Wen track saw - initial user comments

[Henry W]

Bought a Wen track-saw, some PowerTec track (2x55"?), and a pair of Wen 6" clamps (for tracks). Here are a few new user impressions and comments.
EDIT: Model is WEN CT1065 10-Amp 6.5-Inch Plunge Cut END EDIT

I chose this on the basis of the value (performance / cost) and after seeing some reviews and video reviews. I liked that the PowerTec track is compatible with Festool and Makita (but not DeWalt, if I recall correctly) in case I decide to upgrade the saw itself .

1. Saw is mostly plastic construction (exterior and controls) - and once you get past the perception that gives, it works as a saw.
I do not expect to use this tool often, so this is a trial. If, like some other tools (impact driver, cordless osc. tool) I find I have real uses for it, then I can justify an upgraded tool. I expect this saw will work fine for me.

2. The plunge depth control knob can be somewhat awkward for the 'fat-fingered' like me.

3. The anti-kickback cam (in the track) caused me difficulty with both seating the saw and moving it in the track.
A tag on the saw describes this as removable (at more risk), and so I did remove it; the saw seats more cleanly and runs in the track much more smoothly without that feature installed. I had been 'fighting' to move the saw along the track, and that was much more of a safety issue (to me). Smooth operation within expectations is a great 'safety' feature.

4. Since I did not have #3 figured out on my first few cuts, the rubber splinter guard is not exactly cut to the line now.
I presume these are replaceable - as now that I know how to use the system, I would like new ones. I should have FIRST run the saw on the new tracks without cutting any wood (to cut the splinter guard ; that may be in the manual (which I must have missed when I read it through 3x - haha!).

5. Dust collection is quite good for 'buried cuts' using backer foam sheet, AND covering the blade access hole with tape. I used my existing Ridgid shop vac and current hose (a non-Ridgid extension), which has a rubber end that fit nicely over the saw port.
- For a cut that 'skims the edge' dust is thrown laterally, just like on a TS, and dust collection suffers considerably.

6. PowerTec (sp?) tracks linked together seamlessly - the few times I have done this.

7. Saw does not (seem to) have the power to cut 2 stacked sheets of 3/4" plywood - bogs down and motor heats up. Of course I was simultaneously having tracking issues, but even once I cleared the tracking (see #3) it balked at the 1.5" depth. However my first cut on a stack worked OK, but the second one did not; maybe the hot motor due to tracking issues was the issue(?). I may retry, as stacking sheets makes for decent 'identically sized pieces'. The saw cut cleanly once the sheets were separated and the cut was only a 3/4" sheet.

8. Cutting slowly resulted in a (near) splinter free cut on the top side where the blade emerges. Moving the saw faster resulted in some significant splintering. The material being cut is pre-finished maple plywood. All cuts were very clean on 'the show side' - the bottom side, where the blade/teeth entered the cut (rather than where teeth emerged on the top).
EDIT - the material being cut was pre-finished maple ON ONE SIDE only, with a very thin veneer on the back side. End EDIT

Overall: From a casual and uninitiated track-saw user, this saw gets a thumbs up from me (especially in terms of value); the longer term performance is of course still an open question.

EDIT 1 Update 2/8/21 - Posts below indicate that Amazon price has tripled. When I was looking 4-6 weeks ago, HD listed these, but had no stock. All this may indicate supply issues.
At $329 price I likely would not recommend this saw, unless the savings over a bigger brand name was really important to you. Recall that this is a polymer saw body, plate, and adjusters - the only metal here is likely in the motor and wires... that may be better than cheap pot metal parts, but only time will tell.
End EDIT

EDIT 2 Jim posted below that there are 2 models, a 6.5" blade model that I purchased, and now a 7.25" blade model. The larger blade model is the $329 saw. The smaller blade saw is now difficult to find - not in stock at HD and Amazon does not list it (for me, today).
END EDIT 2

 

[Oka]

Henry, thank you for the review. I have one of these and pretty much only use it for breaking down plywood sheets. I agree the anti kickback/track lock cam is a bit cumbersome, but once you get to used to it it is ok, location is a bit awkward, another brand saw I used found it was similar issue. So, I just thought it was just the way they are designed.
The rubber is replaceable. Suggestion- once you are set up measure from the other side of the track to the actual cut edge of the wood to be used, tape that measurement onto the saw and now you have a double check.
I also changed the blade to a Makita 56 tooth. The saw cut splinter free from that point on.
It's not a production saw but for intermittent use, it has enough quality and accuracy to be in any shop imho.
If one wanted to get all crazy on one of these, replacing the bearings that the spindle ride on to a high tolerance/quality bearing would make this tool really shine.......... maybe one day......

