SKIL PWRCore 20 Brushless 20V 6-1/2 Inch Circular Saw, Includes 4.0Ah Lithium Battery and PWRJump Charger - CR541302
- 20V CORDLESS CIRCULAR SAW KIT—Includes a PWR Core 20 4. 0Ah Lithium Battery and PWR Jump Charger.
- Longer run time & battery LIFE—Industry leading PWR core 20 Lithium battery technology wraps Each cell with cooling material to keep the battery powering on for 25% longer run time and 2x battery life.
- CHARGES IN 5 MINUTES—Automatic PWR Jump charges the battery in just 5 minutes.
- QUICK AND CLEAN CUTS—24-tooth ultra-thin carbide-tipped blade ensures accurate cuts again and again, while integrated dust blower keeps cut line visible.
- DIGITAL BRUSHLESS MOTOR—Provides efficient, high-performance and extended tool life.
- 0-50 DEGREE BEVEL CAPACITY—Easy bevel adjustment allows for a variety of bevel cuts and many applications.
- ELECTRIC BRAKE—Reduces downtime between cuts by quickly stopping the blade.
More About This Product
- Includes 4.0Ah PWRCore 20 Lithium Battery and PWRJump Charger
- Electric saw with powerful brushless motor
- Cast aluminum upper guard and steel shoe provides durability
- Electric brake stops blade quickly
- Integrated dust blower keeps cut line in clear view
- Spindle lock allows for quick and secure blade changes
SKIL PWR core 20 power saw kit designed for power, efficiency, and performance by the brand that invented the circular saw. This electric saw set includes everything you need to get started with a brushless 20V 6-1/2 Circular saw, a PWR core 20 Lithium Battery, and an automatic PWR jump charger. This cordless saw has a 24-Tooth Ultra-thin carbide-tipped blade that helps you make quick and accurate wood cuts, and the PWR core battery ensures a longer run time and battery life on the job so you can power through any project. More about SKIL 20 Brushless 20V 6-1/2 inch circular saw: -electric saw with powerful Brushless motor-6-1/2 inch Ultra-thin, 24-Tooth, carbide-tipped blade for fast and clean cuts-Bevel capacity up to 50 degrees-spindle Lock for quick and secure blade changes-quick depth adjustment -cast aluminum upper guard and steel shoe provides durability-electric brake stops blade quickly-Integrated dust blower keeps cut line in clear view-led light helps you see your work clearly more about SKIL PWR core 20 4. 0Ah Lithium battery: -one 4. 0Ah battery -longer run time and battery life with PWR core 20 Lithium Battery-Green LED fuel gauge displays battery charge-compatible with all SKIL 20V tools more about SKIL automatic PWR jump charger: -automatically charges battery in 5 minutes-Fully charges in 50 minutes-Battery charge status display-back holes for wall mounting about SKIL PWR core 20 Brushless technology: longer run time, longer battery life, and 5-minute charging— This is the innovation of SKIL PWR core 20 Brushless technology. Pwr core 20 Lithium utilizes a patented cooling system where each cell is wrapped with temperature management material to keep the battery Cool and powering on for 25% longer run time and 2x battery life.
Most of the reviews for this Skil circular saw cover the main features of this saw, so I am going to stick with my sharing my experience thus far in having used this for a few small projects. To set context, I am a DIY'er, having completely remodeled two houses and a condo, and regularly taking on some project around the house or building something with my son. I do not perform construction of any sort as part of my "day job", so I am reviewing this from the perspective of a fairly hard-core DIYer, not a construction professional.
First impression was that this was designed and built very well. It is very solid feeling when you're holding it, well balanced, and "dense", if that makes sense. It doesn't feel like it's made of a bunch of cheap plastic and rubber, even though there certainly is a fair amount of these materials in the product (at least exterior surfaces). It comes with a 4Ah battery and Skil's "PWRjump" charger, which allows for very fast charging to get you back up and running in a short amount of time. A 4Ah battery is pretty high capacity for a tool like this, and based on my experience, will get you through a lot of cutting before needing a recharge.
Cutting performance from this saw is excellent. I ripped through 2x4s like butter, cut a 4x8 sheet of 1/2" plywood with ease, and other miscellaneous cuts through different types of wood with no issues. The LED light on the front is useful if you find yourself needing to cut where lighting is poor, maybe not something that is very common, but useful if/when you need it. Since it's an LED, the power drain from this light is pretty negligible. And the fact that it stays lit for a about 10 seconds after you stop cutting is nice, since you may want to be lining up for your next cut.
