Here are quick video intros of the new Dewalt FlexVolt saws – the new 60V Max cordless table saw (DCS7485), and 120V Max cordless and AC-powerable 12″ sliding miter saw (DHS790A).
These were taken at Dewalt’s 2016 media event, with more details to come. In the meantime, also check out our coverage of the new Dewalt brushless saws and FlexVolt product line:
Advertisement
- Dewalt FlexVolt Intro/Teaser
- Dewalt FlexVolt Q&A
- Dewalt FlexVolt Saw Hands-on Experiences
- Stuey’s Most Anticipated 5 New Tools
Bremon
It’s going to be a hard fought battle between Milwaukee and Dewalt for my money on the miter saw. Dewalt being hybrid means even if Dewalt kills FlexVolt to introduce a new battery line (Dewalt would never do that right? Lol), you’ll still have a high quality corded unit.
With M18 you get smaller capacity, smaller blades, cordless only, but hopefully more portability.
Mike
It’s not even close Milwaukee looks like a toy next to the Dewalt the Milwaukee bogs down too much on anything over 2×6
Bremon
Judging by quick glances at their sizes though the Milwaukee probably transports a lot closer to a toy than the Dewalt does as well. I’ll wait to see reviews and some hands on impressions before making a decision.
Allen
I’m sorry, but a cordless table saw ?
I would think if you have enough work to set up a table saw for, you can plug it in. I mean it’s not like you need to carry it around all day.
Nate 818
Maybe for guys that work out the back of their truck. With the idea being using your charger is less of a draw on your trucks inverter. I said the same thing you did though when I first saw this.
Ryan
I think you answered your own question. With a cordless version what setup is there, really? You can carry it into a room set it down and turn it on. I can see this being useful for hardwood or laminate flooring applications. Remote site work, handyman types, shelter construction in a survival/camping situation, you name it. Im waiting for the Bear Grylls survival edition for sure. It’ll probably come with a fire starter
ca
I say if your thumb fits between the blade and the fence you’re good to go. Especially with that ungodly safety system they’ve got bolted on top of it.
John
That was really unsettling to see the demonstrator push the board that close and through with his hand instead of a push stick. 🙁
Bremon
That stuck out to me as well. Couldn’t believe he didn’t use a push stick. That’s how accidents happen.
fred
My rule of thumb (and pinky) is that when ripping – if the fence is closer to the blade than the distance between the tip of my thumb and the tip of my pinky (distance measured when I splay out my hand) – then I use a push stick. In my case, I judge that the safe distance is 9 inches – plus a 1/2 inch for good measure – but measure your own hand – and then add a your own margin of safety.
BTW – I use lots of different (shop made and store bought) push sticks, shoes and sleds. For narrow work – I made some that run on the fence as support – putting the handle over the fence and keeping your hand well away from the blade. Search the web on : “fence mounted push stick” – and you will get several ideas.
I also use the MicroJig Grrr-Ripper – singly or in pairs when I can.
jtr165
Yeah, it’s one of those things that depends on who you talk to. I took an elective wood working course in college a few years ago, and no joke…the instructor was making the argument that it is LESS safe to use a push stick when ripping anything more than 6 inches wide. Under 6, use the stick, but over, bare hand.
I hear/read/see similar arguments about blade guards. Some will say that the guards just get in the way and don’t let you see the back teeth, and therefor are less safe as you can’t see a problem before it occurs. Just watching guys on Youtube, seems like 90% of them do not use guards…many of them not even splitters or riving knives.
no thanks. I’ll push material through that is wider than maybe 8, but that’s about it.
fred
Ripping can be dangerous. At work we had a dedicated Oliver rip saw with a power feeder that made things safer – at least in the shop.
