Yes, I saw this on an infomercial this morning, which automatically sends me careening toward the junk side of the genius-junk continuum. Still, I can’t help but wonder if this thing has a place in the shop. The ad shows it plowing through metal and wood in what appears to be a relatively controlled manner — but then shows it cutting tomatoes and eggs, which seems pretty damn jackass. Read on for the details.
The basics: It’s a 4.5″ (read: trim-sized) circ saw featuring counterrotating blades. The manufacturer claims that the dual-blade design reduces kickback force, spark output, and vibrations, making it easier to make precision cuts. Somehow I have trouble considering anything cutting with this wide a kerf “precision.” But not everything in the shop needs to be (or starts out to be) precision-cut. This reminds me of terminology you see in the specs of plasma cutters all the time: There’s “cutting,” which means leaving both sides of the cut with a relatively straight, finished edge, and there’s “severing,” which means hacking the damn thing into two pieces which you can clean up later if you wish. If this were a good tool for “severing” bits of steel or wood (or other stuff), it might not be a bad deal.
Pricing is a bit of an issue, though: $120 seems steep for something like this, especially with no brand backing to give us any idea of quality. (Hey — I’m as against buying tools “by color” as you should be. But with no other information on which to judge, what do we do?) Replacement parts might be an issue, too, if the company bites the dust or abandons the project. Now that I think about it, I’d really like to know how blade life stacks up as well.
What do you think? Have any of you actually used this thing? Or maybe more to the point: Would we be better served with one of the many multi-material circ saws out there?
The DualSaw [Corporate Site]
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23 Responses to Genius or Junk? The Dual Saw
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Rigid makes one for about $150 as I recall. So you’ve got your brand backing, but I’m still not sure if it’s a good idea or not. Maybe for rough cuts through sheets of material, but I don’t know
Rigid’s take on it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnWtLa4qrvg
http://www.toolsnob.com/archives/2011/02/ridgid_dual_blade_saw.php
Craftsman has their Twin Cutter as well. Slightly larger bladed, looks to be based on an angle grinder.
I’ve got one, a Craftsman. It’s loud and throws some fierce debris around but I really like it.
They are selling them at Costco now.
Harbor Freight has their version for under $90. $30-40 for a set of blades tho.
Don’t buy the Harbor Freight one, it’s a cheap copy – saw one of those “unboxing” power tool demos on YouTube and it burned up on the first use. The actual DUALSAW brand is pretty reliable. Use the code NOSHIP on the website to get free shipping, there are lots of promos on the Facebook page.
A friend of mine has one. Limited uses where it is really needed, but he says it does work really good and the quality of it seems to be up to snuff so far.
I’ve worked with the Ridgid one on a couple jobs. I’d say it’s a pretty decent tool since it doesn’t kickback and cut quickly. The only drawback I’ve found so far is the depth of cut that won’t exceed about 1″ with a 5″ blade so it’s useless if you work with framing lumber. On the other hand, it’s probably the best tool I’ve found to cut corrugated steel and sheet metal. The best feature of this saw? It cuts pretty much anything like wood, plastic, ferrous and non-ferrous metals, and all that with the same blade. You can say the same with any other circ saw or even a grinder…
You can find videos for many brands on YouTube. Canadian Tire has their model: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsif7IEe_D8
There are a lot of good tool videos on this guy’s YT channel too – I assume it’s a guy. It says ‘mostly tools’.
I’ve had the Craftsman version for several years now. It’s surprisingly clean cutting, leaving practically no burrs on the cuts, where an abrasive cutting disk leaves burned flash behind. It cuts remarkably fast through most material, even steel bar stock over an inch thick. The only real problem with the tool is the operation is entirely freehand. If you can steady the tool and cut square along your lines, you’ll have little cleanup work afterward. Very little if any sparking results when cutting steel, but the thing spews hot chips in both directions tangentially from the cut. Safety glasses and gloves are a must, and don’t think of working alongside someone less than 30 feet away, they could be showered with hot chips.
I haven’t used one but I’ve heard good things, especially with thin aluminum or steel or copper pipe.
All I can do is laugh when I read”I bought one”
We had a tool Rep come out to our job site and let 12 of us put this THING to a hands on,in the field test. After two hours,the REP said he was convinced that he would never be able to sell this item to any one with any real tool experience. There was not one demonstration that he tried, that couldn’t be completed better and faster with a simple 5″ Grinder.
I still laugh about it when I see one in the store, because that’s the only place you will ever see one.
I’d rather buy a Dremel Saw Max
Saw an infomercial yesterday for one of these under a big name brand which my old memory just can’t recall at the moment. I’ve lloked at HF version just to see what the operation of the thing really was. I pondered for some time before deciding I already had a separate tool for anything this tool might accomplish. Gene’s 5″ angle grinder would easily do most anything this device could do – besides, it don’t have a laser so it must be junk! Someone had to say it.
I remember this. Its origins were shown on the TV show “Pitchmen” in 2009, developed by a fireman/rescue worker who wanted a low-spark, low-kickback saw that could be used at rescue sites, eg. a car crash, to cut open cars, and then rescue victims without potentially setting leaking automotive fluids on fire or injuring the operator (or victims) by bucking hard when trying to saw through the metal pillars of a vehicle. Just one of the many uses the inventor demonstrated to the Pitchmen when they decided to accept his invention.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVajnagPUYw
Dual Saw was named Omni by Infusion Brands International, Inc. run Robert Dececco Ceo & President of infusion just renamed the saw & moved the Company from Van Nuys Ca.
to Clearwater Florida when he had gotten to Many Complaints from Customers Filed with the Better Business Bureau 148 to be Exact!
Do a search at BBB or here:
http://www.corporationwiki.com/Florida/Tampa/infusion-brands-international-inc/28453620.aspx
Take out spaces when Pasting except Hyphenations on bottom line.
Follow links:
This Company & SAWs are (JUNK) BAD NEWS!
You can Also see the other Boggis Companies this Robert Dececco owns: even the BBB Complaints says the Warrenties aren’t ever covered,Phone #’s are NOT any good or just Won’t be Answered…EVER And some People were Told The Do NOT give RMA’s even if You just received the Saw & decided you don’t won’t it even though their Website DualSAw dot Com say they”l refund If your Not Happy? BULLS..T!
Don’t Buy!!!!!
I had the Craftsman version years ago, had to be at least 10 years ago. I burned up the gearbox on some steel computer floor tiles. It worked great, until it didn’t. It made big hot chips. I guess they put them to bed until they thought people forgot about them.
I have been thinking about one of those metal cutting circular saws, but I balk at it whenever I think about the nuclear swarf those carbide blades produced.
@DW
We’ve been using a 9 inch Evolution amd a look-a-like Morse CSM9MB saw and a Milwaukee 8 inch Metal Cutting – with Morse Metal Devil metal-cutting blades for some years now to cut metal decking. The Evolution saw is a bit gimmicky and you can’t get away with tossing them in the back of the truck – but with some TLC and enough spare blades – they work OK at controlling flying hot debris to a minimum. Morse says that their saw has a 30 minute duty cycle – but our experience is that the blade is the limitation
I used one for a few minutes and will never do so again. First the noise. Goodness gracious! I had in foam ear plugs and muffs over that and it was still shrieking. Second – control. With a regular rotating tool, it is easy to anticipate which way the wheel will “pull” with this monstrosity, at will, it would jerk one way or another. Last, the debris flying all over sent some bystanders running for cover.
Garbage. In a word.
Interesting idea, but I’d say it’s not really a regular use tool, more like something in line with a specialty rescue-oriented purpose. Great for sawing someone out of their car or something, probably not the best tool for just cutting pipe.
I would have bought one year ago, until I saw the price of the replacement blade pairs…2/3 the price of the saw itself. Then there were the lube sticks, and once those were on clearance you knew you’d never be able to buy them again. Maybe for $29.99 it would be worth a few cuts, but for the $99-399 these things were selling at, I could buy two angle grinders and a lot of cutting discs. Or just a good ‘ol chop saw.