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My First Job with the Makita Track Saw
My first job was to cut out 15 Baltic Birch doors and drawer fronts (for the update to our 18 year old laundry room) from two sheets of 4'x8'x18mm BB grade Baltic Birch plywood. This job was supposed to be cut out by LTR Industries for me on their super accurate CNC machine, but since I wanted to get it done before Christmas and they seemed too busy, I decided to try it with my new Makita track saw purchase. It took from 4PM to about 2 AM to complete the job, so it was not exactly quick! It was quite accurate, as accurate as my measuring and marking and reading glass eyes would allow. Much more accurate actually than anything I have ever cut in the past. All of the current track saws, including the Makita, have the really great advantage of cutting right on the rubber splinter guard straight edge and not needing any offset measuring as is traditional with past straight edges I have used. This is the single biggest advantage of all the current track saw offerings.
Why the Track Saw is very SLOW!
If you analyze the work flow, the track saw required 4 edges x 15 doors to be cut. This required 60 x 2 end measurements to be taken and the track positioned at these 120 marks accurately. The table saw requires about 8 set ups of the fence and very quick cuts. What took 10 hours with the track saw would have been about 15 minutes on the table saw at the maximum. So the track saw is not an efficient work method against a table saw.
Scoring Feature is Great or Is It?
The Makita saw comes with a small easily released mechanical knob that allows the user to run a 2 mm deep score line first on plywood veneer. It is intended to prevent splinters and chips, especially on cross cuts. It does that job VERY well.
However something I had never expected showed up when I took the 15 door fronts over for the 1/8" maple edge banding service the next day. They called me back an hour later to say that the score line was offset from the actual cut line. These guys are professionals and say they would not use any scoring feature for that reason. Easy for them to say when they use a $200,000 CNC to cut their doors normally to within 0.001"!! J It was enough of a gap that it was going to be showing badly on all the 1/8" maple edges when the very fine and precise edge banding was applied. So I rushed them all back to my shop and tried to remove the differential quickly with a belt sander. Being a very rushed job with a new belt sander and a complete amateur (me!), it turned out OK, but would not meet any truly professional standards. This small difference would not matter for a lot of work or be quickly removed with a jointer pass, but professional edge banding is particularly brutal at highlighting small errors like this.
Potential Solutions:
Makita would have to really tighten the saw’s manufacturing tolerances which is probably not practical without major cost increases.
The user should avoid scoring on edge banding jobs. The nature of the track saw’s rubber edge guide is to reduce splintering dramatically by applying downward pressure on the exact cut line. Scoring is less important now.
Scored edges need to be edge sanded or jointed before any precision joining and gluing is completed.
I know that this scoring cut offset even shows up on the $40,000 German panel saws used at Home Depot outlets for cutting plywood. I have recently cut 6 sheets of ¾" Maple plywood there with a young precise saw operator who did cross grain scoring and we saw a bit of this on these sheets, but not as pronounced as the Makita SP6000.
For me, it will now be to give up on avoiding the purchase of a cabinet table saw. I have decided to finally buy a cabinet saw after much dragged out and futile resistance during the past year of my renewed woodworking hobby. I had been avoiding it with 3D AutocAD design layouts and Home Depot panel saw cutting. I had also used a CNC service that accepts my accurate AutoCAD designs for super precise cutting that not even a table saw can match. However, in spite of these methods I have always found some kind of work I need to do accurately with my own table saw from day to day.
My Second Job with the Makita SP6000
My second and final job with the Makita track saw was to remove a ¼" strip of moulded Padouk from a 5" wide by 1" x 6’ long Padouk board that I had purchased at WoodSource for about $25. I created a decorative 1" wide vertical feature strip on all my laundry room cabinet doors. I had originally planned to do an inlay, but when I did not get the CNC cutting job done, which was going to include a shallow 3/16" wide inlay groove I switched to an "outlay" concept with my custom Padouk moulding.
Results:
IF you can make a continuous non-stop cut with the Makita by entering the wood with a full speed spinning blade and exiting with a full speed spinning blade, the cut line is so virtually perfect it looks like it was smoothed on a jointer or edge sander. However life is not perfect and here are the actual practical problems that arose:
· The inflexibility of the Makita clamping track slot and clamp did not allow me to clamp onto a 5" wide board, so I had to make my own home grown version which worked, but was slow, awkward and required the saw to be stopped twice on the length of the cut.