But on the jobsite – ripping moldings etc. it was hand feeding part of the way – then push sticks – and keeping the motion fluid required both training and vigilance. On the newer saws – IMO there is no good reason to remove the riving knives, the split blade guards or the anti-kickback pawls – and at least 5 reasons (fingers) to let them do their job.
jtr165
I should’ve mentioned; yeah finishing with the stick. I’ve seen some mess with the stick back off the table with the material flopping around and that doesn’t seem safe regardless of the rip width.
And I guess I’m lucky. I’m early 30’s, and have only been into woodworking for the past 5 or so years. I also started with few ‘old’ tools, so everything I bought was relatively modern. I totally understand how it must be with using a very high quality table saw that was built before new knife carriers were part of them.
but…I still see guys with brand new saw-stops that just take all the guards and everything off because the machine ‘will save them’ I think? I like the tech in those things, but I can’t help but think it’s something that just encourages less focus on the danger.
Anyway, I completely agree with you…I’ll take a butchered piece of material any day over a deleted finger/hand/arm. One of my favorite woodworkers online (jimmy diresta; check him out if you haven’t, I’ve watched him since he was only on make.com and he is about as talented as they get outside of ‘real’ fine woodworking); i used to watch him rip little trim pieces on a cabinet saw with a freaking pencil…thought it looked really dangerous…then saw his video explaining his accident that ended with a 10″ forrest blade climbing up his forearm. SawStop gave him a new saw, but from some recent videos I don’t think the guards are on, or at least not often.
Experts say you can’t be ‘afraid of the machine’…but, I see experts that should be ‘afraid of the machine’…so i’m often kind of lost on all this haha.
Allen
I think he was safe enough. As said below, keep your pinky on the fence. That blade never jumped out and cut anyone.
(Shop teacher for 32 years, never an accident of any kind)
bobbg
I worked in a machine shop, in Printing and hiend car audio, my hands fingers and arms were inside of moving parts on machine’s all the time, in printing we washed blankets on the run and picked hickies by 8″ diameter drums moving at 60k rpm away from each other. I got hurt on a dam trim router because I did not give it the respect it deserved. When you’ve lost respect for a machine you’re going to get hurt. You need to give any machine 100% of your attention 100% of the time.
I had a boss that used to walk up behind me yelling while we were running a table saw, Pissed me off to no end, the guy was an absolute fool. If I been hurt on that saw, I’d have sued his ass for everything he’s owned or going to own in his lifetime. Don’t talk and run power tools, pay attention to what you’re doing always.
I’ve seen Shop teachers with 8 fingers! go figure that one out.
Safety equipment stays in place, even buy more like board buddies or other new stuff. 100 bucks to keep 10 digits is worth the money.
I watched a kid get his hand stuck in a printing press that was made without finger guards, they never upgraded this old machine, and they should have. The kid lost 3 fingers in the blink of an eye, they were crushed beyond repair and gone. Its not fun seeing this happen at all.
He took over the job I was doing that day that hour but he was green, at least I knew what was going on. I had to go work on a different press loading rolls of paper.
In the Machine metal shop wearing safety glasses I got a metal chip in one eye and had to have it dug out at the doctor’s office. This was using a 4″ body grinder. So even with safety gear you can get hurt.
I had safty glasses on no googles, had I had googles on it might not have hit my eye. the safety glasses had side shields just noting for over or under the glass. When Norm point at his safety glasses its a moot point because he’s not protected 100%. This is why you do not remove guards unless for some reason you can’t use it for a certain job.
The trim router did not have a finger guard on one side, they should all be guarded with lexan on both sides of the router bit not just one side, trim routers are not stable they tip and you don’t have good control unless you hold it low, however that puts your fingers in the path of a moving bit. That’s how I got a finger tip shave, it grew back but it could have been a lot worse. I took the tool for granet.
I’ll say safety gear is 100% more effective on the tool then on the floor, bench or wherever you put it. And just because you have some cheep guard doesn’t mean they don’t make better stuff aftermarket you can add.
