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Dewalt has recently announced a new 20V Max brushless 3-inch cut-off tool, model DCS438, that’s designed for cutting a variety of materials.
The new Dewalt cordless cut-off tool can cut materials such as metal, drywall, fiber cement, plastic, tile, and stone.
It can deliver up to 550 Watts of max output (tested with a DCB203 2.0Ah battery), and can cut in both forward and reverse blade directions.
The bi-directional cutting action is useful as it lets users push or pull the saw, depending on how they want to control a cut. At least, this is how it was explained when Milwaukee Tool released the first bi-directional cut-off saw 3 years ago.
Dewalt Cordless 3″ Cut-Off Tool Features & Specs
- 3-inch blade size
- 3/8″ arbor size
- 7/16″ arbor adapter
- Brushless motor
- 550 W max power output
- 20,000 RPM no-load
- 0.79″ max depth of cut
- Forward and reverse cutting directions
- Removable dust shroud
- Tool-free adjustable guard
- Onboard blade wrench storage
- Dewalt AirLock dust vac connection
- LED light
- Tool Connect Chip-Ready (for tracking)
The cut-off tool will ship with 3 cutting wheels – a bonded abrasive wheel, a diamond multi-material wheel, and a diamond tile wheel.
Price: TBA
ETA: Q4 2021
Dewalt says that the new cut-off tool will be available as a bare tool later this year. More details, such as pricing information, will be available at that time.
Discussion
I would think that the bonded abrasive wheel is for cutting metal, the diamond multi-material wheel for cutting drywall, fiber cement, and plastic, and the diamond tile blade is self-explanatory.
So why would you want a tool like this? Cut-off tools are said to be great for cutting sheet materials, such as drywall, tile, and fiber cement, and also cylindrical materials such as conduit, threaded rod, PVC, and other types of building materials.
The cut-off tool was announced at this year’s Fabtech conference, which targets metal forming, fabrication, welding, and finishing professionals. It does seems like a good fit for metal fabrication work, as a compact and light one-handed tool for quick and controlled cutting tasks.
It’s interesting that Dewalt went with the 20V Max battery form factor here, rather than 12V Max. Their max power output has a footnote saying this spec was determined during testing with a compact 2.0Ah battery, but there’s also the option to use larger batteries for longer runtime.
