New Kreg adaptive cutting system

Create a review for a woodworking tool that you are familiar with (Shopsmith brand or Non-Shopsmith) or just post your opinion on a specific tool. Head to head comparisons welcome too.

Moderators: HopefulSSer, admin

RFGuy
Platinum Member
Posts: 2740
Joined: Mon Dec 31, 2018 8:05 am
Location: a suburb of PHX, AZ

Re: New Kreg adaptive cutting system

Post by RFGuy »

jsburger wrote:I got a Woodcraft flyer today and it had a small item in the upper left corner of page 4 for the Kreg system. No price but "See it in stores today!"
I got an email from Woodcraft just now promoting this Kreg system. The website shows it being in stock, so presumably you can order from online. I checked in store availability and it didn't show any here in AZ, but the Woodcraft in Fountain Valley, CA apparently has stock of them right now. So, I guess some Woodcraft stores have them, or will be getting them soon.
📶RF Guy

Mark V 520 (Bought New '98) | 4" jointer | 6" beltsander | 12" planer | bandsaw | router table | speed reducer | univ. tool rest
Porter Cable 12" Compound Miter Saw | Rikon 8" Low Speed Bench Grinder w/CBN wheels | Jessem Clear-Cut TS™ Stock Guides
Festool (Emerald): DF 500 Q | RO 150 FEQ | OF 1400 EQ | TS 55 REQ | CT 26 E
DC3300 | Shopvac w/ClearVue CV06 Mini Cyclone | JDS AirTech 2000 | Sundstrom PAPR | Dylos DC1100 Pro particulate monitor
User avatar
Ed in Tampa
Platinum Member
Posts: 5826
Joined: Fri Jul 21, 2006 12:45 am
Location: North Tampa Bay area Florida

Re: New Kreg adaptive cutting system

Post by Ed in Tampa »

RFGuy wrote:
Ed in Tampa wrote:Great discussion, I hope when the Kreg system becomes available we will get some good feedback on it.
Ed,

My apologies for hijacking this thread to discuss Festool. Sorry about that. This Kreg system looks interesting for a track saw solution. When I think of Kreg, I always think of their jig solutions. I wonder if they designed the circular saw for this system, or if they licensed someone else's saw. This is new territory for them, isn't it, selling power tools?
Actually I appreciated your input! Obviously the Kreg product is going to be compared to the Festool product so getting you input and the input of others is helpful.

Interesting that Rockler is saying they oversold the Kreg product already. It seems more than one person has been waiting for this system to come out.

Also there is a mention of a rebate, does anyone know how much the rebate is?
RFGuy
Platinum Member
Posts: 2740
Joined: Mon Dec 31, 2018 8:05 am
Location: a suburb of PHX, AZ

Re: New Kreg adaptive cutting system

Post by RFGuy »

Ed in Tampa wrote:
RFGuy wrote:
Ed in Tampa wrote:Great discussion, I hope when the Kreg system becomes available we will get some good feedback on it.
Ed,

My apologies for hijacking this thread to discuss Festool. Sorry about that. This Kreg system looks interesting for a track saw solution. When I think of Kreg, I always think of their jig solutions. I wonder if they designed the circular saw for this system, or if they licensed someone else's saw. This is new territory for them, isn't it, selling power tools?
Actually I appreciated your input! Obviously the Kreg product is going to be compared to the Festool product so getting you input and the input of others is helpful.

Interesting that Rockler is saying they oversold the Kreg product already. It seems more than one person has been waiting for this system to come out.

Also there is a mention of a rebate, does anyone know how much the rebate is?
Woodcraft in Tampa is supposed to have it in stock. Not sure how close this is for you....see below.
Woodcraft.jpg
Woodcraft.jpg (97 KiB) Viewed 97556 times
📶RF Guy

Mark V 520 (Bought New '98) | 4" jointer | 6" beltsander | 12" planer | bandsaw | router table | speed reducer | univ. tool rest
Porter Cable 12" Compound Miter Saw | Rikon 8" Low Speed Bench Grinder w/CBN wheels | Jessem Clear-Cut TS™ Stock Guides
Festool (Emerald): DF 500 Q | RO 150 FEQ | OF 1400 EQ | TS 55 REQ | CT 26 E
DC3300 | Shopvac w/ClearVue CV06 Mini Cyclone | JDS AirTech 2000 | Sundstrom PAPR | Dylos DC1100 Pro particulate monitor
User avatar
benush26
Platinum Member
Posts: 1104
Joined: Mon Mar 19, 2012 7:06 pm
Location: Montana

