Makita SP6000J1 6-1/2" Plunge Circular Saw Kit, with Stackable Tool case and 55" Guide Rail, Blue

Here is my review on the: Makita SP6000J1 6-1/2" Plunge Circular Saw Kit, with Stackable Tool case and 55" Guide Rail I purchased this with my own money. This is the corded model. I don't have a dust collector so I cannot speak to that. In short, I love it and although I have never used Festool I feel this is the tracksaw/railsaw for me. I have no complaints whatsoever with the operation, quality, or overall appearance of this saw. What I love about it is the rail/track is compatible with Festool stuff and unlike DeWalt and many others proprietary in nature. So accessories from Ali Express or Festool or TSO, etc. will all work with this track/rail. I purchased rail clamps but I've never had to use them because the track is grippy! I couldn't believe that when I was considering the purchase of this saw, but keep the back side of the rail and your work blown off with compressed air and you'll have no slipping! I used this Makita system to build kitchen cabinets. And, prior to that, to make a straight edge on 8-foot-long poplar for door and window casings in my cabin. It's a high-quality piece of gear like all Makita stuff is. The track is heavy and nice aluminum. What I did was purchase (2) 55-inch Powertech rails that I keep fastened together for long rips, then I use the 55-inch Makita rail with this set for cross cuts. I bought an inexpensive rail square to help with that which works wonderfully. Very accurate cuts, very easy to accomplish. The hard case is nice to store the saw in. The soft start feature is very nice, the plunge feature works very smoothly. The Makita blade is exceptional. Exceptional. In fact, this blade, along with the rubber strip on the rail prevents tear-out better than some of my very expensive blades used on my Delta 3 h.p. Unisaw. I should have bought this a year or two ago. It's an expensive purchase, yes. But if you use it only 3-4 times (you'll use it much more!) I feel it has paid for itself. I love it. I highly recommend this Makita corded track saw.

I assume the title about covers it : I've owned this saw since 2018 and have made countless hundreds of cuts with it. I've replaced the rubber pads on the bottom of the track but I'm still on the same track. It's done fine and still makes straight cuts. I'm a few blades in now and I don't actually remember if the factory blade was great, though I don't remember it being conspicuously bad either. I just cut through 1 1/2" red oak yesterday. It wasn't super speedy but it got the job done. Maybe the motor has lost some power over the years but not a lot. It was about a hundred dollars cheaper when I bought it (with inflation probably about the same price) but I consider it one of the best woodworking purchases I've ever made. I use this twice as much as my table saw. Even the case has more or less lasted, though some latches have cracked a little.

I purchased the Dewalt and took it back before using it and purchased the Makita instead. My reason for this is that Makita and Fess use the same track design, which means there are more accessories to make this system even better. Dewalt has discontinued many of their accessories, and aftermarket accessories for other track systems in many cases do not work with Dewalt due to their double sided track design. I really wanted a t-square attachment for the track to make setups easier when breaking down sheet goods. You don’t need one, but it is nice to have. Ok, so what about quality? Both the Dewalt and Makita feel like good products. The Dewalt T is heavier, and feels like it is made from some heavier castings. I did not run the Dewalt but I did adjust the saw and check its ability to slide well. The Makita slid across the track much more smoothly than the Dewalt. Adjustments are similar, so I consider them equal here. The Makita has a track retaining latch that keeps the saw from tipping off the track when doing miter cuts. What about accuracy? I had to square up a piece of 3/8” painted furniture grade plywood that arrived in a parallelogram shape from my cabinet company. How a company with huge panel saws and CNC machines cannot cut a square corner is beyond me. This piece was going to skin the back of a peninsula and join to the face frame of a cabinet, so the cut had to be accurate, clean, and straight. The results were absolutely perfect! I think the cabinet company should buy this saw. The quality of the cut was better in every way. I replaced the factory blade with the 56 tooth Makita thin kerf blade before setting up my track. This added some cost, but I think it was worth it. The saw cut very well with this blade. Makita should include this blade standard. It felt like the motor was coasting, which I can in part attribute to the anti friction coating on this blade. I like the plunge movement better on the Makita too. The Dewalt felt a bit unnatural. Makita has a very nice track bag to hold your tracks too. It is extra but I really liked the quality. The box that comes with the saw is also nice, and has a bit of extra room in it to hold a spare balde or two. All I can say is buy this thing. You won’t be disappointed.

I was in the "I have a good straight edge and a circular saw" camp for the last 20 years. Simply put, I was a fool. This tool allowed me to break down 3 full sheets of 3/4" ply, on my own, in under an hr. Simply mark your line, lay down the track, and cut away. No more, mark your line, measure back from the edge of the shoe to the, (was it inside or outside?) edge of the blade, hold it tight against the fence, etc. While the Makita and the Festool are very close in features (at the time of this purchase), the price difference was the breaker. The quality is still top notch. It's easy to use, setup and breakdown time is peanuts compared to the old method. The manual is laid out well and easy to read/understand (I'm a tech writer, gotta read someone else's work/validate their job!), though the tool is intuitive enough you hardly need to use it. Changing blades is quite easy too (get a seperate blade for MDF, leave the one it comes with for your ply). I was also fortunate to try the saw before purchasing. My father had just bought one when he came to visit (lives a couple hrs away, otherwise I would have borrowed his). The smooth soft start, plunge action, and accuracy with the track, not to mention no chip out one what is becoming thinner and thinner veneered plywood, sold me. TL;DR - Great saw, worth the price of admission. Go get it.

