So this is one of those niche tools that isn't a good fit for everyone. But, if you're doing construction tasks, it's a clever little tool.
I picked up an HKC55 about a year ago, but only used it for small rough cuts here and there. Finally I had an excuse to put it through it's paces while helping a neighbor build a new deck. I let him and his buddy do the footings and framing because I'm allergic to 80 lb bags of concrete.
He starts laying the composite decking and says "these ends aren't square". I tell him to hold on, I've got just the tool for this. I run back over with the HKC, point the dust shoot away from me and zip, clean, straight cut and I barely moved that 16 ft board out of place. For someone like me, who is guide rail dependent, this is just what the doctor ordered! And I love how light this saw is (well, compared to the cordless tracksaw). Obviously, you could use a framing square and a $50 circular saw for this, but it doesn't put a smile on your face quite like this and you're covered in sawdust (but you look like you're doing real work covered in all that sawdust)..
Over the past week I've also cut 2 templates for stair stringers on 2x10 material. The actual stringers will be 2x12, but I had some scrap 2x10 on hand. The 250 rail fell short, so I used a 420 rail which gave me enough length to cut the notches. The last time I did this was using my tracksaw, guide rail and a pair of screw clamps. That was painful, but those stringers were bigger. This time around with the HKC was a breeze! I marked out my cuts with a framing square, set the track down and aligned both angles, set the stops for each and marked the angles on the rail. In just a few minutes it was cut and nearly perfect! I say "nearly" because the edge of the 2x10 wasn't dead straight, so the angles were a little off, but we're not building jewelry boxes here, it's fine. For a noob like me, I couldn't ask for more! It took me longer to clean out the waste inside the notches with a jigsaw than to cut all the notches. We made some more changes to the plans, so I'll make one last template after the pad is poured, and if everything looks okay I'll cut the 6 stringers.
Dust collection - fantastic for what it is. Without a bag, point it away from you...at least you're not covered in sawdust. With a bag or dust extractor it obviously doesn't match a track saw, but considering the blade is not encapsulated, it's far better than I would have hoped.
Power - it does fine in construction material. It's not winning any races and I might feel differently if I was ripping or doing bevel cuts, but crosscuts aren't an issue, it will eat 'em up. The ripping is probably where people find it better to use the more powerful corded version.
I do have one small question. Crosscutting with the stop on the FSK rail at 0 degrees gets me a cut that's out 1mm on a 9" board. Is the fixed stop adjustable in any way or do I need to shim it to dial it in?
And a funny story about the CXS. We were laying the last run of decking against the house and and it was only a little over an inch wide. His dewalt right angle drill wouldn't fit where we needed to run the screws, the head was too fat. No problem, I have a tool fo that I said! The CXS sunk them without an issue! A few minutes later we transitioned to another task. Those screws required a T25 bit. I grabbed his bit (came with the box of screws) and tried to slip it into the bit holder on the CXS. No go?! I looked a little closer and realized, rather than rounding off the points on the back end of the bit that is inserted into the bit holder, they smashed them, deforming those points and created a bunch of slag around the flats of the bit. My neighbor laughs and says "your fancy german tools are too good for my chinese bits!". We finished with his Makita impact driver instead. [tongue]
I picked up an HKC55 about a year ago, but only used it for small rough cuts here and there. Finally I had an excuse to put it through it's paces while helping a neighbor build a new deck. I let him and his buddy do the footings and framing because I'm allergic to 80 lb bags of concrete.
He starts laying the composite decking and says "these ends aren't square". I tell him to hold on, I've got just the tool for this. I run back over with the HKC, point the dust shoot away from me and zip, clean, straight cut and I barely moved that 16 ft board out of place. For someone like me, who is guide rail dependent, this is just what the doctor ordered! And I love how light this saw is (well, compared to the cordless tracksaw). Obviously, you could use a framing square and a $50 circular saw for this, but it doesn't put a smile on your face quite like this and you're covered in sawdust (but you look like you're doing real work covered in all that sawdust).. Over the past week I've also cut 2 templates for stair stringers on 2x10 material. The actual stringers will be 2x12, but I had some scrap 2x10 on hand. The 250 rail fell short, so I used a 420 rail which gave me enough length to cut the notches. The last time I did this was using my tracksaw, guide rail and a pair of screw clamps. That was painful, but those stringers were bigger. This time around with the HKC was a breeze! I marked out my cuts with a framing square, set the track down and aligned both angles, set the stops for each and marked the angles on the rail. In just a few minutes it was cut and nearly perfect! I say "nearly" because the edge of the 2x10 wasn't dead straight, so the angles were a little off, but we're not building jewelry boxes here, it's fine. For a noob like me, I couldn't ask for more! It took me longer to clean out the waste inside the notches with a jigsaw than to cut all the notches. We made some more changes to the plans, so I'll make one last template after the pad is poured, and if everything looks okay I'll cut the 6 stringers.
Dust collection - fantastic for what it is. Without a bag, point it away from you...at least you're not covered in sawdust. With a bag or dust extractor it obviously doesn't match a track saw, but considering the blade is not encapsulated, it's far better than I would have hoped.
Power - it does fine in construction material. It's not winning any races and I might feel differently if I was ripping or doing bevel cuts, but crosscuts aren't an issue, it will eat 'em up. The ripping is probably where people find it better to use the more powerful corded version.
I do have one small question. Crosscutting with the stop on the FSK rail at 0 degrees gets me a cut that's out 1mm on a 9" board. Is the fixed stop adjustable in any way or do I need to shim it to dial it in?
And a funny story about the CXS. We were laying the last run of decking against the house and and it was only a little over an inch wide. His dewalt right angle drill wouldn't fit where we needed to run the screws, the head was too fat. No problem, I have a tool fo that I said! The CXS sunk them without an issue! A few minutes later we transitioned to another task. Those screws required a T25 bit. I grabbed his bit (came with the box of screws) and tried to slip it into the bit holder on the CXS. No go?! I looked a little closer and realized, rather than rounding off the points on the back end of the bit that is inserted into the bit holder, they smashed them, deforming those points and created a bunch of slag around the flats of the bit. My neighbor laughs and says "your fancy german tools are too good for my chinese bits!". We finished with his Makita impact driver instead. [tongue]
