DEWALT Festool and Makita Track Saw Head to Head

By Phil Benevides on Tool Reviews

Dust Collection

Winner: 3-Way Tie

There’s a huge emphasis on dust collection these days due to safety concerns with prolonged exposure to most kinds of dust. Good dust collection also makes for a cleaner jobsite and a happier client in cases where you’re working in occupied spaces.

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Regardless, our tests resulted in a three-way tie here as all the tools performed admirably, with no discernible difference in the amount of dust that escaped collection. Which was very little all around. As you can see from the photos the volume of dust that we swept up from below the cut was minimal considering that even a table saw hooked up to dust collection would leave more behind even when used with a wet dry vacuum or dust collector.

 

Quality of Cut

Winner: 3-Way Tie

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All of the saws were equipped with Freud track saw blades.   Freud makes a solid blade that performs well.  Their industrial line provides some excellent blades and they have a proprietary Perma-SHIELD® coating designed to reduce pitch and heat build-up. They have anti-vibration slots, the machining is excellent and the teeth are sharp.

These are precision tools that need to provide a very high quality of cut to be viable contenders in their field. Here too we found that there was little difference in the quality of cut when we used the same model of blade on all saws. There was minimal tear out on cross cuts in veneered birch ply, a light brushing with 220-320 grit sandpaper would get rid of it. With the stock blades the cut quality was very similar and excellent in all cases.

 

 

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Overall Winner

Winner: Festool TS 55 REQ

The ease of use, features, huge range of accessories, and refinement of the Festool make it the real winner. However, the other two tools are solid performers with excellent quality of cut, have their own unique features, and are still easy to use. If your budget or personal preference mean you’d prefer either the Makita or DEWALT you really can’t go wrong with any of these tools.

About the Author(s):

Phil Benevides is a 28-year old Air Force Veteran who decided to transform his passion for construction and home improvement into a career. Inspired by his Grandfather who built his home from the ground up with his bare hands in Portugal, he received his formal training in Carpentry at the North Bennett Street School in Boston, MA. Phil continues to grow his skills as a carpenter and leader, while exploring new products, methods, and tools!

Ethan Bickford has a long history with carpentry. His father worked as a contractor for many years and taught him the ins and outs of home repair and remodeling from a very young age. Since then Ethan has kept up his skills and knowledge by doing handyman work while in college and eventually started his own carpentry and remodeling company which he’s been running for the last three years. He loves teaching and advising on tools and techniques. Ethan is also a big fan of quality workmanship. “Do it right the first time!”

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About the author

Phil Benevides

Carpenter / Assistant Editor

Phil is a 28-year old Air Force Veteran who decided to transform his passion for construction and home improvement into a career. Inspired by his Grandfather who built his home from the ground up with his bare hands in Portugal, he received his formal training in Carpentry at the North Bennett Street School in Boston, MA.Phil continues to grow his skills as a carpenter and leader, while exploring new products, methods, and tools!

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