This is a bit of an oddball item that has recently appeared on the US site.
https://www.makitatools.com/products/details/196469-5
This is an extension handle for the five inch chain saw, and it has been available outside of the US for years. I bought one from a Canadian supplier several years ago and find it to be somewhat awkward in actual use. It works well enough when at its shortest length, but when fully extended, the saw itself blocks your line of sight and you essentially end up cutting blind. This makes it difficult to use outside of it’s shortest extension length.
Set-up is also somewhat cumbersome, and although there appears to have been quite a bit of thought in the design, the final implementation seems a bit short of the mark. You have to attach a plastic bar to the saw that holds the switch in the on position, and then slide the saw onto the battery mount on the end of the adapter and add retention screws to hold it in place. This is what allows you to use a battery on end of the adapter itself. No tech magic, just a simple mechanical switch. I might have been truly impressed if they had designed the tool and adapter with a separate circuit that allowed operation without all the extra bits and pieces and set-up time, but as it is, it smacks of a cobbled together science project gone array.
In the end, I am surprised that it was ever released here at all.
This thing is like almost 300 euros in Belgium :/
And a possible reason why it was released in the us now:
Sometimes Makita Japan pushes old stock to their subsidiaries. 2018 will give us a new brushless 18v one hand chainsaw. If there is still ALOT of stock of this accessoire left then it gets distributed around the world to try and sell as much as possible before the new model hits.
One more item that has not shown up on the US site yet…
WST06 saw stand
http://www.acmetools.com/shop/tools/makita-wst06
Another one of those items I would like to see in person before committing to purchase.
I found a detailed video covering Makita’s mitre stand on youtube yesterday.
JMG wrote:
One more item that has not shown up on the US site yet…
[External image (s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com), not copied]
WST06 saw stand
http://www.acmetools.com/shop/tools/makita-wst06
Another one of those items I would like to see in person before committing to purchase.
Looks awesome. Probably need to get an upgrade myself, as my Makita Miter stand is junk, in my opinion.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
One more 12v max item posted to the site today.
PC01R3 Multi-Cutter
Well, no MakPac again, but hey, looks interesting.
Makita finally added the nine inch paddle switch grinder to the site, along with the kit version as well. Acme Tool has had the unit up for sale for awhile. Looks like a monster…
XAG13Z1
All those 36v (2/18v) Makita tools are at Home Depot in stock with an end of isle display…at least here MA…the 12v line is new to our HD…
Looks like we will be getting the SDS Max here soon…
https://www.makitatools.com/products/details/XRH07ZKU
Really curious as to what price point this one is going to land at.
JMG wrote:
On 12/21/2017 at 3:01 PM, JMG said:Looks like we will be getting the SDS Max here soon…
https://www.makitatools.com/products/details/XRH07ZKU
Really curious as to what price point this one is going to land at.
Toolnut has it listed at $689.00 $599.00 for preorder. Ships Feb. 1.
https://www.makitatools.com/products/details/XSL04ZU
I’m liking that they’re going ahead and adding the AWS feature to these tools that really are still relatively new. The plunge and miter saws are two of the bigger tools I still need to get.