Evening all I am not a proper carpenter but a set builder for theatre sets. I am looking at getting a circular saw, mainly for 18mm MDF and ply sheets, for the heavier construction bits. I am pretty much a Makita convert so looking at Makita saws. I already have 18V Li-ion drills and impact driver so I have some of the 3AH batteries. Are the 18V cordless saws up to much or am I better sticking to 240V?
I've got a dewalt 18v with 4 and 5ah batteries and find it lasts fine, on a heavy use day I may change batteries 3-4 times. If you decide to go corded I'd strongly recommend considering a track saw, festool also just launched a cordless version depending on budget, but makita,dewalt,festool and mafell all have an offering.
Track saw - ideal, never seen one before. Most scenic carpenters I've worked with seem to use a circular saw and a home-made jig. Festool is probably out of budget tbh and but I will look at corded tracksaws and is there is an 18V LXT that might be worth looking at too.
Before I ever new festool ever excited I made a simple saw jig that workers like a track saw made from site waist. Get a offcut of straight mdf skirting cut to required length screw/glue 1/4" ply or mdf on the bottom making the board wider than the blade so when you use the saw for the first time you are left with the the exact position of the blade ie cheap as chips festool guide. It's a put me on until you can afford the real thing.
I have to admit after looking at saws that's what I've done - I've gone and bought a DSS501 and a 4Ah battery to go with it. I'm going to go looking in the timber for a really, really straight piece of 2x1 or something to make a guide with. It'll only work on the long side of the blade though right, as if you ran it off the shorter side, the blade wouldn't sit square, as one end of the saw footplate would be lower than the other?
I used to use a home made track but there are always problems with clamping it down. Once you have used a Festool you wont go back.