I bought a Black and Decker 7 1/4" circular saw a few months ago and loved it.
Last Friday I was breaking down some 2" Southern Yellow Pine (with the required 12' rips) and it started blowing smoke, vast quantities of smoke, out the motor vents, with the melodic sound of bearings going south.
Did a bit of research and the DeWalt 575 was the first or second on everyone's list. It should be in today and we will see if it lives up to its billing.
B & D was the choice of professionals in the past but the last pro quality tool they made was probably about 1960. They were fine for the home handyman use. I had one for many years for light duty. Making 12' rips was not their forte.
I don't know about DeWalt. They used to be a higher quality. Meantime, can you get the B&D repaired under warranty? Keep it as a spare or sell it and recoupe some of your cost.
Makita is still a lot better than DeWalt - so are Milwaukee and Skill and Bosch. Generally speaking, if under Warrantee they will more likely replace than repair - many of the B&D crap today you can't even get parts for. Wear out a brush, and the replacement part is the whole motor, including the plastic case.
I think that depends on the Skil model - the homeowners models (used to) suck, but the worm-drive saws are de rigueur on job sites (and it appears that Skil no longer makes the worm-drive saws).
Actually, it is their flagship saw. For a while, they made them for Bosch as well. Don't know about now. I didn't realize they were making this many sidewinders, though.
I have the 575SB and from day one, the electric blade brake is intermittent. Sometimes it works and stops the blade and other times it don't do a thing.
Of course, Murphy's Law dictates that it usually doesn't work when I'm actually cutting. YMMV.
Skil is owned by a Chinese company after being sold by Bosch that apparentl y bought them to get rights to the worm drive saw.
Its confusing. When I started in the trades a few decades ago, even though we didn't use Skil branded tools (except the worm drive)all wood cutting c ircular saws were called "Skilsaws". Nothing has changed. We don't say ge t a drill and a "Makita" and head to the job.
Hm.. I have a worm-drive saw that's not a skilsaw (was in the garage when I moved in). Probably 50's vintage. Needs grease, so I've never even fired it up (came in a nice metal case). I'll have to dig it out of the back of the shop and see if it can be rehabilitated.
People seem to really like that saw. I bought a Milwaukee 6390 years back when they were on sale at Sears. I just used it this afternoon. It's on the heavy side, but it's never disappointed me for power.
They still make several worm drive saws. The Sawsquatch is one of them. Remember, Skill is now owned by Bosch. They stil make the SHD77 too amd the SPT 77 and 78 models.(as well as the MeduSaw for concrete)
Not as of last year. Although I can't find the article, I read some time b ack that Bosch no longer needed (or wanted) Skil. They were sold to Chevro n, a Chinese company that indicated (sorry, no cite) that intends to start making more "professional grade" tools.
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