 

[JimD]

Thanks for the review. Did you adjust the tracking to have essentially no play side to side on the track? I do not understand how the anti kickback feature would shift the blade position, it did not on my DeWalt (turned it off too). But if you did not have the "slop" out of the track to saw fit I can see the anti kickback forcing the saw to one side resulting in a different fit when you took that feature away.

I was in charge of getting a track saw for our church volunteer group using some gift cards from Home Depot. I planned to get the Wen but HD is out of stock and has been for a month or more. I looked at a evolution track saw at one point and they sent me a notice of a price drop. It isn't a plunge saw but has a 15A motor and can use regular 7.25 inch circular saw blades - so some plus and minus. It is similar in price. I got it yesterday and spent a little time setting it up. I got two Wen 50 inch tracks because evolution doesn't offer a track longer than about 28 inches and they were a little cheaper than the Powertec tracks. They are supposed to work with the evolution saw and do but the sacrificial strip doesn't stick out enough to mark the cut line. It is about 1.5mm short of sticking out enough. But they peeled off and restuck on pretty easily. I think it is some washers this saw uses so you can use the evolution blade, 1 inch bore, and regular circular saw blades 5/8 bore, that pushes the blade too far from the track edge. The evolution tracks (it comes with 3 thirteen inches long) are nearly identical to the Wen in the aluminum part, just the difference in the sacrificial edge and the extra rib on the side away from the cut on the Wen is open on top and open on bottom on the evolution. Anyway, long way of saying I went a different route but am unsure if that is a good thing. A key feature of all the evolution tools is they cut metal in addition to wood. Not sure how useful that will be.

I've used the evolution a few times now and it is OK. We're using a 40 tooth 7.25 inch blade I had and wasn't using on it and the cut is not real clean. We will probably get a 60 tooth Piranaha blade for it and try that. But it has pretty good power and the circular saw style blade guard hasn't proven to be an issue. We haven't hooked a shop vac to it yet but probably should. One of the uses was to cut a 16 foot pew down to 4 feet and we cut it in the santuary because the full pew was so heavy. That tives you and idea of the cut quality too - it is not bad, just not as good as my DeWalt. I would not consider the cut good enough for a glue up like the DeWalt produces but for most things it is OK.

 

[Henry W]

... I agree the anti kickback/track lock cam is a bit cumbersome, ... location is a bit awkward....

Yes to awkward location - but I simply could not get saw to seat consistently with the anti-kickback cam there - and then it had 'slop' when it wasn't seated onto track properly (no surprise there). After removing anti-kickback cam, I had no issue with seating or moving the saw, so FOR ME this was the an improvement. Others results may vary of course.

The rubber is replaceable. Suggestion- once you are set up measure from the other side of the track to the actual cut edge of the wood to be used, tape that measurement onto the saw and now you have a double check.

I thought rubber strip were replaceable - thanks for confirmation.
Yes I did occasionally use the other side of the track as reference to check that track was straight (parallel to my edge) - but a good reminder.

I also changed the blade to a Makita 56 tooth. The saw cut splinter free from that point on.

May go there if I have issues. Source?

It's not a production saw but for intermittent use, it has enough quality and accuracy to be in any shop imho.

Agreed.

If one wanted to get all crazy on one of these, replacing the bearings that the spindle ride on to a high tolerance/quality bearing would make this tool really shine.......... maybe one day......

unlikely (for me).

 

[Henry W]

Thanks for the review. Did you adjust the tracking to have essentially no play side to side on the track? I do not understand how the anti kickback feature would shift the blade position, it did not on my DeWalt (turned it off too). But if you did not have the "slop" out of the track to saw fit I can see the anti kickback forcing the saw to one side resulting in a different fit when you took that feature away.

I did not adjust anything - saw had no discernible slop in track when properly seated. Problem was seating it, and moving it along the track once seated (with the cam in there). Situation FOR ME improved drastically without the cam. Results for others may vary.

