Ryobi Flooring Saw

[JoeyGee]

Anyone seen this?

http://www.ryobitools.com/catalog/po...nchtop/RLS1351

I know it's a specialized tool, and probably limited by the table size and 5" blade, but it looks pretty cool. I don't know anything about it, I just ran across it today at HD.

Maybe for a small craft maker with limited space it could replace a TS? Just a thought, maybe trying to create a niche market for HD .

[charliex]

I have the Skil flooring saw and it works very well for that purpose. It's fairly accurate but changing from crosscut to rip is a pain if you need to do it too often. It's also limited to 3/4" thick stock and 8 inch wide. The cut in laminate is rather good but then you have no exposed edges with flooring. I bought it because I needed to installed 750 sq ft of laminate in a neighbors home. I thought it would be easier if I didn't have to get up to cut and then down to install, I could just crawl around on the floor. I'm just a few months shy of 70 and up/down ain't so easy any more. I used it for all crosscuts but walked the rip work across the street to the BT3. The dust bag is a joke but a small 4 amp/1 gallon shop-vac collects almost every chip.

[chopnhack]

I don't know about a niche market because skil has one too. I really like the idea though, very handy. Here's a link where we discussed the skil model. http://www.bt3central.com/showthread...=skil+flooring

[Shep]

The only problem I see with this is that for me, it doesn't do everything. When I put down laminate in my house, I had to use a jig-saw for a lot of notched cuts. I wonder how mutch notching this could do? Of course, if you're not dealing with a lot of odd corners it might not be too bad.

[cwsmith]

I saw it.... well, I saw the box that is. That was back in the spring and I have yet to see it on display or in fact, ever again in any form in my two local Home Depot's.

CWS

[Woodwerker]

Anyone own this one?
I have a small flooring project in our Condo at the Jersey Shore 100 miles from Home.
I have a Jet Cabinet saw so I do not want/need another table saw.
This may fit the need and the outlet store a few miles away has this for $129ish.
Anyone have an opinon.

[gerti]

The Ryobi one was featured a while ago on the Danny Lipford show, not that that means much. Seemed OK, though never saw it in person.

[cwsmith]

It looked sort of neat, quite useable and I liked the idea of having such a crosscut tool that one could have at the same level that you were working. But, I still haven't seen this anywhere.

I regularly visit two Home Depots and neither has had this saw and the "orange-aprons" that I've asked don't know anything about it. It is listed on the HD website though: http://www.homedepot.com/Flooring/h_...&storeId=10051

CWS

[vaking]

It looks like a legal response more than anything else. Do you remember a legal case against Ryobi (its parent company to be exact) when a guy used a workbench style table saw on a floor to cut flooring and instead cut his fingers? Now that Ryobi has a specialized flooring saw anyone using table saw for that purpose is simply using wrong tool for the wrong job. It is a good legal defense for future.

[cwsmith]

Alex,

Interesting point, but personally I don't think this "flooring saw" is a response as much as it is simply a product to address the growing trend of people upgrading their flooring, especially the do-it-yourselfer.

Looking at the flooring saw's details, I'm not so sure that a misguided user couldn't do just as much damage to themselves as on a table saw, if they lean on the wrong part of the table or do something else wrong. On first glance at the manual, it appears to work a lot like a RAS or Sliding Miter Saw for cross-cuts, but for rips, it's feeding directly into the front of the blade (Figs 21 and 22) which could seemingly quckly self-feed... either binding up as the blade grabs the stock, or if if the carriage isn't locked-down, it may attempt to quickly ride forward toward the operator. (I may have missed it, but I don't see where the carriage is rotatable or repositioned to feed into the back of the blade, as you would if ripping on an RAS.)

Frankly, I was shocked by the jury decision of the infamous case you mentioned. It appeared to me that TTI sent the most inexperienced legal firm they could find and mounted almost no experienced defence.

CWS

[cabinetman]

I would guess if it's used for exactly what it's intended it would likely do a good job. For the cost of it, limited capability, not so great power, and the size and cost of the blades, I wouldn't consider it a replacement for anything.

.

[Woodwerker]

Thanks guys..
I am gonna pick one up (if they are still in stock at the refirb outlet). If I get one I will post a review.
Thanks again!
Joe