SKIL 3601-02 Flooring Saw with 36T Contractor Blade, Red and black

This saw has been so helpful in installing laminate. This is my 4th time doing laminate, And I've used a variety of tools or lack of tools to accomplish to each job. If you happen to have a miter saw and table saw in your garage that's awesome and you don't need this tool. This is the only tool I've found (other than a jigsaw operated with a lot of patience) that will do your ordinary cross cuts and also rip the boards down the length. It switches back-and-forth between cross cuts and long cuts fairly easily but it's annoying when you have to go back and forth. The fence on the long cuts is not Secured with the screw that you use for the cross cuts so it kind of wiggles. For some reason on about half of the long cuts the blade felt like it was getting stuck, probably was how I was feeding it because I was operating this from About a 5x 8 balcony with the saw on the floor. It comes with a pretty decent carbide tipped blade that actually a cuts through those cross cuts very smoothlyand fast. I'm using this on 8 mm laminate with attached pad. Some other reviews I had read said it chipped laminate. I always cut with the finnished side down because you mark your boards on the bottom anyway. Plus with any saw this seems to cut down on chips. I read a lot of reviews complaining about the dust collection. It does produce a lot of dust especially on the long cuts and it feels like it's not collecting it in the bag but when I took the bag off to hook the vacuum to it when I had to bring it inside the dust bag was completely fall after only installing 100sf or so. I had to keep sweeping the snow off of my saw while I was using it so that removed most of the dust I guess. It did hook up to my standard Orrick canister vac perfectly The day that the snow was too heavy and I had 3 more cuts to finish up a Room. You are supposed to be able to miter cuts at set angles also. The fence adjusts easily to do this. For my floors I was unable to accomplish that the way it was intended so I had to remove the fence altogether and wing it which is not safe. I have an odd diagonal wall in my living Room and one in my bedroom so this isn't an issue for most jobs. When I 1st took the saw out of the box it appeared Ready to use but the instructions said you had to do a few things to set it up. None of that was logical, it was infuriating and Turned out to be unnecessary. Thankfully there are a couple of really good, thorough YouTube videos about this saw. I sincerely appreciate whoever made them because I was set my witts end. It's a remarkably easy saw a to use but the instructions are poorly written. All around great product, Particularly for a company that doesn't have a good reputation

I first watched several videos on usage and reviews. It was overall described as pretty good, but said to not perform well on 3/4 inch hardwood flooring. Well 3/4 hardwood is what I install the most and instead of taking multiple tools to the job site to do this job I only took this one. This is a review by a real installer and I was very pleased with the saw and got excellent results. I set the saw up in a corner of the room I was working in and worked without a problem. Great product and I would recommend and I plan to use on the next job I have. As I said this is a real review by a real installer. The only downside is that this product kicks out a lot of dust, the dust bag that comes with it barely catches anything. However I did attach my shop vac and it was a game changer. When installing hardwood floors you need a very clean area and I used the saw attached to the vacuum and had no problem. Everytime I would make about five cuts I'd disconnect the shop vac and clean the area I was cutting at. Very simple and easy to do. I bought extra blades because I heard that it would need it, but I never had to change my blade. Also I would recommend cutting with the underside faced up and at a non hurried paced. Too fast will give a jagged egde, too slow will leave burn marks on the wood. And my last honest recommendation is to use some ear protection. It is on the loud side.... Light weight and easy to carry, easy to keep clean. For notch cutting, such as an L cut into a work piece, I used a scrap piece first to find where the blade starts and the marked my saw with a piece of tape and an arrow. The guard system makes it hard to see where the blade starts to cut. Overall it's a great product and I hope this review helps.

I really like it. Straight cuts every time. Simple to use . Work great cutting flooring. Has different angles to cut. It’s well made. Made my job so much faster. Glad I purchased it.

Perfect tool. Good dust collection. With attached vacuum I was able to bring it in the middle of living room and not be concerned about sawdust flying around. One point to be concerned- cross cut position of fence is defined by one lock screw and little ball positioner. Out of the box it’s not the true 90 degrees, so adjustment is needed. Also even tightened screw leaving some deflection and you have to be careful if you want to relay to the fence position.

