SKIL 3600-02 120-Volt Flooring Saw

I am not a "handyman" guy at all. I know practically nothing about sawing precision cuts and every attempt I've made usually ends in either a disaster or very mediocre quality. Because of that, I usually shy away from any major "self-performed" renovation and hire someone who knows what they are doing.However, I had a family member that wanted to put laminate flooring in an upstairs bedroom and asked me if I would do it. As usual, I thought there was no way I could do this and make it look good. I investigated in how this type of work is done and surprisingly, I found that many do-it-yourselfers said it was not too tough a job - if you had the correct tools. THAT is the key.After going to all the typical places (Home Depot, Lowes, Lumber Liquidators) and asking what they recommended - this Skil saw came up again and again as being the best and most user-friendly precision saw available for non-skilled would-be weekend carpenters - like me!I'm happy to saw this saw is great. Very easy to use, very safe to use and, though light weight, is more than tough enough to handle laminate and wood sawing. The precision cuts/angles were extremely easy to do with this saw.It does have a dust bag, but is pretty worthless in keeping wood dust or laminate dust from spreading all over the room, so I advise you to do your cuts outside on your patio (which is what I wound up doing). Other than that, I have no complaints about this great product. The finished room looked great and I really could not have done it without this saw.I had looked at the laminate hand operated cutters but all the people I spoke with said they were a waste of money and that I wouldn't be happy with the cuts they made - unless you were willing to put out $500 for this one particular type. I didn't have that kind of budget so I went with the Skil saw. I think all fledgling do-it-yourself types will love this saw. My wife even wants to try it because it doesn't look so intimidating to use. I highly recommend this product!

After using the saw on aprox. 1000 sq ft of 3/4 oak flooring, I can say it will do the job , it will replace a small table saw and a small mitre saw but it has some drawbacks, it is a hassle to switch back and forth from ripping to crosscut , just takes time, the saw is not as fast to work with, but if a person compares prices between the flooring saw vs. both a table saw and a mitre saw, well the flooring saw is far less expensive.Also the saw is very safe to use, all of the gaurds are set up very well for novice or apprentice workers.

This is a nice convenient saw. It dose exactly what it is designed for, cutting flooring. Like many other flooring tools that is all it dose, one thing. It is well designed, but not super accrete. Most of the time this is not necessary to make cuts to less than 1/64" like in trim work when installing flooring. If you are going to do some pattern work or inlay you will need a different saw. This saw dose not give you a smooth cut , and is not supper accrete. The small blade will dull quickly ( only because of its size) so by an extra.I ran 3 large rooms of pre finished hard wood and the blade is still usable, but wont last much longer. Also it is not a quick change to replace the blade. The slide works smoothly, and the lock to change it to a rip saw works well also. The rip guide dose not let you rip smaller than about 1" so you will need to reverse your stock to get something small. In the rip position my guide is slightly off parallel so I need to do some more adjustment. Light weight easy to carry, powerful enough to rip Hardwood's. On a scale of 1/10 the dust collection is an 8. There is no such a thing as a dustless saw and this one is fair. My large 3HP shop vac dose a better job than my 2HP 5 gallon vac dose, but it is to large to get everything in a small room and still work. There are a few things I would like to see improved. One a slightly longer cord. It should be 6 to 7 feet long. The second would be a built in outlet for a vacuum so you do not have to turn on the vac, start the saw, make the cut, turn off the vac. It is just too cumbersome for the professional the way it is.I would gladly pay the extra 30 to 40 dollars to get this feature. Also some kind of skirt so the saw dust dose not blow out from under base. I added some soft foam under the edge of mine and it works great. I am going to enjoy using this for the average flooring job.

This saw exceeded my expectations on every turn. There was a slight calibration needed when I set the fence for a rip cut, but beyond that little learning curve everything was easy to change and work with. The cuts are smooth, effortless, and more accurate than I could do with any of my other saws without exception. Every saw and tool has its limitations. This saw is very specific to flooring. Although this saw may not cut every imaginable cut for your flooring project, the cuts it can do it does so well and so quickly that you'll wish your other tools could deliver the same kind of accuracy and immediate results.Easy to transportEasy to adjustEasy to setSafe to use with minimal cautionFine and accurate resultsTerrific value