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I'm considering a Makita track saw. I wondered if anyone sees chip or tear out on the non-track side. I understand that festool has an insert (Festool 499011) which the blade cuts through, so something is contacting both sides of the cut. Does the Makita have something similar?

My main reason is that I'm going to attempt a continuous grain pattern, so I'd like to make one cut but have both sides useable.

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    Doesn't the right type of saw blade make this far better already? One other technique to get around the problem is to cut from both faces, it's more work and potentially tricky to set up but if there's no alternative..... – Graphus Dec 2 '19 at 9:22
  • The brand isn't the thing here. The speed, feed, blade type, tooth angle, tooth relief is what makes the difference. Maybe reword your question to say what material you are cutting down to size, what equipment you have, and what you want to achieve. – jdv Dec 2 '19 at 16:23
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    The old standby of painters tape well burnished down on the cut line I have cut burl veneer using this method with almost no chip out (only if you looked hard hard to find it) using a standard circular saw with an edge guide and a high quality plywood blade. – Monte Glover Dec 4 '19 at 1:46
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I don't think Makita has this feature. Also, it does not really help on the Festool machine in my experience.

A good technique is to not cut completely with the first cut but only the first 1 or 2mm. Then, make sure the track is in the same position and make the final cut. My Mafell MT55cc has an extra setting for this kind of cut which also moves the blade 1/10mm to the side; so for sure no tear out!

Also make sure to use the correct blade for cutting. In general, less teeth if you cut along the fibres and more teeth orthogonal to the fibres.

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  • Thanks, that makes sense. So even with that Festool insert thing the pressure on the outside of the cut doesn't help as much as the other approaches. Interesting. The MT55cc does the score cut then moves towards the track, no? So I guess the point is that the score cut is shallow enough that it doesn't tear out but the final cut is exactly the same line. – jameshowison Dec 3 '19 at 16:06
  • They claim it isn't the same line, otherwise they couldn't sell it as a feature. For me with bare eye it is exactly the same line. Maybe it is in the 1/50mm region, I don't know, the 1/10mm I wrote on top was just an estimate. – drmariod Dec 4 '19 at 7:46

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