Track Saw vs Circular Saw: Is a Plunge Saw Worth It?

If you cut sheet goods, this is the saw that makes the circular saw feel crude. The plunge action starts a cut in the middle of a panel, the rail's rubber strip grips the workpiece, and the splinter guard holds the veneer down so the edge comes off the saw ready for glue. A circular saw with a guide gets you straight; this gets you straight and clean on both sides of the kerf.

The Makita is our pick over the Festool TS 55 because it delivers almost all of the cut quality and dust collection for about $39 less and ships with a rail and case. The kit price was about $630 at the time of writing. If you want the deeper comparison, our Makita vs Festool track saw page covers the exact differences, and the best track saws roundup has seven saws ranked.

A circular saw is the saw you will use most if you build anything structural. The 5007F is Makita's long-running corded sidewinder: 15 A, a 7-1/4 in. blade, and LED lights on the cut line. It rips a 4x4 post in two passes and crosscuts 2x lumber in one. Pair it with the Kreg Accu-Cut below and it makes straight plywood cuts that are fine for shop cabinets and paint-grade work.

What it will not do is plunge mid-panel or leave a splinter-free edge on veneer without a sacrificial board or masking tape. That gap is exactly what the track saw exists to close. At about $159 at the time of writing, it is the circular saw we would buy first regardless of which side of this page you land on.

The WEN is the cheapest real answer to "do I need a track saw." Put it on a rail and the cut is straight and mostly splinter-free, which is a bigger jump from a freehand circular saw than the jump from this to the Makita. At about $100 at the time of writing it costs about half of what the Kreg Accu-Cut kit does, so if you do not own a circular saw yet and mostly cut plywood, it is a better buy than a guide system.

What you give up is refinement: the plunge is stiff, the depth stop drifts, and you will be sweeping up after it. It is a starter track saw, and a good one.

The DWE575SB is the circular saw to buy if you want the brake and a lighter saw for a tool you use twice a month. It cuts 2-9/16 in. deep, weighs 8.8 lb, and has an electric brake, which is a real safety upgrade on a saw you set down between cuts. It is a very good saw for about $141 at the time of writing.

On a guide, check that the shoe sits flat in the sled before every session; a stamped shoe can shift if you lean on it. Either saw rides the Accu-Cut sled.

Track saws are slow at repeat rips because the rail has to be repositioned and re-measured for every strip. The Rip-Cut side-steps that: set the width once, hook the guide on the factory edge, and rip strip after strip at the same width. Kreg no longer lists the Rip-Cut on its own on Amazon, so the kit with the Accu-Cut track is how you buy it, and at about $190 at the time of writing it covers the one job a track saw does worse than a circular saw.

The Accu-Cut half of the kit is the answer to "can a circular saw with a guide replace a track saw": mostly, for crosscuts, on a budget. The saw sits in a sled that rides an aluminum track, the anti-chip strips keep the keeper side clean, and the anti-slip backing holds without clamps. What it is not: a plunge saw, a dust-collecting saw, or a guaranteed splinter-free edge on both sides. Add a 15 A circular saw and you have about $330 to $350 of sheet-goods capability: the track for crosscuts, the edge guide for rips.