On Wednesday, July 26, 2017 at 11:26:24 PM UTC-5, Leon wrote:

I would say that the track is probably as good as any of the ones from
the competition. BUT there are a few things to consider.

1. 4' is not long enough to make any track saw useful. IMHO. 4' and
shorter is still pretty easy to do on a TS. BUT 4' will not rip a full
sheet of plywood. Looking at the package there appear to maybe be two,
2' sections and a couple of bars to join the two pieces of track.
Perhaps with another kit you could rip 8'

Looking at their site, they are recommending their long rip guide for rips of any real length. That rip guide might be a good solution for some, but unless you are experienced at holding the guide against the sheet goods while guiding/pushing the saw, it is more difficult that one would think. Out of all the good tools that Kreg makes, that one is probably the dud (IMO) of the group.



5. There is a reason that track saws are not typically sold with out
tracks, they are intended to be used such that the track provides a
perfectly straight path. If you used the track saw circular saw free
hand you might end up with a saw that has some of the problems that a
common circular saw have. IMHO if you don't buy a track saw set up, a
mated saw and track, you might as well use a straight piece of plywood
to guide your saw. Cutting a straight line is not a big deal with a
straight edge, cutting a non wavering line along that straight edge is
the obstacle that needs to be over come.

Just to amplify that a bit, these track devices aren't going to turn out any better results than your own saw. When all we had were homemade jigs and guides, we discovered that every saw we used with a straight edge gave different results. Even with the same straight edge (often a piece of commercial glass window mullion).

We found that better blades gave better results, but still there was a difference. After experimenting, I found that they problem was with the saw, and the fact that the saw blade and the shoe of the saw were not parallel. So the bad news was that we could never get the blade and show parallel. The worse news was that when buying a new saw, I found that most saws were not perfectly parallel, which gave us a fine, but distinct pattern from the circular saw cut.

I finally found a saw that had parallel surfaces. I think its manufacture was more of a mistake than a plan from the maker, but nonetheless, it is ONLY used for breaking down sheet goods with a guide or for trimming doors, etc., and only by me. All it would take to get the saw out of alignment would be to keep sitting it down in the shoe between uses, or to stumble on it between uses while it sat on the ground.

The saw itself is just as important as any part of one of these operations. If you take that old saw that you have used for a few years for any kind of utility wood cutting that came its way and use a straight edge with it, the desired dimension can be achieved, but the quality of cut will be poor.

Robert