Black & Decker's 14.4V Cordless Circular Saw - Cuts through 3 whole pieces of wood!
Written: Jun 09 '03 (Updated Jun 09 '03)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Inexpensive and perfectly suited for small household jobs
Cons: 4-6 hours of charge gives you 4-6 minutes of use.
The Bottom Line: Only one thing keeps the B&D 14.4V Cordless Circular Saw from being irreplaceable. But that one thing is more than enough to send you back to the Returns counter.
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| orien4794's Full Review: Black & Decker 14.4V Cordless Circular Saw CS144 |
Even now, I salivate just thinking about it. As I wipe the Pavlovian drool from the side of my mouth I can almost feel it in my mind's hand. Smooth. Sleek. Sturdy and ready for punishment. $5000 worth of unadulterated spending potential that only a brand spanking new Lowe's credit card can bring.
Just days before, we had written the last of the 35 bad checks that it took to close on our new house and now we stood, poised breathlessly in the automatic doorway, gazing in at a veritable sky-scraping metropolis of shelves packed to the brim with the stuff of Bob Villa's wettest dreams.
With a quick nod to my wife, and the giggle of a school girl, off we shot like rockets. She, toward bath and bed and I, with open arms, toward Hardware!
Row after row of mechanical bliss, peg board upon peg board of industrial heaven and there in the middle of it all was a black (and decker) plastic carrying case, avec familiar orange handle on display with the numbers $110 just beneath. WOOHOO!
How could it be!? With a huge margin of difference in price from it's neighbors (nearly $70 from the saw next door), the B&D "Firestorm" Circular Saw flirted relentlessly as it promised me 14.4 volts of cutting power, 5 - 3/8" - 16 tooth carbide tipped blades, a trademarked Sightline window for maximum visibility of cutline, attached blade wrench, durable molded rubber handle and all with no cords attached.
The B&D "Firestorm" 14.4V Cordless Circular Saw was the inaugural item on a DIY campaign that prompted my credit card file to for an immediate divorce.
However, as I was to find out the very next day, "No Cords Attached" does not necessarily mean no strings attached. I followed the enclosed directions to the letter as I let the battery charge overnight before embarking on my Home Improvement bender. I slept the sleep of adolescent Christmas Eve and the next morning I bound from my bed and made for the battery charger. I heard the rattle of wood as our new floor boards shivered in fear of the "Firestorm". I slipped the battery into the bottom of the unit, grabbed hold of the Molded rubber handle and up came that piercing metallic cry of carbide tipped sweetness and I lowered the saw onto my 1/4" victim.
Like Buttah! Just like I thought it would, the blade screamed 4 feet through the wood in no time flat and I was off! Down came the second ply and again I ripped through likety-split (it occurs to me I've never spelled the word "likety". I digress.)
Down came the 3rd and 4th ply and just about the time when my nearly orgasmic fit of home improvement reached a fevered pitch, the scream of the blade became a yell, the yell became a holler, the holler became a moan, the moan a whisper and the whisper...nothing.
Time? 20 minutes. Suddenly, I watched the items on my to-do list laugh, point and disappear into "some other time".
All drama aside I could not have been more disappointed. I literally got 20 minutes out of this saw and it was back to the charger for another 4 - 6 hours. Since that day we've aided this problem by adding another 2 batteries to our arsenal for a grand total of about an hour and a half of cutting time.
Without a doubt, the Black and Decker "Firestorm" Circular Saw is sturdy, well built, light weight, convenient and very easy to use. While you're fully juiced and feverishly cutting, you'll pat yourself on the back for your bargain shopping prowess. A nice predecessor to the kick in the butt that you'll give yourself a half hour later.
The "Firestorm" brand also found it's way onto several other pieces that don't suck up battery power nearly as quickly as the Circular Saw. The Firestorm Sawzall gives you a solid half day of work, the Screwdriver will last you for days and the "Firestorm" flashlight will light up a couple months worth of power outages.
But unless you have just about a half hour's worth of cuts to make, you're probably going to want something a little more...plugged in.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
orien4794
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Member: Ron
Location: Woodstock, New York
Reviews written: 15
Trusted by: 4 members
About Me:
Goodbye e-pinions!! Be well!
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