I was in charge of getting a track saw for our church volunteer group using some gift cards from Home Depot. I planned to get the Wen but HD is out of stock and has been for a month or more. I looked at a evolution track saw at one point and they sent me a notice of a price drop. It isn't a plunge saw but has a 15A motor and can use regular 7.25 inch circular saw blades - so some plus and minus. It is similar in price. I got it yesterday and spent a little time setting it up. I got two Wen 50 inch tracks because evolution doesn't offer a track longer than about 28 inches and they were a little cheaper than the Powertec tracks. They are supposed to work with the evolution saw and do but the sacrificial strip doesn't stick out enough to mark the cut line. It is about 1.5mm short of sticking out enough. But they peeled off and restuck on pretty easily. I think it is some washers this saw uses so you can use the evolution blade, 1 inch bore, and regular circular saw blades 5/8 bore, that pushes the blade too far from the track edge. The evolution tracks (it comes with 3 thirteen inches long) are nearly identical to the Wen in the aluminum part, just the difference in the sacrificial edge and the extra rib on the side away from the cut on the Wen is open on top and open on bottom on the evolution. Anyway, long way of saying I went a different route but am unsure if that is a good thing. A key feature of all the evolution tools is they cut metal in addition to wood. Not sure how useful that will be.

I ordered from Amazon because there was available stock, even though I might have ordered from HD if I could have. THey showed no stock when I ordered several weeks ago
I considered the Evolution saw but the track length put me off, and I did not see any claims that other brands of track were usable for this saw.
Also I wanted plunge capability.
Metal cutting not very likely for me, therefore that capability is not particularly important (to me).

 

[Oka]

I got my Makita blade from Amazon it was on sale when I got it.

 

[wolfsburged]

How much was the Wen for you? Looking at Amazon right now it looks like $329 which seems steep for an "off brand" saw compared to say the Makita or Kreg options.

I'm interested in finally moving from a circular saw to a track saw. I think the Kreg looks like an interesting option but I've never used any track saws for comparison.

 

[JimD]

The Wen was below $150 when I was looking at it. I agree, it would not be a good buy at $329 (really I would say go elsewhere if it was over $200). A key cost is the track and it's nice there are multiple suppliers of quality track although I wanted one well over 8 feet for ripping plywood and those are harder to come by and pricier. If you don't mind joining 50-55 inch tracks you can get them for around $100. But only for saws that Powertec or somebody else reasonable priced makes track. I don't remember seeing them offer one for the Kreg.

 

[Oka]

I got my Saw for 110 bucks last year and the the Powertech track rails were about the same. The Wen was out of stock. They were 80 bucks or there abouts, so I the Powertech. Got 2-55" tracks.

 

[Henry W]

How much was the Wen for you? Looking at Amazon right now it looks like $329 which seems steep for an "off brand" saw compared to say the Makita or Kreg options.

That is steep!

I believe the saw was <$110, Powertec tracks $115 for a pair of 55", and a pair of 6"Wen clamps was $15. I checked receipts for actual #s; the whole package was $240 ish.
I would have been really disappointed in this saw for $330; in fact I likely would have returned it. Agreed that Amazon shows me that same $329 price. Hmmm? Supply chain issues? HD carries this but has not had stock for since I started looking 4-6 weeks ago. Might indicate supply side issues; so may you can wait it out? I know when I decided to go for it, I had an immediate 'need' on a current project, so patience was not something I had.

Adding the fact that I think the Powertec tracks are 55", which I like for a 48" crosscut; check the length of the Wen tracks. I expect I could adapt to shorter tracks, but without cutting full depth (and I don't cut full depth, I just add 1/8 to 1/4" to material thickness) it would seem the start and end of the cut would not be complete on a 48" track. To me that's a good reason to get 55".

 

[SabertoothBunny]

WEN are solid products overall. Some of their tools, like the 10" band saw, out perform the name brand tools like Rikon, Jet, Delta, etc where others not so much. For the price point WEN tools are amazing starter tools until more experience dictates higher end tools that cost too much to justify starting out. WEN is definately a huge step up from Harbor Freight tools and similar in price.

Overall I like the WEN tools. The don't always compete with the high end brand names but sometimes they do. Great review on the track saw also. Sounds like it will do the work just fine for the average hobbyist but may not suffice for the pro who needs more consistent power for more cuts.

 

[wolfsburged]

I've got a WEN shop air filter and their version of the belt/spindle sander. Both have been fine. I think I'd be interested at the <$200 price point.