Re: New Kreg adaptive cutting system

Post by benush26 »

Ed in Tampa wrote:
RFGuy wrote:
Ed in Tampa wrote:Great discussion, I hope when the Kreg system becomes available we will get some good feedback on it.
Ed,

My apologies for hijacking this thread to discuss Festool. Sorry about that. This Kreg system looks interesting for a track saw solution. When I think of Kreg, I always think of their jig solutions. I wonder if they designed the circular saw for this system, or if they licensed someone else's saw. This is new territory for them, isn't it, selling power tools?
Actually I appreciated your input

Also there is a mention of a rebate, does anyone know how much the rebate is?
The rebate is in the form of Isotune ear buds. I believe they are the newer Bluetooth version.

Be well,
Ben
User avatar
reible
Platinum Member
Posts: 11283
Joined: Thu Jul 20, 2006 12:08 pm
Location: Aurora, IL

Re: New Kreg adaptive cutting system

Post by reible »

This is FUNNY!

"Note: Person shown in the photo is not included. You must provide your own person."

I had to laugh out loud when I saw that.

Tool Nut site.

Ed
{Knight of the Shopsmith} [Hero's don't wear capes, they wear dog tags]
User avatar
benush26
Platinum Member
Posts: 1104
Joined: Mon Mar 19, 2012 7:06 pm
Location: Montana

Re: New Kreg adaptive cutting system

Post by benush26 »

My curiosity regarding the saw is blade side. My track saw (as well as Festool and Makita) and my circ saws all have the blade to the right of the motor, where the Kreg is to the left. I wonder why they went that way? I have heard of circ saws with the blade on the left but never remember using one.

Be well,
Ben
User avatar
reible
Platinum Member
Posts: 11283
Joined: Thu Jul 20, 2006 12:08 pm
Location: Aurora, IL

Re: New Kreg adaptive cutting system

Post by reible »

benush26 wrote:My curiosity regarding the saw is blade side. My track saw (as well as Festool and Makita) and my circ saws all have the blade to the right of the motor, where the Kreg is to the left. I wonder why they went that way? I have heard of circ saws with the blade on the left but never remember using one.

Be well,
Ben
Yes I noticed that too. I know that the old worm drive skill saw was that way and when I got my PC saw they had a left and right version. I had a friend who was left handed and got the PC version since it worked better for him.

Now on a track saw there are times (example of long rip cuts of certain widths) when it is easier to have the track setup and go in a direction that makes it more comfortable to use your left hand. Having done so I don't really feel that it is a problem since the saw is guided and it is just a mater of pushing it along and everything is controlled. This being a pretty limited thing at least for me it certainly wouldn't make me look for a different saw blade side.

Perhaps with the hinged track having to be used where it does might be the reason??

Still a lot of unanswered questions. I did notice the saw seems to have track saw depth scale? While I use mine mostly on the track I do sometimes use it without so a second scale seems like a simple thing to have.

I also only saw one blade for it. Perhaps they will add to that later on or perhaps other companies have or will fill the void.

Watching the videos I see a lot of sawdust coming off, might be due to the dust collector bag rather then having it connected to a vac hose. Might also be a marketing thing that they don't want to see what happens when attached to a vac. I guess I'd like to see it used with a vacuum so one could get an idea of how much sawdust is flying then.

Ed
{Knight of the Shopsmith} [Hero's don't wear capes, they wear dog tags]
User avatar
BuckeyeDennis
Platinum Member
Posts: 3683
Joined: Tue Jul 24, 2012 10:03 pm
Location: Central Ohio

Re: New Kreg adaptive cutting system

Post by BuckeyeDennis »

I had a chance to stop by Woodcraft the other day, and checked out the Kreg Adaptive Cutting System with a friend of mine who works there. We didn't get to fire it up, but I was able to inspect and handle it as much as I wanted. Here are my initial impressions, in no particular order.

The build quality of the saw and track appears comparable to my Makita, and also to the Festool unit on display there.

The track is NOT compatible with Festool, Makita, and Triton saws. It is very similar, but the width dimensions are different.

I really like the stand. It seems quite sturdy, and the ability to fold it up and roll it away on buit-in wheels is very nice.

