ALDI Workzone Twin Blade Saw (Feb 2015)

Excellent tool for little mess – I have been using this twin blade saw, may be with enough experience with the tool to provide an opinion. It is 550W counter-rotating blade circular saw (240V). I found that it is very handy to cut board less than 25 mm thick (practically the depth is~ 16mm once the shoes attached (the guide to allow sliding on work piece 's surface), the cut is 4mm wide, a bit wide cut but due to the thickness of two blades (~2mm each).

The saw cut is very clean on both side of the cut board. I use mostly for wood and particle boards but it is supposedly working ok with plastic board (need to use the lube stick on the blade to avoid sticking).

I read a number of reviews on twin-blade saws (in general) and noticed that people do have over-heating problem due to the possibility of blade rubbing. I did not find this to be a problem for this tool, may be I was conscious enough about this issue and did not overwork the machine. During cutting, I would advise not to cut too fast, especially for thick piece and always wear safety gears (eg hearing protection and safety glass - but wearing thick gloves may interfere with the power trigger).

Due to its blade counter rotating nature, the cutting forces acting on the teeth are cancelling out so it has veritually no kick-back. It is rather noisy and due to the amount of material to be removed (4mm wide cut) quite a bit of saw dust. As the result it is advisable to cut at location where you can clean up conveniently (eg near a door or in the garden). A spacing tool was provided with the saw to guide the cut if required. Also a couple of lube sticks to be used on non-wood material (I have never tried).

The following list is the pros and cons that I can think off. The positive points, to me is well out-weight the negative aspects. BTW I use this tool a lot and now hardly use the normal bigger single blade circular saws.

Pros:

- Clean cuts: the best feature

- No kick back due to counter-reaction of the blades

- Compact design and light enough to handle

- Good handle positioning for firm grips

Cons:

- Noisy (beware when power on)

- Make a bit of saw dust

- The cut is wide (4mm) so need to make allowance to suit the project

- Limit to 25 mm depth

- Does not have the connection for saw dust (but normal circular saw usually do not have this)

Wish List:

- It should be nice to get a battery-powered version (eg using the common Titanium 20V Li-ion pack)

- A deeper cut would be nice