how useful is a cordless circular saw

[EricU]

I ended up buying at lowes. Acme's price went up to $169, and they still don't have it.  

It's a nice saw. Now I'm going to try to give away all my 18v stuff except the drill, which I use with a liion adapter

[mdhills]

cordless tools is what my contractor FIL uses.  The only time he breaks out his wormdrive saw is when he has to rip 2x material any significant distance.

We build my entire 1200 sq ft shop using cordless tools, except when he had to rip a 4x4 down to a 4x3 for the mud sill.  
Re-roofed by barn (took it down to the walls) was all done using cordless circular saws.  
built another 300 sq ft building using just cordless saws.

Do they need to keep a lot of spare batteries running on chargers?

Was reminded of this recently when watching Jon Peters' video on building a planter.  He started with a dewalt cordless, and switched back to a corded PC when the cordless ran out of juice when trying to waste out some half-laps.

Matt

[DieselDennis]

I ended up buying at lowes. Acme's price went up to $169, and they still don't have it.  

It's a nice saw. Now I'm going to try to give away all my 18v stuff except the drill, which I use with a liion adapter

You could use your old 18V saw with the li-ion adapter.  Last I heard it was only some drills that DeWalt didn't OK use of the li-ion adapter with.

Good luck with your new saw.

[blackhat]

Can't say I miss 100 extension cords strung everywhere across a jobsite and the constant fighting over the few plugs available.

[EricU]

You could use your old 18V saw with the li-ion adapter.  Last I heard it was only some drills that DeWalt didn't OK use of the li-ion adapter with.

I thought about doing that, but I like to keep the liion adapter on the drill.  And just can't see buying another one.  The new saw has a brake, and there is no comparison in build quality between the two.  18v is built like a cheap circular saw from walmart.

[Bill Wilson]

Man, I gotta quit checking on this thread.  I've almost convinced myself I need to go buy a cordless saw.  

[EricU]

it really depends on the battery life I get.  My experience with the 18v recip saw was that it was a bit under-powered, so I often had to get the corded one out. Then again, I did use it for a lot of fairly major pruning and even cut down a few trees with it. I haven't used the brushless 20v recip saw much yet, but it seems a lot better.  Not sure I like the compact form factor of that one though

 I think with the liion and brushless motors, being under-powered probably is not as big of an issue.  Will report back.

[Tony Z]

I have a Dewalt 18v and it is well made, works very well. Got it when 18v tools first came out, and has done well for me. Battery life is good.

[EricU]

you want another one?  Everything but the drill is going to go

[meackerman]

Do they need to keep a lot of spare batteries running on chargers?

He has 3-4 spare batteries.  that gives him enough runtime for another battery to charge.