Recommendation For First Circular Saw

DadiOH is buying a circular saw for his daughter too? What a coincidence!

Sorry, lexical distancing problem.

No problem. My daughter lives quite a distance from me, so that's a fitting excuse. ;-)

I found a left blade PC 743 (my saw) on CL for $120. Haven't contacted the guy yet. He's a 1.75 hour drive from me. I'm almost hoping he sold it already. ;-)

It's clear that you have some kind of religious oppositing to jigsaws. I learned from a retired Seabee who wouldn't buy anything else for his own use and he bought the cheapest ones he could find. He could build anything up to and including aircraft hangars. My experience is that unless you're getting into stock that the blade won't reach through you can do any kind of rough carpentry with a jigsaw. You can do it faster and easier with a circular saw sometimes but if you can't do it at all then that says more about you than about the saw.

Update: I found a left blade PC743 on Craigslist listed for $120. A guy bought a one-price lot of tools at an estate sale and didn't need the saw. As I mentioned in another post, you can't touch them on ebay for under $150 with shipping and you sure can't test them. Some are listed for well over $200.

It was a 3 hour round trip to get it. I offered him $110 and he took it. He let me test it and it's a good thing that I brought my own blade. I knew I wouldn't be able to test it if the blade was shot and boy, did I make the right call. I barely got 1" into a piece of 5/4" x 12 pine when the burning started. I put a new Diablo 60 tooth blade on it and it went through the board like butter.

Now I have twins:

I may change the cord before I give it to my daughter. It's a little dried out, especially the strain relief section by the handle.

I'm buying her the saw, one of my son's is going to buy her some different types of blades, and my other son is going to buy her some (more) clamps. All she'll need is a straight edge and some youtube videos, and she'll be good to go.

Excellent choice Glad you didn't succumb to the Brit (I believe) who was trying to convince you to go for a sabre saw!!!! (the least used of ALL my saws

- I use my old keyhole saw at least as often - - -

Brits don't learn from SeaBees. If you don't know the term, look it up.

And some pallets....

Sonny

It had nothing to do with succumbing or not. A saber saw was always a consideration and I said as much earlier. I may still get her one. As you may have noticed, the title of this thread wasn't "Recommedation for first saw". It specifically mentioned first *circular* saw.

That specific question was indeed addressed a couple of times but of course, other options were included. Heck, someone even mentioned chisels and clamps. There's always drift, and usually some arguing, but buried in these discussion is often some good information.

How does that work exactly? Is it a genetic thing? If a SeaBee is talking to a Brit does the British brain's learning process just shut down? ;-)

Are you right-handed or left?

While a left-blade saw is what a right-handed person should, IMHO, be using, the issue with some of them is that they blow the sawdust back into the face of right handed users. It doesn't look like the 6391 addresses that issue.

The PC743 has a detachable dust chute that swivels to direct the sawdust away from the user. The chute also allows a vacuum to be attached. I've used that feature many times when using the saw indoors.

The Bosch CS5 appears to have addressed the blow back issue with the opening I see in the housing. (That's an assumption) but it doesn't look like a vac can be attached. Maybe there's an adapter?

In any case, I bought a used 743 for my right handed daughter. Her partner, who happens to be left handed, will just have to deal with it. ;-)

I think you're right. The manual doesn't say anything about an exhaust adapter and it gets dinged in the reviews for this.

I really like the shoe on the CS10 but it's, of course, a right-blade saw. It has the slot for the sawdust port, as well. There's always Festool. ;-)

...or used PC 743's

I'm glad I found one at a decent price. Once I change the cord and retainer, and factor in the gas to go get it, I'm probably at $160ish. That's the very, very low end of the ebay listings and I got to test it before paying for it.

Toss in a chat-filled 3 hour drive with SWMBO and I think I got a pretty good deal. ;-)

That's pretty pricey for a circular saw. Lowes has the CS10 for $99. The Ryobi 18V brushless cordless 7-1/4" saw is left-blade and $119. Bosch's left-blade cordless is $129 but is only 6-1/2".

Road trips are always fun. We do a circuit of the Atlanta woodworking stores every so often. 2x Woodcraft, 2x Rockler (though haven't been to the new one yet), Peachtree, and Highland (SWMO even likes to go to Highland).

I seem to spend a lot of time at Emory hospital, anymore, which is only a couple of miles from Highland. After Dr's appointments, SWMBO calls it my lollypop. ;-)

Have you ever tried a PC 743? Lot's of people on various forums lamenting the fact the PC, back when it really was PC, stopped making them.

It really is a nice saw. Bottom line, since I have one and really like it, I don't mind spending $160ish to get one for my daughter.

I looked at them a dozen years back. I'm not about to pay >$200 for a used circular saw, though. I don't use one that often.

I gave my rear-pivot Dewalt (DW364) and Bosch sabre saw to my son. They just bought their first house. If he uses them, I'll buy him more tools.

I don't think I paid >$200 for mine when it was new. I don't know why but $139 comes to mind. I wouldn't pay those current ebay prices either, especially without the ability to touch and feel.

When I bought mine, I was helping a co-worker frame his house. He had hired another of his friends who was a professional framer to help him out. That framer showed me his 743 and let me try it. He also told me that he liked the saw so much, he had bought a 743 for all the guys that worked for him as Christmas gifts that year. (He had each of their names etched into the body since there was going to be a lot of 743's on the job sites.)

After using his 743 for a few hours, I went out and bought my own. That's gotta be 20 years ago now.

Southpaw

Mr Filk does not agree... ;)

In the face? My Milwaukee 6390 blows dust horizontally, certainly not upwards towards the face.

Interesting, the only other circ saw (not talking about track saws) I'm aware of with that 'feature' is:

The Bosch CS5 appears to have motor and shoe issues: