Milwaukee NPS18 M18 Cordless Table Saw

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Jun 23, 2011
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I was just viewing YouTube videos this weekend and came upon a review for the new Milwaukee Cordless Table Saw.  I would think that this would be an area where Festool might contemplate competing.  Festool definitely has both the experience in portable tablesaw (although not sold in North America) and the battery technology.  Is anyone given any thought to purchasing the portable tablesaw for general trim work or for DIY jobs? 
 
I've been considering both a cordless miter saw and table saw.  As a remodeler who works out of my van, the smaller foot prints and portability are great selling points for me.  If I had a wood shop, I'd probably stick to cordless.  I imagine the higher costs would deter many DIY folks.  Really seemed aimed towards trades and remodelers
 
Don’t get me wrong, I love my  Festool tools and there is no question regarding their quality. Having said that I love my Milwaukee M18 collection. Their Fuel line has unprecedented power for cordless tools in this price point not to mention the beauty of their line of M18 batteries and how they are universal within the entire M18 tool collection. Sure they don’t have some of the super specialized attachments and features that Festool has but they are solid. I have used their cordless miter saw and it was pretty impressive in terms of its power. Also their 9 amp hour batteries couple with these power hogs nicely. I’m a home shop hobbiest so I don’t need a portable miter saw or table saw but I bet it is solid.
 
Also, I would think that Festool is very happy with their cordless track saws competing in this space. Just my opinion.
 
FWIW, I have the Dewalt cordless table saw and it works shockingly well.  I am fully bought into the Milwaukee platform and will be selling the Dewalt and buying the Milwaukee in short order.  I really prefer the smaller form factor of these cordless saws- ever since I bought a track saw, I just have no need for a job site saw with a 24” capacity.  90 percent of my cost are 12” or narrower.  Really nice to be able to fit a table saw in a tiny corner of the truck.
 
I'm also considering the Milwaukee tablesaw in the near future. Ever since picking up their m18 Surge impact driver (sooo much quieter than my Ti-15), m18 sawzall, and cordless circular saw, I've been looking at more of their line.

I was working this spring with a friend who has been replacing a bunch of his old tools with these new brushless m18 Fuel tools, and I've been very impressed. Over the course of about three weeks I had the opportunity to use his cordless miter saw, bandsaw, multitool, impact wrenches,  impact driver (until I purchased my own Surge), Hole Hawg, led light, and a few drills. They come in at competitive price points and work fantastic for all but the most demanding tasks. Seems like we are quickly approaching the era where all but the most power-hungry tools have viable cordless options.

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I do a lot of work in the city. A recent project in a 4th floor condo doing some finishing touches  I found myself taking my honda 3000is generator along with my sawstop and Kapex and leaving them in the truck bed. No clean up and no need to lug tools up a elevator.
 
BJM9818 said:
I do a lot of work in the city. A recent project in a 4th floor condo doing some finishing touches  I found myself taking my honda 3000is generator along with my sawstop and Kapex and leaving them in the truck bed. No clean up and no need to lug tools up a elevator.

So you’re a believer...
 
Mikita has one, as does Ryobi and Ridgid. I would be willing to bet that within a year or two there will be many more (and higher end) offerings.
 
I can see a cordless table saw being beneficial on jobs sites where power is not easy to come-by.  It beats dragging generators around. 

A cordless table saw would be pretty useless for home or shop applications.

Routers consume a ton of power.  They’re probably one of the harder tools to make cordless.  It’ll be interesting to see anyone pull off a powerful cordless router, all through it’ll probably take another generation of battery technology to make cordless routers feasible.

You’d probably need a 15 AMP hour battery to run a powerful router cordless.
 
Like Alanbach said, Makita has already put a cordless trim router on the market. Like you said, it’s not equivalent to a 15 amp router but it is a cordless router.
 
Bosch has a cool little 12 volt trim router and planer.  Too bad I'm bought into Milwaukee or I'd seriously consider both...
 
Michael Kellough said:
Like Alanbach said, Makita has already put a cordless trim router on the market. Like you said, it’s not equivalent to a 15 amp router but it is a cordless router.

It’ll happen eventually.  It’s just a matter of the battery tech catching up.  We might see a 3.25 HP cordless down the road.  I think we’re 4-5 years away from batteries that could power a 3+ HP cordless routers.
 