· As soon as you stop your cutting and re-start, it never starts precisely on the same cut line in spite of:
- The Makita track’s very straight and rigid edge.
- Tightening Makita’s track grippers for reduced side play.
- Sliding the blue track retainer button over to prevent accidental tipping.
· So I was left with significantly different thicknesses down the length of the cut that had to be planed and sanded out.
Potential Solution:
· Makita needs to add a second clamping slot like the EZ Smart Guide people’s universal track have done to accommodate narrower stock on both sides of the track.
· Makita also need a clamp that is not rigidly aligned with the track slot only, but can swing to the left or right by 2" to 3" so as to catch the edge of a narrower board.
Home Grown Edge Guide with MDF
I have made my own long and short edge guides with two strips of 97" long by 1/2" by 12" and 3" wide MDF and it works great too with a conventional circular saw. However I found myself disliking the lack of dust collection and the dangerous tendency I had to push from the open spinning saw blade side to keep the saw blade on track. This was a serious safety concern that Makita's enclosed spring loaded plunge saw design solves. You cannot accidentally stick your fingers into the Makita spinning blade because of the nicely enclosed safe blade shroud.
What I Liked about the Makita SP6000
Very smooth cut when the saw moves through your work at a steady speed.
Track edge goes exactly on your cut line.
Clamping for wide sheet stock like plywood worked well. (Over about 6" to 8" wide)
Tremendous safety of the enclosed shroud.
Plunge feature.
Scoring feature did prevent plywood veneer chipping on cross cuts.
Dust collection really reduces the mess in your shop, on your clothes and in your lungs.
General product quality and appearance is excellent as is typical for Makita.
Very adequate power for the cuts that I did.
Almost saved me from buying an expensive cabinet table saw!!
What I Did Not Like about the Makita SP6000
Dust collection port’s mini size did not match any of my many vacuum adapters.
Clamping for narrow boards did not work. This is a major weakness!!
Scoring created a problem offset between the 2 mm deep score cut and the final full depth cut.
Restarting along the length of a cut creates a different entry point and thus inconsistent slice thickness on my ¼" mouldings.
Saw MUST not be stopped while inserted into the cut line. You must remember to either raise the blade at full speed or pass fully through your materials before releasing the switch. Otherwise the decelerating and vibrating blade will leave nasty circular teeth marks on the edge of your wood.
A cordless model would be nice like Dewalt now offer.
The very long 115" track is very awkward to store. It would be nice if they provided two short tracks that can be rigidly fastened together like the EZ SmartGuide people have done.
On December 30/2008, Robin Campbell in Ottawa Fastener’s tool department graciously agreed to let me return the saw since it will not do the type of work I had planned for it. I hope to do that tomorrow. I also spoke by phone to Makita’s Regional Sales Manager, Venkatesh Rao, whom I met at the show. He was also most gracious about letting me bring it back. Venkatesh was most attentive to why it was a problem and promised to pass on my suggestions to their design team.
If Makita can fix the clamping problem for narrow boards in a future new design I would not hesitate to buy this saw again.
User Manual for Users?
The included manual seems to be written primarily by lawyers and safety people with little to no useful tips or advice for your users. For example:
- It should be mentioned that the excess rubber edge guide strip needs cutting off on first use. This should be done with a piece of scrap lumber under the full length of the strip to provide a clean, square and straight cut. Cutting it in free air results in a less than perfect (slightly ragged) edge for the critical straight line that this system is renowned for.
- It should also be mentioned that the saw needs to be pushed fully through the cut* or lifted before turning off the trigger. Otherwise the slowly spinning blade will leave an uncharacteristic rough cut from the decelerating and vibrating blade.
- * The excessively long 115" track for 96" sheet goods is a clear indication that Makita planned on users needing to start before the sheet with a full speed blade and terminate at the other end after fully exiting the cut material. This should be stated clearly in the manual.
Elton K. Hammond P.Eng.
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