Got my hands on the new to North America, Hilti cordless saw, from our Hilti rep to give ‘er a test run. Here’s my thoughts.

Things I like:

No cord – obviously 🙂

Power – has tons, pretty much the same as corded saws. the only thing I had trouble with was making long beveled rips in wet lumber. Had to switch to my corded saw, which fought through the task. straight rips in 2x’s it had no trouble, odd time it cut out but a quick back up and restart seemed to get it through without trouble.

Charge – so far I’ve been able to go a whole day on one charge with off and on use throughout the day on a forming job, cutting and ripping 2x’s and 3/4″ ply. it takes about 45 min for a complete charge.

Rip Guide – while the rip guide is large and somewhat intrusive, the very fact that it is so big makes it extremely accurate. it feeds into the base plate at both the front and back, which provides a fence along the whole lengh of the saw. when ripping hundreds of feet of something like plywood strips, other rip guides tend to give you flared ends after many repeats.

Blade – Comes with a nice Hilti blade, and it’s 7/14″

Bevel’s up to 50 degrees

Blade is on the right side of saw.

 

Things I dislike:

weight and balance – saw is heavy. probably no heavier than corded saws, however something about the ergonomics , and balance of the saw makes it feel awkward. the saw holds in the hand very flat, I notice with the Makita’s and Dewalt’s I’m used to, the saws lean forward when you hold the saw in your hand, which is good, because the downward position is the natural position of your wrist. with the heavy battery in the back, I found my wrist fighting the balance of the saw, and after continious use freecutting, I noticed some pain in the lower tendons of my forearm started to develope.

sight lines – terrible! from a normal position you can not see the blade at all. (yes I know if the blade was on the left side you could ) the front of blade sits far back from the openning, the openning is hard to see through anyway becuase it is designed in a slotted manner and furthermore the handle is right in the way. so in order to see the cutline you either have to lean over the saw ( which we carpenters do anyway half the time) or if you need to see the cut line form your side of the saw you have to crouch down to look under the handle to see the cutline – BRUTAL design flaw.

Trigger –  way too big, half your hand cover the trigger, so it is difficult to let go of the trigger when do free cuts – I actually consider it somewhat dangerous. not a problem cutting flat, but 2×4 in one hand and saw in the other not able to let go of trigger without dropping saw is another design flaw. ( most saws are designed so that only 1 finger hits the trigger)

Bulky – it is big bulky saw

 

That basically sums it up. It’s on site so I will gladly use it, if you’re cutting flat the balance weight issue is not so bad, and the trigger issue is not a problem. it’s when your wheeling around making freehand cuts that these become sore points.

For free I’ll use it…I won’t pay $800 CND for the saw and two batteries though.

I’ll try and post some pics when I can