Adjustments on the saw are very good. The deck can be adjusted to vary the cutting depth, and it adjusts with a very simple locking arm. (I have a corded circular saw that has a wing-nut to lock the deck, and always find this to be a bit annoying to lock in place. The Skil design here is far superior). And there are markings to indicate what the cutting depth is. Maybe not necessary in most cases, but a nice touch in the design. For tilting the deck, a small knob on the front let's you set it as much as 50 degrees from perpendicular.
The 6.5" size of this saw allows it to be a bit more compact than more common 7.25" saws, and yet it doesn't really seem to be any less functional or capable when i compare it to my 7.25" circular.
So after all of that, why only a 4-star review? In using this saw I ran into one issue: in addition to pressing the safety, the trigger button requires a pretty significant squeeze to get the saw started. There is a resistance point that you can feel and the saw then starts up, but it doesn't seem to have this to shut it off. On several occasions, I had the saw shut off in the middle of a cut because I wasn't quite squeezing hard enough. I actually thought something was wrong with the saw since it just seemed to randomly stop, and then I realized I wasn't keeping enough tension on the trigger. When doing a very quick cut, this is not really a problem, but when cutting length-wise through an 8-foot long sheet of ply, having the saw cut off multiple times gets annoying. If the trigger required just slightly less tension to remain engaged, or it had a more definitive "stop" point in the trigger feel, this would likely not be an issue. I'm sure I will adapt to this over time (and keep the trigger squeezed more firmly), but this could have been avoided with a slight change to the trigger design.
I fully intend to continue using this saw regularly though, despite this minor design flaw.
First impression was that this was designed and built very well. It is very solid feeling when you're holding it, well balanced, and "dense", if that makes sense. It doesn't feel like it's made of a bunch of cheap plastic and rubber, even though there certainly is a fair amount of these materials in the product (at least exterior surfaces). It comes with a 4Ah battery and Skil's "PWRjump" charger, which allows for very fast charging to get you back up and running in a short amount of time. A 4Ah battery is pretty high capacity for a tool like this, and based on my experience, will get you through a lot of cutting before needing a recharge.
Cutting performance from this saw is excellent. I ripped through 2x4s like butter, cut a 4x8 sheet of 1/2" plywood with ease, and other miscellaneous cuts through different types of wood with no issues. The LED light on the front is useful if you find yourself needing to cut where lighting is poor, maybe not something that is very common, but useful if/when you need it. Since it's an LED, the power drain from this light is pretty negligible. And the fact that it stays lit for a about 10 seconds after you stop cutting is nice, since you may want to be lining up for your next cut.
Adjustments on the saw are very good. The deck can be adjusted to vary the cutting depth, and it adjusts with a very simple locking arm. (I have a corded circular saw that has a wing-nut to lock the deck, and always find this to be a bit annoying to lock in place. The Skil design here is far superior). And there are markings to indicate what the cutting depth is. Maybe not necessary in most cases, but a nice touch in the design. For tilting the deck, a small knob on the front let's you set it as much as 50 degrees from perpendicular.
The 6.5" size of this saw allows it to be a bit more compact than more common 7.25" saws, and yet it doesn't really seem to be any less functional or capable when i compare it to my 7.25" circular.
So after all of that, why only a 4-star review? In using this saw I ran into one issue: in addition to pressing the safety, the trigger button requires a pretty significant squeeze to get the saw started. There is a resistance point that you can feel and the saw then starts up, but it doesn't seem to have this to shut it off. On several occasions, I had the saw shut off in the middle of a cut because I wasn't quite squeezing hard enough. I actually thought something was wrong with the saw since it just seemed to randomly stop, and then I realized I wasn't keeping enough tension on the trigger. When doing a very quick cut, this is not really a problem, but when cutting length-wise through an 8-foot long sheet of ply, having the saw cut off multiple times gets annoying. If the trigger required just slightly less tension to remain engaged, or it had a more definitive "stop" point in the trigger feel, this would likely not be an issue. I'm sure I will adapt to this over time (and keep the trigger squeezed more firmly), but this could have been avoided with a slight change to the trigger design.
I fully intend to continue using this saw regularly though, despite this minor design flaw.
+ Lightweight at around 8 lbs with the included 4.0Ah battery. Easier to lift and set down as well as extend and maneuver.
+ Compact Size makes for a more nimble saw. If your new to using a circular saw this one is good to learn on. With a 6-1/2" blade it is less intimidating than a 7-1/4".
+ Ergonomic Design. I like the handle and layout. The large blade guard lever is easy to reach and hold open with your left hand. The left hand front grip is in a good location to provide good control.
+ Balanced Weight Distribution. The saw feels balanced and not to heavy at the front, rear or side to side.
+ The adjustable tilt and depth levers are large and easy to operate. They also have good positive locking so your setting stays put.