I bought this saw seven months ago and have been waiting to write a review until I had a lot of experience using it. I'm very happy to report that it has met or exceeded my expectations every time. I was concerned that I'd spend a lot of money only to end up with a saw that was inferior to the festool but I actually prefer the Makita. The Makita has a 1/16 scoring cut feature that I love (and the festool doesn't have). The drive power is extraordinary, it runs smoothly on the Makita track, at 45 degrees with the track guide clicked on the saw doesn't tilt off the track. It's a great saw and worth its price. Downsides are... It doesn't come with track clamps (I bought 2 dewalt track clamps that work great). For this much money I'd have liked to have clamps included. Also, I bought a second track and the Makita track joining system for 8'+ cuts. The tracks don't join straight, or it takes endless fussing to get them straight. 99% of the cuts I make with this saw are crosscut rips so I don't really care about the extension but if you want to make 8'+ cuts on the regular I think you'll find the Makita track joiner disappointing. This saw also only has metric markings on the depth stop. I work in the United States and use the imperial system so that's not perfect (really digging to find complaints). Also the blade is 165 mm not 160 mm so if you want the measurements on the depth stop to remain accurate you'll have to stick with the (excellent) blade that comes with the saw. All things considered, I love this saw. I use it all the time and I highly recommend it.

I bought this Makita track saw to break down 3/4" maple plywood (poplar core) when making cabinets. It works as described: once you make your first cut, which establishes the cutline on the plastic edge, it will cut exactly to that line every time straight as an arrow. I use biscuits, Titebond III, and butt joints to assemble my cabinets, so I obsess about really smooth, perfectly square finish cuts. Therefore, I used the track saw to cut my panels 1/16" oversize, which I then finished on my table saw. That said, by measuring and marking carefully, I was able to achieve perfectly straight, perfectly square cuts using the Makita that were suitable to use against the table saw fence. All my panels, and the resulting cabinets, came out perfectly square. I bought only one 55" track. To cut 4' x 8' sheets lengthwise, I used an 8' straightedge to mark my lines. Yes, I had to move the track saw once to make the full cut, but doing it carefully and using the blade to index to the previous cut resulted in flawless, perfectly straight full-length cuts. A tip: pick up a 4' x 8' sheet of 1-1/2" hard insulation foam, lay it on the floor, and cut your plywood on that. Your back will thank you.

I decided to purchase this over the battery version and over other brands to save a couple bucks. I watched lots of videos and read reviews and landed on this as a cost-effective and quality saw. And I can confirm that it does stand up to the reviews. If I already had Makita batteries, I likely would have gone for the battery version but after using it for a while the cord doesn't bother me at all. The saw and track were straight out of the box and I made some 90 degree cuts that were spot on without any adjustment. I just set up the saw on the tracks and tightened the adjustment screws to get a good fit to the track without any wobble. And you can see from the picture, it cut 7/8" black walnut no problem and left an almost perfect finish. It's actually on par with my table saw with a glue line rip Freud blade. Thanks Makita for including a quality blade, not some trash like a lot of brands. The track is grippy, even on a surface with a little sawdust but we will see how that holds up over time. So far, very satisfied with the purchase and I'll update this review as I get more use out of it.

I received this 2 piece Makita product (saw and guide) the first week of December. It shipped in two boxes taped together. The saw worked great, when it worked. The saw consistently shut off mid cut. I set up a return/replacement. On 12/13 I received a replacement guide; no saw. The shipment tracking via USPS showed that the guide and saw (one product) had been delivered on 12/13. So I assumed that either USPS or Amazon had made a mistake (and forgot the saw). An Amazon employee via Chat told me that I couldn't replace again, so I set up a return and purchased a Festool from Amazon ($250 more than Makita). Then on 12/14 the Makita saw arrived. Same day, 12/14, I took the second Makita guide and saw to UPS Store (in unopened boxes) to return since I'd bought the Festool. UPS told me they couldn't take my return since I only had one return code (Amazon had shipped the two piece product as two products with two shipping codes). Even though the two piece product shows as one product on Amazon and on USPS tracking, I need two return codes to match how the product was shipped. I cannot see a way to resolve this using Amazon's menu driven system. Their system shows I'm returning the Guide (even though the item return picture and description include the guide and the saw). Now I'm in the twilight zone. As of now I am waiting on a refund from Amazon ($898) for my return of two guides and two saws. Amazon has always been fantastic with my returns, maybe because I spend so much money through Amazon. I suspect I'm in for a fight in this case since I had only one return code provided by Amazon to return two product pieces. I'll follow up here with the outcome.