SiSiX
I’ll tell you exactly where something like this would work: Onsite, were portable generators are not allowed for either noise reasons (possibly a zoning/homeowners association issue) or environmental (in the woods/near water for fire or gas spillage) concerns or a combination of all of these. You can always bring extra batteries.
(Cutting boards for say a dock would be one were I might want to have one of these handy and might not be thrilled to have to lug a generator down. In fact, I can think of a particular Boy Scout camp were something like this would have been REALLY hand to have had at a number of the site, but hauling a generator to would have either been difficult or impossible.)
fred
I too have volunteered on various “beaver days” at scout camps – and electrical outlets have been non-existent or a long way off for some of the cabins and structure we were working on. Cordless tools, Paslode impulse nailers etc. did make these jobs go faster. On one weekend I brought our Miller diesel welder truck – just to use it as a power source to run a table saw and a miter saw. I’m still not sure, however, that these infrequent uses would be enough to persuade me to buy a cordless miter saw or table saw. I’m sure if I told the Council that I’d buy them a pair as a donation – they’d say thanks – but ask for the money (being vastly more useful) instead.
jmc
Building decks on the weekends for builders,,almost always there is no powe. So bring a generator or go cordless….il keep going cordless, thank you dewalt
mnoswad
Been thinking lately that the table saw needs to be 120volt also………with the adapter
jtr165
I’d probably put my 745 up for sale right now if this FV was a 10″ blade, and I’m guessing if they release a 10″ version, it’ll be in the 120v variety.
my main use with the 745 is actually re-sawing. My father in law has a good bit of land and is often removing some unhealthy trees, which gives me access to a fair amount of very rough lumber, or even logs. I built a ‘flattener’ ( a box w/ guide to use a router to flatten one side of a log; it’s like a really slow but highly adjustable planer/jointer), but I almost always end up with material around 6 or 7 inches wide minimum… that I couldn’t resaw with an 8 1/4″ blade.
Not to mention blades. Dewalt will come out with their own i’m sure, but I really prefer the availability of 7 1/4″, 10″, and 12″ stuff. 6 1/2″ blades for cordless circ saws have come a long way since a few years ago, but I don’t think 8 1/4″ will have a similar result.
Nathan
this mitre saw has my full attention as I have a 10 inch now – it’s old but works fine but I want a bigger one with the sight line system.
I am still very disappointed the table saw doesn’t rock 2 batteries – is bigger and sized like the 7491 model – and have an AC system also. Granted I’m sure most of that is price point posturing. but it just seems like such a easy sell to me.
Stuart
I think it’s more about need.
Dewalt product managers said that they expect 8-1/4″ to be enough for more users.
That makes sense. a 10-inch saw would have been bigger, heavier, and pricier. Plus runtime would be less.
I think that, if anything, a 10-inch 120V Max version might be in the works. But right now, a compact 8-1/4″ model does make sense. Some contractors might end up with 2 saws – corded portable model, and a compact cordless one for field use.
I’m sure they’ll eventually have both sizes.
ca
Yeah they really need a 120V cordless/corded 10″ table saw. I’m wondering: is the mitre saw as powerful as their regular corded mitre saws when plugged in? If this could replace my mitre saw and also have the option to go cordless, that would be phenomenal.
nate
we all know that the 20v tools are really closer to 18V, has anyone stated what the normal voltage of the 60v part of these batteries are?
nate
nevermind, I found it on the dewalt site.
“*Maximum initial battery voltage (measured without a workload) is 20, 60 and 120 volts. Nominal voltage is 18, 54 and 108. 120V MAX is based on using 2 DEWALT 60V MAX* lithium-ion batteries combined. “
jtr165
Yeah, many chalk up all this ‘max’ stuff as a marketing gimmick…which could be part of it…but Dewalt had one of the biggest 18v lines initially, of which they still produce, and the max lineup is a way to differentiate from that.
But either way…outside of the US they call the 20v max line 18v. Not sure if the ‘old’ 18v stuff is available elsewhere, but internally it looks like there is some conflict about it.