+ 20V 4.0Ah battery coupled with a brushless motor and 6-1/2" thin kerf blade means lots of runtime. You can cut thru many linear feet of nominal 2x lumber. The included 24 tooth general purpose blade is great for crosscuts and does a decent job at ripping as well. You will want a finer tooth blade for other materials. There is a growing selection of 6-1/2" blades and you can now find just about every type of blade that you can in the 7-1/4" size.
+ Bevels to 50 degrees. Don't forget and think you're cutting at 45 when your really at 50.
+ Dust port hose adapter. This is the first saw that I've seen that has a removable adapter. Nice feature to have. It does a decent job too if you have a vac around and want to reduce the amount of dust blown out the port.
+ Dust is blown away from the cut line. Nice feature that I expect all modern saws to have.
+ Electric brake works good. I hope it lasts a long time. This is a feature that usually fails on saws at some point in time and no longer brakes. It has a nice and short braking time.
Cons:
- The base plate is a little on the basic side for me. It does have a guide slot to add a rip fence accessory. It is not that but rather the thickness and feel of it. I'm used to a little more heavy duty base plate on professional contractor saws. It is adequate, but for Pros it needs to stand up to daily heavy duty use and I'm not sure it would take the abuse job site saws often encounter.
- Depth setting scale is a bit hard to read. I wish it had colored numbers and lines and was more visible. This is common on a lot of saws so not that unusual.
- I wish the LED light shown a little brighter and more forward to the cut line. Not a big deal however.
+ Compact Size makes for a more nimble saw. If your new to using a circular saw this one is good to learn on. With a 6-1/2" blade it is less intimidating than a 7-1/4".
+ Ergonomic Design. I like the handle and layout. The large blade guard lever is easy to reach and hold open with your left hand. The left hand front grip is in a good location to provide good control.
+ Balanced Weight Distribution. The saw feels balanced and not to heavy at the front, rear or side to side.
+ The adjustable tilt and depth levers are large and easy to operate. They also have good positive locking so your setting stays put.
+ 20V 4.0Ah battery coupled with a brushless motor and 6-1/2" thin kerf blade means lots of runtime. You can cut thru many linear feet of nominal 2x lumber. The included 24 tooth general purpose blade is great for crosscuts and does a decent job at ripping as well. You will want a finer tooth blade for other materials. There is a growing selection of 6-1/2" blades and you can now find just about every type of blade that you can in the 7-1/4" size.
+ Bevels to 50 degrees. Don't forget and think you're cutting at 45 when your really at 50.
+ Dust port hose adapter. This is the first saw that I've seen that has a removable adapter. Nice feature to have. It does a decent job too if you have a vac around and want to reduce the amount of dust blown out the port.
+ Dust is blown away from the cut line. Nice feature that I expect all modern saws to have.
+ Electric brake works good. I hope it lasts a long time. This is a feature that usually fails on saws at some point in time and no longer brakes. It has a nice and short braking time.
Cons:
- The base plate is a little on the basic side for me. It does have a guide slot to add a rip fence accessory. It is not that but rather the thickness and feel of it. I'm used to a little more heavy duty base plate on professional contractor saws. It is adequate, but for Pros it needs to stand up to daily heavy duty use and I'm not sure it would take the abuse job site saws often encounter.
- Depth setting scale is a bit hard to read. I wish it had colored numbers and lines and was more visible. This is common on a lot of saws so not that unusual.
- I wish the LED light shown a little brighter and more forward to the cut line. Not a big deal however.
This is a nice compact saw that is nimble and light on its feet. It is user friendly. You can frame a house with it. You might go thru a couple of batteries in the process but it is capable. The lighter weight is easier on your elbows and arms. Fully capable. Very good quality. 4 solid stars. No major complaints.
I used to work building wheelchair ramps, and I regularly used a Skilsaw (with a cord). This cordless SKIL Circular Saw performs just as expected but without the hassle of the cord. I no longer work in construction -- I picked this up for projects on my property -- but already I like it. It's light, and it feels easy to maneuver.
The owner's manual doesn't specify the runtime with the included 4 Ah battery, nor could I find any test reports online, but for DIYers, it shouldn't be an issue. Note that Skil is advertising these PWRCore cordless tools for the DIY market. I'm not sure how practical it would be on a job site in continuous use -- you'd no doubt need a second battery charging at all times.
I also own a SKIL PWRCore 12 cordless impact driver, so I'm a fan of these cordless Skil tools.
The owner's manual doesn't specify the runtime with the included 4 Ah battery, nor could I find any test reports online, but for DIYers, it shouldn't be an issue. Note that Skil is advertising these PWRCore cordless tools for the DIY market. I'm not sure how practical it would be on a job site in continuous use -- you'd no doubt need a second battery charging at all times.
I also own a SKIL PWRCore 12 cordless impact driver, so I'm a fan of these cordless Skil tools.
Comments
Post a Comment