DEWALT Circular Saw, 6-1/2-Inch, TrackSaw Kit (DWS520K)

I have been woodworking for a long time. I've always struggled with breaking down plywood using my cabinet saw. I usually work alone and lack sufficient space for out-feed accessory tables, etc. When I do ask for help from my family while cutting sheet goods, there is usually an issue resulting in a bad cut. I was skeptical a 6 1/2 blade on a circular saw could produce an acceptable quality cut. I was wrong. The saw is terrific breaking down sheet goods. It has lots of power and makes terrific cuts. I bought a sheet of 1.5" insulation board to use as a sacrificial surface. I lay the plywood on it and make my cuts. It's easy, quick and accurate. The other use is to put a straight edge on rough hardwood lumber. I built a jig so I could do this on the table saw but the track saw handles this so much more easily. Out of the box: The saw is solid and well-made. The instructions were a bit disjointed. There was an odd booklet attached to the saw handle that was presumably intended as a quick start guide. It had no text, only illustrations. The initial set up involves tightening the saw guides to remove any wiggle between the base of the saw and the track. Next, you start the saw and run down the track to trim the rubber strip that acts as a zero clearance insert would on a table saw to prevent splintering. It also trims the track to the exact line of the saw cut. That's it! It took about two minutes. I ended up watching a YouTube video to learn the setup process because DeWalt tried to make the documentation too simple for a simple guy like me to decipher. I love the saw. The plunge mechanism is like 'buttah'. I purchased two sections of track and the accessory required to join them. This is a $20 accessory not included with the saw or track. Amazon didn't sell it when I bought the saw or when I composed this review. I had a difficult time finding one. I think you may be better off buying the 102" track to cut full sheets of plywood along with the 59". The saw doesn't pass smoothly over the joint in the track (sticks a bit). Although it has not affected the cut, I'm afraid the track will move when I nudge the saw to get it past the joint. I have to keep an allen wrench in my pocket to put the track together and take it apart for various cuts. It's a bit of a pain and could benefit from some design improvement. The tool simplifies things so much, however, even with the issue with joining track it's still much better and easier than using a table saw. I also purchased the accessory clamps. You don't need them to cut material that is lying flat. The track stays put with friction alone. If you need to cut vertical surfaces or require a little 'insurance' while cutting expensive material, the clamps are for you. I saw a video of someone using the saw to trim the bottom of a door without removing it. They clamped the track onto the door and cut it right there. UPDATE: I've been using the saw for over a year. It still works great and I've had zero issues with it or the tracks. I've found it makes cutting sheet goods for cabinet boxes so much easier than using a table saw. I still love it! I also noticed a some people thought the review I wrote above wasn't helpful. I'm a little surprised because I tried to provide useful information. I often depend on these reviews to make my own purchase decisions. That's why I bother to write them. Is it the case the review I wrote wasn't useful or did you simply disagree my review or dislike DeWalt tools? Curious...

