Milwaukee M18 Circular Saw – 2630-20

Oh the circular saw, who doesn’t love a good saw?  As you may or may not know, I upgrade my power tool line up with the M18 line.  I bought a combo kit, 2696-24 and love it.  The kit didn’t come with a circular saw, so I had to get one.  Luckily Milwaukee and every other manufacture sells them as a bare tool, which for this saw the model is 2630-20.  While for reciprocating saw, I usually grab my corded version, when it comes to circular saws, I usually go cordless unless I am cutting a lot of thick wood.  The cordless is just lighter and easier to work with.

This saw weights 7 pounds compared to a 7 1/4 in-line saw that weights 10 lbs, while a worm saw is even heavier.  Yeah I know its only three pounds, but I am very weak.  Milwaukee helps reduce the weight, but keeps the durability of the tool by using magnesium for their upper and lower guards.  The shoe is made out of aircraft aluminum to also help reduce the weight and keep the durability in place.  The saw is powered by an 3 Ah 18V Lithiuim-ion battery.  The battery powers the motor which spins the blade at 3,500 rpm, more than enough speed to motor your way through 3/4″ plywood.  The overall balance of the tool is good and the over molded grip is a nice touch

The saw does allow the user to make up to 50 degree bevel cuts.  At a 90 degree angle you can cut up to 2-1/8″ deep while at a 45 degree angle you can cut up to 1-5/8″.  The saw comes with a 24 tooth carbide blade, which we got a lot of use out of.  One thing that rocks with this saw is the electronic brake.  When you feel the need to take your fingers off the trigger, the brake stops the blade on a dime.  Oh yeah one other thing I like about this saw is on the shoe and upper guard, the numbers are very easy to read.  Using the large knobs, a user can set up the saw to their liking and go to town.

You can see in the video below how awesome this saw is.  We set the blade at an improper depth and ran it through 3/4″ plywood as fast as we could.  We thought we would be able to get the saw to either bog down or stop from the overload protection.  Both Dan and myself were amazed how fast this saw cut through the plywood without stopping.  In fact, we did the exact same thing with the new Dewalt 20V max circular saw.  The Dewalt stopped about 1 ft into the cut.  If you don’t want to hear Dan’s whining voice and my monotone voice, fast forward through the video because you at least have to see this saw cut.

A circular saw is a must in my book.  Surprisingly I use this a lot more than my corded saws, even though some applications I rip trough batteries and need to charge them often.  The Milwaukee has a nice balance and feel to it, plus lots of power.  With the five year warranty, its hard to beat.