Craftsman has added a new cordless tile saw to their V20 cordless power tool system (CMCS4000M1). It features a 7″ blade, 17″ cutting capacity, water containment for use indoors or outside, and a sliding table.
Craftsman says that it has the “best-in-class on-table support for tile (compared to other cordless table top tile saws).” What other cordless table-top tile saws?
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Porter Cable’s is the only other cordless tile saw that I know about. The two brands’ saws look very similar, which is no surprise since Stanley Black & Decker owns both brands.
Craftsman has not published full specs for their cordless tile saw, and so it’s uncertain as to if or how it differs from the Porter Cable cordless tile saw. Both have 17″ rip cut capacity, a 7″ blade, and the sliding table. The Porter Cable tile saw has a battery fuel gauge, and I don’t see this feature on the Craftsman (maybe you can?).
The Craftsman saw can make up to 150 cuts of 3″ ceramic subway tile with a 4.0Ah battery. The Porter Cable saw was said to be able to make up to 154 straight cuts of 3″ x 6″ ceramic tile per 4.0Ah battery. Presumably, this would suggest comparable motor specs and performance.
Price: $303 – $329 (as of the time of this posting)
The kit comes with a 4.0Ah battery, charger, blade, miter square, and blade wrench.
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Discussion
The new Craftsman cordless tile saw looks nearly identical to Porter Cable’s 20V Max cordless tile saw, except for the absence of a battery fuel gauge – at least in the same place.
At the time of this posting, the lowest pricing on the Craftsman saw is $302.79, with a list price of $319. The price at Lowes is $329. Neither retailer has the saw in stock yet. We could probably expect to see a “new low price,” if not when it starts shipping then perhaps soon after.
The Porter Cable 20V Max kit is currently $220 at Amazon, and that’s for the PCC780LA kit which like the Craftsman comes with a 4.0Ah battery, charger, and standard accessories. The Porter Cable cordless tile saw kit launched at $249.
We’ve reached out to Craftsman to see if there are any notable differences between the two brands’ products, and will report back once we learn more. We also asked for official specs.
Luke T
Are the craftsman and dewalt batteries interchanglable?
Stuart
No.
Matt J
Any word on what SBD plans to do with the Porter Cable 20V batteries? Pretty clear they’re getting phased out in favor of Craftsman, at least in cordless tools. Still have some hope that batteries will still be supported in a few years as DeWalt NiCads are still being sold new.
Stuart
Frankly, I don’t know what’s going on, but there are still reasons to buy Porter Cable 20V Max tools.
Bob
Glad to see they are building more stuff for the craftsman line. Even if this is just a cut and paste. I think they are trying to compete with the Home Depot Ryobi stuff. It will be a win if they do. Ryobi is good stuff for the money. And they have just about every battery power tool you can think of and a few you probably haven’t haha
A tool like this I wouldn’t quite call a gimmick ( I think it’s kind of slick actually) but probably not something you would see from a top tier pro brand. Every pro tile guy I’ve ever seen uses MK corded wet tile saws. If Mk has most of the market share maybe that’s why red yellow and green pro tool companies didn’t come out with a cordless version?
Also I’m kind of scratching my head on a cordless tile saw. Tile or landscaping (pavers, stone patio etc) is towards the end of a remodel project for instance. All the electrical should be run and functional at that point. Maybe if you were doing a remote landscape project not close to electrical. But then again if you’re cutting pavers you’re gonna burn through batteries?
Either way $300 price point for what you get seems reasonable. I’d be interested to see how well it sells
logir
it’d be fun to see what happens with craftsman vs ryobi, but with multiple craftsman battery platforms, some sold concurrently, and the makita-level ryobi backward compatibility, idk how well craftsman can do in the powered tool market. ryobi is cheap, has had the same platform for years, and has certainty for its future. craftsman can’t claim much other than cheap, and HF has cheaper. when cheap is your only value proposition, you have no value past the penny
even though craftsman hand tools have been imported for years, it’s still the most recognized brand for value (quality / price)
Nathan
is it my imagination or doesn’t Ridgid have a cordless tile saw?
I don’t see one on the HD web page though so perhaps it is my imagination.
meanwhile – not surprised. seems all the PC stuff is going to be red soon. And amazingly this is one tool I’m a bit surprised hasn’t been made in team Yellow.
Don’t know I would buy one even if I did alot of tile work seems like a dirty job that needs to be outside anyway so it might as well stay corded. maybe I’m wrong.
DIYTileGuy
DeWalt must be waiting to see how these are received before coming out with their own? I wish there batteries were compatible.
Matt
They also have the benchtop planer, bench jointer, handheld planer and 15 amp table saw all set up at Lowe’s here. I think it was the jointer they had the identical Porter Cable version sitting right next to it on display. Which I thought was odd since they aren’t stocking PC any longer. Were they trying to clear the PC unit? Or trying to point out that Craftsman is just a PC in red. Not sure.