Every positive review about this saw so far is correct, this is a very useful tool. Purchased this instead of a panel saw that was snapped up on CL. We're completing a remodel that went down to new framing in areas - this tool adds to a good miter saw, some great circular saws, excellent straight edges and two different table saws. At this point, so many things involve sheet materials or long straight cuts in finish-grade objects (built-in and closet work, etc.). This saw is not as useful overall as our DeWalt miter saw, but it elevates the quality of work to the same degree - from "almost good" to "solid and well made". Paying a per-cut charge to get "within 1/8 or so" accuracy and a shabby cut, plus waiting vs. this saw giving smooth, deadly-accurate cuts of veneer plywood? This saw wins and pays for itself in a hundred cuts. Long straight cuts are very smooth using a long track and the supplied blade. Trimming finished doors to clear thicker carpet worked great - no chips, nice smooth cuts. It is so nice to make one cut instead of a rough and finish cut. It is especially nice to square up a edge or two of a sheet instead of chasing the edges around on a table saw. It is not too easy to get used to the forward / down movement required to lower the blade to the workpiece, and it is definitely anxiety mode starting a full 96 inch cut, but it works fine in practice. I cut material between 1/2 and 1-3/4 with this, consisting of particle board, soft wood, or shop and cabinet grade plywood with excellent results so far. The idea of putting foam on the floor as a cut support is nice, but then using clamps might be a problem. I knocked together a wood bench from 2x4s that has a few long spaces on top so that I can work at table-saw height. Anything that does a nice job of supporting both sides of the cut, for the length of the cut works great. The DeWalt clamps work very well. They are fidgety to use though because a person has to have the work overhang with enough clearance for the tail of the clamps to hang down. It is too bad the clamps do not have a way to work with the tail facing up instead of down. No problem using the clamps if the work is on a sawhorse or bench. Dust control works very well. I use a flexible, rubbery hose adapter from the big box store to reduce to the saw size. It's really good to get in the habit of hooking up a vacuum - for heath and neatness and to preserve the life of the "friction strip" on the track that helps to hold it in place. It's best to be sure that the saw and the work are clean before laying the track down. This is not a $400 tool. Check out the price with a spare (the red colored one) blade, vacuum hose and adapter, clamps, two tracks, work support and tax - it adds up quickly. There are small table saws that cost less than this saw fully equipped. Table saw vs this track saw: It's not a table saw. Repeat short to medium cuts are not as quick and sure as a table saw because setup or a quick jig is needed. Of course, dado and rabbets won't happen with this saw. I'd be hard pressed to decide between this saw and a small table saw (similar money) as my first DIY tool upgrade. Looking back at the use, all the sheet good experiences were frustrating and time consuming on a small table saw, but all the long rips and duplicate cut type work on the table saw were great. We could not have done our remodel without a table saw, but some parts of the job would not be good quality without this saw. For a DIY first 700+ buck saw, I'd give this tool a slight edge over a table saw of the same money, with the advice to save up for a nicer table saw later too. I'd rate it 4.5 to 4.75 out of 5 if I could, due to the long track length (a tad short) and the odd blade-lowering mechanism. This saw might hold up to professional use if used with care. If it fails too soon or has some big issue, I'll come back to update this review.

This is a big purchase for most people so I'll leave a detailed review as I can. I have been going back and forth on one of these for years. The price point for a glorified circular saw was just way too much. I started woodworking as a hobby and now that I basically have a cabinet shop with all high end equipment, I needed something to break down plywood sheets instead of having to carry them by myself and end up with bad cuts on the table saw. I finally bit the bullet while doing a closet built in build and bought this. Let me say that I wish I would have bought this a long, long, long time ago! Could have saved a lot of straining and frustration. This saw is absolutely perfect. Some complain about the power but if you're taking you're taking your time on other things, why not take your time and get a nice cut. The price is still a little high in my opinion, especially since it doesn't include a track. But it's cheaper and smaller than a panel saw and does the same thing. Now the one complaint I have which I will not take points away from the saw is they claim you can add 2 tracks together and you can. However, it is the biggest pain in the buttox to do so and the 2 joined tracks will not stay perfect parallel to each other and you will get a bow in the middle of your cut. Just pay the extra little bit and get a longer track for sheet goods. That also being said the 102" track should be 106-108" long. The 102 is really not long enough for 8' plywood but most of the time I crosscut first then make my length cuts. It only extends 3" past the plywood on each side and you need about 5" of track for the saw to stay stable. You basically have to be very careful and start and finish your cut partially off the track which doesn't do much good for finished ends. Everything else on this saw is great. The depth gauge is perfect. It is very easy to plunge, even one handed. Plenty of cord length. With the blade that's in it, I find if you are cutting on the opposite side of your cut line and keeping your cut off piece, the blade width seems to be about 3/32 of an inch so add that to your measurement and you should end up with a perfect size piece. On all other pieces, just measure and place right on the line of the exact measurement and it comes out perfect.