 

[JimD]

I got Wen 50 inch tracks for my church because they were a little less expensive than Powertecs 55 inch tracks. I got powertec clamps because they were on sale and cheaper and now that I have seen them I think they are probably higher quality. They seem comparable to my DeWalts. If the Wen is now becoming not inexpensive, I think the Evolution saw is a viable option. I don't like it that it is not plunge but I like the 15amp motor and the ability to use 7.25 inch blades and also 20mm bore 6.5 inch blades like the Wen. If I was to pay $300 plus for the saw it would be for a DeWalt, Makita or possibly the Kreg. I believe Powertec now has 55 inch tracks for the DeWalt. But DeWalt tracks can only use one connector. I got by with this system cutting glue joints for my 10 foot table but I think two connectors is a significant advantage of the "other style" tracks. I have a 106 so for normal 8 foot work I don't use a connector.

Anyway, the Evolution may be a viable lower cost option, my church paid less than $150 from Home Depot. I've messed with it but not cut anything with it yet. Saw plate is aluminum. No riving knife, however, and no anti kickback "grabber". Metal cutting seems like a questionable advantage but could be important to somebody.

 

[Henry W]

I got my Makita blade from Amazon it was on sale when I got it.

Casey: Do you have a link to that blade?
I searched Amazon a bit and see plenty of Makita blades, but none that at 7.25" 56 tooth.

 

[Henry W]

For those interested, Casey responded to a PM; it's a 6.5" blade, not a 7.25" blade.
EDIT - Jim's post below made me realize what was going on - I purchased the correctly sized blade for my saw - thanks Casey. My saw is a 6.5" bladed saw. Now when I go to the link in my purchase history, it only takes me to the 7.25" saw, which cost 3x what I paid....) THis makes my blade size commentary below wrong, but illustrates that if we discuss Wen track saws, we now need to specify the model. END EDIT

The Wen track saw comes with a 7.25" (EDIT new model, not mine END EDIT), so using a 6.5" blade decreases potential cut depth by 3/8". Given my limited experience of struggling to cut 1.5" of sheets goods, I doubt the 'cut depth limitation' due to a smaller blade will be much of a limitation (should still be possible to cut 1.5").

Makita 56t blade There you go ! , ...
~~~ Casey

 

[JimD]

I hope this is helpful to somebody. Wen offers two track saws. The smaller one draws 10 amps and uses a 6.5inch, 165mm, 20mm bore blade. It has been and is priced less than $150 on Amazon and was at a similar price at Home Depot but they ran out. Wen also offers a 7.25 inch 12 amp saw that Amazon wants over $300 for. That saw will use the more normal, in the U. S., 7.25 inch 5/8 bore blade.

Most track saws use a 160mm or 165mm diameter blade with a 20 mm bore like the smaller Wen saw. I should probably shut up about the Evolution saw but it uses either type (165/20 or 7.25-5/8). I believe the Festool is also a 10 amp motor but the Makita and DeWalt have more powerful motors.

As the number of track saws increases it seems to create the opportunity for confusion. I wonder which saw the OP has. Maybe the 7.25 inch saw was once available for much less but it seems more likely he has the smaller saw and later looked at the slightly bigger and much higher priced saw.

 

[Henry W]

Yes Jim - Thanks for the correction; I will edit my earlier post. I looked at my purchase history and and I purchased the 6.5" saw (too lazy to go look at the model). When I click that link, it takes me to the 'new' 7.25" model (for $329 - WEN CT1272 12-Amp 7-1/4-Inch Variable Speed Plunge Cut Circular Track Saw). Makes me wonder if they changed models...

 

[Herdfan2005]

I paid 220 for saw and (2) 55in Powertec tracks back in Nov 2020. Mine was sold and shipped from Amazon. Looks like they are out of stock and only one selling them is another seller hence the inflated price tag. When Amazon gets these back in stock look for the price to be back at the expected levels. Only used mine a few times but fairly happy with it. Sure beats not have any track saw at all. Will probably remove the anti kickback as well.

 

[Barton]

According to WEN's webpage, the part numbers and descriptions for the two Wen saws are:

• WEN CT1272 12-Amp 7-1/4-Inch Variable Speed Plunge Cut Circular Track Saw
• WEN CT1065 10-Amp 6.5-Inch Plunge Cut Sidewinder Circular Track Saw

 

[Barton]

This saw is in stock again at Home Depot and Amazon ($124), and straight from WEN ($107). I don't know about WENs shipping charges.