I did pick up the V20 jobsite fan which is great and also got the new V20 3/8 impact (one with a good forward/reverse switch). It’s also a nice tool. I’m not sure why none of this is advertised? They also have a V20 brushless sds/rotary hammer coming. This tile saw looked cool when they showed it at the launch event…
Altan
I have seen both Porter Cable and Craftsman ones long ago. I am waiting for a DeWALT version. At the end of the day they will make a DeWALT version also but they just want to annoy me for a while!
fred
So far – these cordless tile saws seem strictly DIY-market oriented. I’m guessing that its hard to design and build a professional duty cordless wet tile saw to compete with the corded ones like those from MK. Power and battery run time must be issues. Probably Dewalt, Makita and Milwaukee may be holding off for these reasons].
Nathan
aren’t pro tile saws also setup for continuous water cooling/cleaning.
So that’s probably as big a factor. Might not be much clamor for a cordless tile saw
Altan
These tile saws work with water, but not continuous water is needed.
Django
Would be interesting to see if we can get flexvolt version.
Matt
I’ll also ad that our Lowe’s does indeed have this in stock regardless of what the website may say. Our Menard’s does as well.
JoeM
I see only one problem… I don’t do tile… Well… to be specific I’VE PERSONALLY never done tile. So I know nothing about tile saws.
Design wise, price wise, style, form factor, brand(s), features… I like both saws, and can see this being more for DIYers trying to do small jobs. Shower Tile, Bathroom and Kitchen stuff, a Fireplace surface repair, MAYBE old fashioned clay tile mosaic work? Nothing very big at all. That’s a REALLY tiny market, but it’s the right design for that.
I know this isn’t a popular opinion… but I hope they DON’T replace Porter Cable with Craftsman. If I had to buy the Porter Cable version, JUST to prove to SBD that Porter Cable is the preferred brand? I would do just that. I like that Sears is no longer in charge of Craftsman’s fate, but I also see brands like Porter Cable and Bostitch being vital to specific trade niches, not as useless names to be dropped for a new rebranding. I do fear, a little bit, that Craftsman will overtake pro brands, rather than coexist with them.
So… I gotta ask, for you Americans… You had Craftsman as a standard for a lot longer than Canadians did… Was there EVER a culture where the WORK tools a person had were brands like DeWALT/Milwaukee, Porter Cable, Bostitch, Makita, and Bosch, but came home to full garages/workshops of Craftsman tools that were for Personal stuff? Like, repairing your own cars, doing your own home improvements, making your own… stuff, like hobbies? ‘Cause that is kinda the niche I’m hoping Craftsman gets put in. Identical to the tools from DeWALT, Porter Cable, Bostitch, Proto, and the other PRO level SBD brands, but people come home to Craftsman across the board for their personal stuff.
Is there this kind of precedent in the past?
Bob
For me at work for battery tools I started out with Makita 9.6v stick batteries in the 80’s, switched to DeWalt 18v and most recently DeWalt 20v. Had a mix of Porter-cable, makita, Milwaukee, Delta etc for corded tools. Which in the old days made up the bulk of my work Tools. it was easy to swap between brands. Buy the best of what each brand had to offer because there was no battery platform to have to worry about. And at least initially they were very few battery tools. I to lament the demise of porter cable to a homeowner brand. The porter cable D-handle router is still hands-down the best router I ever had. I even had a few ancient Black & Decker specialty tools. Believe it or not Black & Decker made high end tools way way back.
At home I had a fairly complete set of Crafstman wrenches, sockets, pliers, screw drivers etc for automotive work. They were inexpensive, easy to source and worked well for the price. Never had much use for much of the other craftsman stuff like OPE for example.
Just my experience. Hope that helps to answer your question. I have a feeling this might be a common experience? I’d be interested to see as well.
Thomas
Come on SBD just tell us what you are doing already!?!?!?! I don’t want to drop anymore money into PC because I honestly feel they are going to go completely away from battery tools and let Craftsman fill that void. My main reason for saying that is locally in Central Indiana Lowe’s has slowly been pulling products from the shelf one of the stores near my work has ZERO 20v products and the other has a limited amount with “Sale” pricing. I have contacted PC customer service about the lack of products available locally and was told in an email to contact a local SBD repair center for batteries and parts, but absolutely no response to my question about why PC is being pulled from shelves.
Again SBD just rip the band-aid off and tell the people if you plan to keep the 20v PC tools or not. Yeah you will probably have some upset people but I think it will be far worse if you drag it out another 2yrs and allow more and more people to get vested into the brand. Also if SBD wants to minimize the damage make an adapter so that PC batteries can be used on New Craftsman tools just like they did for DeWalt 18v to 20v. I think if they would make an adapter more people will be looking at Craftsman products to replace whatever PC product just bit the dust.