The dogs are nice anodized aluminum -- not at all like the cheap plastic ones that came with my Kreg "Mobile Project Center".

The molded plastic parts of the rip gauges and miter gauge looked a little cheesy to me.

The table system is designed such that the kerf line is always in the same place on the table -- parallel to and near the front edge of the table. In some ways this is nice, but it means that a long workpiece may need to stick out past the table at almost any orientation, depending on the cut. So it has the same problem as a table saw -- the required working footprint could be huge, unless you rotate the whole table to match the cut angle.

The rail-support hinges are a neat idea, but they are not implemented with precision parts. They have a little bit of fore-aft slop, which will degrade cut-line repeatability.

The two rip guides run in T-slots embedded in the tabletop, and they are fairly close together. Each T-slot has two plastic scales, that you must slide in their tracks to calibrate the narrow and wide rip widths (using a tape measure, per Kreg). Kreg's recommended rip-width setting procedure is then to simply position each rip guide to the desired position on it's scale. Based on the relatively crude rip-guide setting procedure, and on the short distance between the rip guides, I expect that workpieces will tend to have significant taper error. Whether that's a problem depends on your accuracy requirements.

As for competing with Festool, judging from the video below it appears that Kreg is targeting the opposite end of the market -- new woodworkers. Sample tip: when you're building stuff from construction lumber, seams will look better if you straight-line rip the board edges before butting them together.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2nQJW7y6MY[/youtube]
Last edited by BuckeyeDennis on Tue Mar 12, 2019 11:25 am, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Ed in Tampa
Platinum Member
Posts: 5826
Joined: Fri Jul 21, 2006 12:45 am
Location: North Tampa Bay area Florida

Re: New Kreg adaptive cutting system

Post by Ed in Tampa »

BuckeyeDennis wrote:I had a chance to stop by Woodcraft the other day, and checked out the Kreg Adaptive Cutting System with a friend of mine who works there. We didn't get to fire it up, but I was able to inspect and handle it as much as I wanted. Here are my initial impressions, in no particular order.

The build quality of the saw and track appears comparable to my Makita, and also to the Festool unit on display there.

The track is NOT compatible with Festool, Makita, and Triton saws. It is very similar, but the width dimensions are different.

I really like the stand. It's seems quite sturdy, and the ability to fold it up and roll it away on buit-in wheels is very nice.

The dogs are nice anodized aluminum -- not at all like the cheap plastic ones that came with my Kreg "Mobile Project Center".

The molded plastic parts of the rip gauges and miter gauge looked a little cheesy to me.

The table system is designed such that the kerf line is always in the same place on the table -- parallel to and near the front edge of the table. In some ways this is nice, but it means that a long workpiece may need to stick out past the table at almost any orientation, depending on the cut. So it has the same problem as a table saw -- the required working footprint could be huge, unless you rotate the whole table to match the cut angle.

The rail-support hinges are a neat idea, but they are not implemented with precision parts. They have a little bit of fore-aft slop, which will degrade cut-line repeatability.

The two rip guides run in T-slots embedded in the tabletop, and they are fairly close together. Each T-slot has two plastic scales, that you must slide in their tracks to calibrate the narrow and wide rip widths (using a tape measure, per Kreg). Kreg's recommended rip-width setting procedure is then to simply position each rip guide to the desired position on it's scale. Based on the relatively crude rip-guide setting procedure, and on the short distance between the rip guides, I expect that workpieces will tend to have significant taper error. Whether that's a problem depends on your accuracy requirements.

As for competing with Festool, judging from the video below it appears that Kreg is targeting the opposite end of the market -- new woodworkers. Sample tip: when you're building stuff from construction lumber, seams will look better if you straight-line rip the board edges before butting them together.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2nQJW7y6MY[/youtube]


THANKS for the review! Great job!
User avatar
BuckeyeDennis
Platinum Member
Posts: 3683
Joined: Tue Jul 24, 2012 10:03 pm
Location: Central Ohio

Re: New Kreg adaptive cutting system

Post by BuckeyeDennis »

And now Bosch has entered the track-saw fray. Priced even highed than Festool!
Bosch track saw.jpg
Bosch track saw.jpg (59.65 KiB) Viewed 97332 times
https://www.protoolreviews.com/trades/c ... ion/43504/
Post Reply