I have been looking at the cordless options also.
I have a bunch of Makita 18v cordless tools and have found all of them to work well,so I am looking at a table saw and miter saw to add to the list.

The dewalt battery table saw with the mains option sounds appealing to me also. Kinda a jack of all trades .
Charlie

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Steven Owen said:
I can see a cordless table saw being beneficial on jobs sites where power is not easy to come-by.  It beats dragging generators around. 

A cordless table saw would be pretty useless for home or shop applications.

Routers consume a ton of power.  They’re probably one of the harder tools to make cordless.  It’ll be interesting to see anyone pull off a powerful cordless router, all through it’ll probably take another generation of battery technology to make cordless routers feasible.

You’d probably need a 15 AMP hour battery to run a powerful router cordless.

Well, remember, you can only get 2hp continuous from a standard. North American  15Amp 120V plug. I don't know if some of these higher power routers run 20amp plugs, or are 240V.  Otherwise they are lying on their power rating.

Still, while a 2hp router can pull that much power, it's not running at max all the time. You need to have a big enough cutter making an aggressive enough cut to get there.  And if you are at that limit, I can't see you doing it for very long, at some point you go to a router table.  No different than having a car with 350hp,  it's almost impossible to ever use it all, going down the interstate you are only using 20ish HP.  So while if you could use all that power in the car non stop you would empty the gas tank very quickly, you just can outside of a race track, thus last a lot longer.

A router is definitely one of the harder things to pull off, but it's really only a limited issue on battery stuff.  It is a case for where having higher voltage battery systems like dewalt has done and you see with outdoor power tools come into play.

With chop saws and table saws out there,  the routers a certainly in development as we speak.

Bonus points for any company (Festool, Bosch, Milwaukee) who offer a kit for one that adapts the router to a Honda push mower deck and blade system.
 
Dane said:
Bosch has a cool little 12 volt trim router and planer.  Too bad I'm bought into Milwaukee or I'd seriously consider both...

Can't recommend them. Well, I can recommend the planer for small tasks as it is quite smooth in operation. Clogs up easily though and there is no bag for it yet (though I got the adapter for the non existent bag). It does run through the 3Ah battery really fast though. I keep the planer around and I do have use for it. I snapped off the trigger safety (on purpose) so now there is no pesky double press to engage the planer. Need to be careful grabbing it out of the Systainer though... [big grin]

The router is too low in RPM and does not produce a good quality edge, simple as that. The Makita is just so much better. I have the Makita and the Festool OFK500. Bought the Bosch router on a whim since I bought a Bosch carpet cutter (which works great) but sold it off just a week ago.

The edge router would suffice for simple tasks and it is not "bad" unit but there is a quality penalty for it. Ergonomics are ok.
 
DeformedTree said:
Steven Owen said:
I can see a cordless table saw being beneficial on jobs sites where power is not easy to come-by.  It beats dragging generators around. 

A cordless table saw would be pretty useless for home or shop applications.

Routers consume a ton of power.  They’re probably one of the harder tools to make cordless.  It’ll be interesting to see anyone pull off a powerful cordless router, all through it’ll probably take another generation of battery technology to make cordless routers feasible.

You’d probably need a 15 AMP hour battery to run a powerful router cordless.

Well, remember, you can only get 2hp continuous from a standard. North American  15Amp 120V plug. I don't know if some of these higher power routers run 20amp plugs, or are 240V.  Otherwise they are lying on their power rating.

Still, while a 2hp router can pull that much power, it's not running at max all the time. You need to have a big enough cutter making an aggressive enough cut to get there.  And if you are at that limit, I can't see you doing it for very long, at some point you go to a router table.  No different than having a car with 350hp,  it's almost impossible to ever use it all, going down the interstate you are only using 20ish HP.  So while if you could use all that power in the car non stop you would empty the gas tank very quickly, you just can outside of a race track, thus last a lot longer.

A router is definitely one of the harder things to pull off, but it's really only a limited issue on battery stuff.  It is a case for where having higher voltage battery systems like dewalt has done and you see with outdoor power tools come into play.

With chop saws and table saws out there,  the routers a certainly in development as we speak.

Bonus points for any company (Festool, Bosch, Milwaukee) who offer a kit for one that adapts the router to a Honda push mower deck and blade system.

I believe the 3.25 and 3.5 HP numbers Canada/US routers are based on peak vs consistent power.  I would think you’d need a dual 15 outlet to achieve the 3.5 HP peak router speed. 
 
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