Works fantastic, no issues installing my floor with these perfect cuts.

We embarked on a massive carpet replacement remodel of our home. Laminate was the logical choice due to its affordability and toughness for dog feet. The immediate plan was 3 rooms and the entry hall. This saw is absolutely perfect. We've completed the project, and I, a first time saw operator, was a pro with the first cut thanks to a YouTube video. Cut through those laminate boards like butter. Even ripping 4 foot boards was easy and I made perfect 45 degree angle cuts with the easily adjustable guide. We hooked a little shop vac up to the exhaust and sawdust is extremely minimal. The laminate is hard on the saw blade for sure, so don't be stingy or your saw will protest --buy a replacement for each standard sized room you intend to floor at them minimum, and put in a new blade when it begins to drag. The price is great especially considering all the money we are saving on installation. Could not be happier.

Purchased this tool in anticipation of installing laminate planks at our rental. At the last second, we changed to vinyl planks because they are supposed to be more durable. When I found out that you cut this type of planks with utility knives, I contemplated returning the tool multiple times. But since the return policy was a month, I held on to it. Thanks goodness I kept it. After cutting a few test pieces with a knife, I tried this saw. This tool was a life saver that made my project go so much better. I was able to use it for ripping and chopping nearly all my planks. It cut great and was easy to change cutting methods by moving the fence. The only issue I encountered was on a rare occasion when I needed to rip a sliver off of a wide plank. My vinyl planks were three sizes and the wide size was pretty big. The fence only extends out so far, and I had to use another method. This only happened on a couple of occasions where a plank needed a little off. That's the only issue I encountered for my entire project. I located the tool outside because there were many piles of vinyl shreds. This saw was a huge time saver and it had plenty of power. It never bogged down or had any difficulty cutting the vinyl. For a project like mine (21 boxes of variable width vinyl planks), this was the perfect tool. I also used it to trim the laminate thresholds and it worked well. For major trim, it would not work very well because it is not a compound miter saw and really only cuts in two dimensions as long as they are narrow. I would highly recommend this saw.

Bought this for my father in October of 2017 so he could install 700 sq feet of flooring in their home. The flooring was Adura Max, Mannington Residential, Advanced Vinyl Plank, 6"x48"x1/4" thick. Really pretty stuff. Waterproof, scratchproof, oopsproof...as it says on the box. He's been a self taught home remodel expert for 40+ years so he knows his stuff you could say. He said this saw made the job quicker and easier and hands down was worth every last penny spent. "For the price, you can't beat it." Very handy saw that handled the flooring product with ease. Nice and compact, easy storage, easy set up, overall good product. Only negative, if you can call it that, would be the collection of dust and debris could be better. But as my father says, "I have yet to use a saw of any kind that doesn't make some kind of mess."

I'm a staircase renovator who does the occasional small flooring add-ons, often upper hallways and a bedroom or two. I don't do larger flooring projects because it's not my focus but upper hallways are some of the trickiest flooring spaces to install. The most recent job was 3/4" x 6 1/2" engineered HW. I found the skill flooring saw to do an excellent job on both cross cuts and rip cuts, also good for 45° cuts going both directions, all with good dust control. I had also put together a coping saw using a Dewalt barrel jigsaw and a Collins coping attachment for coping the baseboard for the same job. I found this handy for doing various cutouts for doorways and vents. I also expect it to work well for cutting to curved nosing. The cuts are very clean. So the combination of Skil flooring saw and Dewalt/Collins coping saw can do almost everything needed on a flooring install, except maybe bevelling and notching boards to transition to lower flooring. An excellent portable combination!

Great little saw for flooring. One downside is they have very specific blade sizes only and they are not common. On top of that they are some of the most expensive blades on the market

Great saw, did the job well, no dust when connected to vacuum.

Used this for installing stone composite vinyl plank and it had no problems. Made the job easier and was more than adequate.

I’m so glad I bought this saw. I’m try to install laminate floor for 3 bedrooms. I don’t have space for big table saw. I just use a jigsaw at the beginning, it does the work but painful slow. So I decided to buy this saw. It is amazing, so fast and accurate. Can cut different angles. And is much safe then the bigger saws. And is light, is so easy to move it around.