align the saw to the track. Basic.
Fiddly knobs? Sure, they all have fiddly knobs.
In the end, track saws are fabulous tools. Pick one and get to work. No matter which one you buy, you'll soon be told that you picked the wrong one. Just understand they ALL have +/- arguments.
So pick a saw, put on hearing protection to filter out the noise, and get to work.

Of course the saw feels heavy duty… the battery weighs 5 lbs. For no good reason.

I’m a DeWalt guy but used to be s Bosch guy. Now I actually regret skipping Bosch because of Trump. I don’t like buying American any longer.
That said. For the track saw I would NOT buy DeWalt anyways for the things mentioned here and I need to replace my old AEG tracksaw. Considering Festool, Bosch and Milwaukee although Milwaukee is now out because of the above mentioned.
I thinking will be Festool on cord. I don’t need s cordless …. 😊yet

On a jobsite , a fellow worker dewalt track saw was having issues pretty sure it was his blade , so I lent him my Metabo htp 36 volt track saw for the day plus I let him use the adapter to allow him to plug it directly into the wall as he had a ton of work that day he needed to finish , I saw him at another build and he actually converted from dewalt to Metabo hpt / hikoki .

Similar to American cars, food standards, healthcare, education systems - substandard and ill thought out. All about maximizing profit over quality and long-term customer satisfaction. Go European or Japanese every time. Compare this junk with Mafell or Makita....🤦

I got by without a track saw for the past 53 years of being a builder. Reckon I can by without one at this point.

I bought the same saw now. Riving knife extremely bent. I returned it because they gave me a wrong charger. The other saw has a same bent knife. Now I'm starting to think, that its purposely made this way. On the first one i straighten it out ( that piece of metal is made of Adamantium. In normal workshop is super hard to bend/straighten it up. On the new saw i will leave misaligned for now.

The issue with trying to change the blade drove me crazy. It is the most non-intuitive process I've ever attempted. Even when I got the plunger to go down and the blade to lock, I never could figure out how I did it and I never could repeat the process. I've learned to just disassemble the blade guard and curse a lot.