Good day all,

Well, I finally did it. I bought a saw!!! After much thought and many questions asked here, I decided to get the Ridgid portable contractor's saw. I wanted to post a review here for anyone considering this saw. BUY IT!!! I am so pleased with the performance as well as the construction of this saw.

First of all, it folds up to about the size of a large chair, which is good for folks like me that don't have a "proper" workshop. All my sawdust making has to be done outside, so the whole shop is on wheels or folds up so I can move outside when I need to make a mess.

The saw is well built, and actually comes with no assembly required. I was amazed that even the tilt indicator was dead-on when checked with a saw setup square/angle gauge. All I had to do was slightly adjust the marker position on the fence. The table on the right side of the blade slides out and the marks for measuring off the distance of the fence extend out like a tape measure as you extend the table extension. Also the handle of the saw cradle doubles as an extension when the saw is set up.

Setting up is so easy- you just flip one lever and pull the handle and the saw raises itself up on the feet. There's no grunting, straining, or cursing involved in the process.

Speaking of the fence, I absolutely love the fence. I did not find that it drifted when clamped down like some fences do. It has t-slots for attaching accessories, and it is very well made. I also love that the fence, push stick (included), kickback pawls, and adjustment wrenches all have storage slots built into the saw. Very nice.

I also love the quick-release on the blade guard and riving knife. One flip of a lever and the guard comes off. A flip of another lever and the knife comes off. Another lever remvoes the kickback pawls. The only thing I have to do is to file down the riving knife to match the width of my thin-kerf blade.

In the pic below you can see the saw set up and my thickness planer on top. The first test was done with that piece of mahogany which is 2" thick. I used a 7 1/4" thin-kerf blade to rip the 2" thickness into strips to build a paddle to match my Stand Up Paddleboard. The saw cut through this piece of wood like butter. First I trued up the edge by ripping a paper-thin strip off each edge, then I started ripping 1 1/2" and 1/2" pieces out of it. The saw never bogged down, and I was able to push the material through without any binding or bogging down. Honestly I felt it did better than my friend's Ridgid stationary saw with the belt drive. That saw bogged down just slightly a few times making similar cuts with the exact same blade. This direct-drive saw ate right through the board. You barely even heard a change in the sound of the motor as the board was fed into the blade. I was quite impressed, and I am so glad I went with this saw rather than the heavier bulkier stationary saw. The only thing I don't like is that the table is non-ferrous so I can't use magnetic attachments, but at least it doesn't rust.