At first, it was tricky getting the hang of it, but I found with a good precision Square. I can set the track and make very nice square cuts with this saw. When I attach my desk collection system to the side, I’m able to remove 95% of the dust From the cut. Overall, a very good product.

I am a convert. The last thing I wanted to do was buy what looked like a circular saw that cost $400 more than my circular saw... but I found myself making cabinets for two entire kitchens. My table saw wasn't the right tool to be cutting pieces so large. Getting perfect cuts that were 47 inches long with a circular saw was possible but taking more time than I had to spend... so I apologized to my wife and got this guy. And wow, I needed this thing about 5 years ago. It's amazing. Aside from "just" quickly and easily cutting perfect lines as accurately as you can mark, it does a few other things: It has slim to zero clearances on the sides. It also lets you precisely and easily adjust the cutting depth, with a measuring tool built right into the saw. This means you can do cool things like lay a hardwood floor that stops at a threshold, and cut a true-perfect line at the threshold AFTER you've laid the floor, without more than knicking the subfloor. Need to cut a wall or floor that's got pipes and wires behind it? Again, that exact depth gauge means that you can use this saw and almost risklessly cut. Anyway... this saw is magic and worth every penny. I made a lazy susan in a few hours with it. I can't believe I waited so long to get one, and know so few people that have one. Related: I tried to find this saw used before buying it here. It wasn't on ebay or craigslist used... at any price. That says a lot and more: This is the saw that NO ONE gets rid of.

Despite the name of this item “Kit” it consists of the bare tool only. It is NOT a kit (unless the tote box makes a kit). No track included. That said, a good enough unit. Pressing into the festool, etc price point though.

I can't say anything bad about this saw; it's well built, it's powerful, it's accurate, has electric brake and it's not really that much heavier than a mag77 which is a great saw too and I have owned several but I have had issues with the mag77 leaking oil or accidentally being left at a job site (once) plus the depth markings on the dewalt are very accurate, the location of the blade locking button is better than any skilsaw and again it's not really that much heavier than a mag77. Worm drive saws are heavy in general. This one in my opinion is only slightly heavier than the mag77 which is supposably the lightest worm drive on the market. Oh and I forgot to mention that the "thickness", "maneuverability" and "ergonomicness" make this the saw I choose when I'm online worm drive circular saw shopping!

Cut Trex decking perfectly. I wasn’t sure until i made the first cut, perfect results, stepped up my game big time.

Very happy with this saw, first worm drive I've owned. Perfect for ripping plywood, stable and ergonomic. I'm 5'6 and can cut 4' plywood without repositioning myself. Not sure you'd want to haul it around all day but it definitely serves its purpose. It's got some heft to it.

great for cutting straight lines and ripping down sheet stock

Yo la compre para cortar tableros de melamina porque vi reseñas en las que mencionaban que por el sentido de corte y la presión de la guía sobre el tablero no astillaba, pero si astilla, en teoría el disco con el que viene es para cortes limpios... fuera de eso las guías le dan muy buena precisión al corte y es muy practica para cargar y usar en cualquier sitio, para cortar cubiertas de HPL no sirve porque no tiene suficiente profundidad para cortar el respaldo. Si los cortes que vas a hacer son muy largos o anchos y no cuentas con una sierra de mesa de buen tamaño la recomiendo ampliamente.

Magnífica herramienta, tiene excelente potencia, parece que nada la detiene ni merma su potencia, solo es cuestión de acostumbrarse a la pequeña sacudida que da al encender, es algo pesada pero sabiéndo utilizar ese peso a favor es de gran ayuda para hacer cortes con gran precisión y solidez. Lo único que me hubiera gustado que tuviera es la guía de corte incluida en la caja.

Excellent power. Little heavier than expected. I can cut to full depth and it has plenty of torque