JML A0528 Exakt Saw - Plastic

I remember as a kid I used to have a few serious toys, including a Swiss Army Knife, and though this tool has a plastic character to it, in this second generation design, it's a truly serious tool. The diamond grit blade was O.K. on 1/16" canvas filled phenolic laminate but a bit crude in finish, but when I slapped the precision carbide blade on it, just wow! Larger saws ripped the material up and chipped uncontrollably. This was so smooth and fast that I could go as fast as I wanted. The dust collection hose is so tiny it shouldn't even work but it works perfectly. I did remove the safety switch lever arm thing, and the spring loaded switch that remains is a bit hard to hold back continuously, but then I'm a mere city artist, not a he-man. The safety guard at first seemed ridiculously sloppy but once the saw is actually pushed down, it has no noticeable slop after all so I do get predictable cuts along a guide plate. It certainly gets a bit hot in production use, so a pair of them may be required to cycle between them, but this is mostly since my hand so far tends to block the exhaust vents so my technique may improve. I may hot wire it and use a foot switch instead so I can grip it farther back from the slide switch. To achieve truly shallow surface cuts I had to take it apart and modify the depth setting plunger to make it a bit longer with some epoxy, but that is to get down to near zero depth, so it's fine as a saw in normal use. My alternative was a 4.5" Porter Cable 314 trim saw with a homemade dust collection shroud, with a 24 tooth carbide blade, but it was shear chaotic violence. I was about to buy a 36 tooth blade to try when I remembered I had carbide for this little "toy" too. The RPMs of this 2-1/8" saw are only 4000 compared to 4500 for the Porter Cable, so it is not even nearly as fast of tooth action due to its tiny blades. The saw kerf is as thin as can be though, a mere 0.042" instead of 0.07". It cuts though 1/8" fiberglass epoxy G10 quickly. My regular use is breaking 3'x4' sheets of 1/16" canvas phenolic into 6" squares and it's working perfectly with a vinyl tape coated melamine shelf hinged to another wider shelf as a homemade panel cutter guide I push down with my knees to clamp sheets. What it's not so good at so far is cutting at a square orthogonal angle. That's where some slop does still exist when the guard is fully retracted by downward pressure. The plastic guard acts as the base but though the distance from a guide edge is accurate, the angle lacks much exact self-alignment. If I wanted to cut thick material accurately, I'd likely want to totally modify the whole saw design, possibly by gluing the guide in place at the required depth of cut and adding a solid metal plate to the side of the guide. I wonder if there's a better saw out there that already has this. I saw one years ago in the McMaster catalog that is no longer in there. It looked like a fully metal object with a power drill based motor but that wouldn't lock an orthogonal angle in either. I bought this Exakt saw after so much frustration with my slightly larger cordless 3-3/8" Makita 5090 that lacked dust collection and was only 1000 RPM so was miserable with brittle phenolic.

Product not easy to work with and stopped working after cutting 2 tiles. Having a hard time finding the company to replace it or refund. Amazon only backs for 30 days it was a gift and when he got to use it it stopped working and we are stuck with it. Loss of 130 plus dollars

This tool is fantasic. I have never seen a tool work as good as this on. The only down fall is that it should have a deeper depth setting. Over all great.

Doesn't work as good as we thought it would.

At this price the better option would be the Rockwell Versacut IMO. This should only cost $50.00 at the most..

It is very useful, you can do many things manual, My husband uses it, he likes to work with wood. Thanks

Ok

Item is easy to use and cuts nice!Not too heavy and the size is just right! So far so good.