PRO on a Budget! RIDGID 18V Brushless Track Saw Review [R48630]

The RIDGID 18V Brushless Track Saw is perfect for cutting down sheet goods; much easier than trying to muscle a 4’x8′ sheet of 3/4″ plywood through a table saw. We even used this RIDGID R48630 track saw to cut some 8/4 (2″) thick Purpleheart hardwood. For $399, you get the RIDGID 18V Track Saw and two 27-1/2″ tracks. #tools #ridgidtools #review

RIDGID R48630 18V Track Saw:

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Does ridgid's tracka saww have the Performance and the features to compare With some of the [Music] Best this rigid track saw is not brand Brand new but it's only been out a Couple of months now but does it have The power to cut through some of the Toughest wood and does it have the Features to make you comfortable and Happy this is the rigid 18vt track saww And specifically it's the model number R 48630 runs on their 18vt platform so It's a cordless saw brushless motor and You get two 27 1/2 in tracks with it as Well these tracks are made of aluminum So two of them there uh both of them Identical except for the rigid logo is Only on one of the tracks not sure why But anyway you also get these two Connectors here that connect the tracks And make sure when you get it out of the Box that all four of your uh Allen head Screws are in each one make sure they're Not loose in the Box they shouldn't be But just wanted to give you that advice And then you get one clamp as well I do Wish they added two clamps to that um or Added one clamp so you had two clamps Because if you're clamping one side I Get it maybe you could hold the other um And the uh the non-skid tape on the Bottom should hold it pretty pretty well But if you're going to have a clamp it

Would make sense to have it at each end Anyway regardless I'm glad they added a Clamp in there period you get a 4 to Blade with this as well 6 and 1/2 in Blade so 6 and 1/2 in plunge saw and the Cool thing about this there's several Cool things but one thing to notice it Is a true plunge saw because you get the Plunging uh riving knife as well so the Ring knife is going to go down with the Blade sometimes you'll see some pseudo Trols or they call it a traa and that Ring knife seems to be below that blade So you really can't plunge with it so This is a true plung saw now right now It's kind of in a maintenance mode and That's why it's kind of hovering down Right here uh if I take that out of the Maintenance mode or the setup mode or The blade change mode all I have to do Is pull this back to the saw blade and Now this raises up and so now to plunge All I have to do is this little unlock Tool which by the way really easy to Push you can see with my thumb there and You can see what's happening up here There's a little Chrome lock right there When I push This see that go up and that's what Unlocks so right now it's locked raise That up and now it plunges down and I'll Show you what I'm talking about with the Ring knife so now unlock and as I push Down you see the ring knife is coming

Down with the Blade and we'll see it more in action as We're using it and also you'll see if I Hold my finger there uh that ring knife Will also basically stay put until it Cuts the track with the blade and then It will go down into that track this Little window right here is so you can Look and you'll see your saw blade I'll Show you after we have it installed and It just kind of shows what your depth of Cut is which Speaking of depth of cut That's one of the really nice features On this saw uh much like the Milwaukee and that is very easy to read And you wonder why do you have a set of White numbers and a set of orange Numbers well I'm glad you asked so Basically we can do a at least I think It was about a 2 and 1/2 in plunge cut More than 2 and a/4 But that's without the track on there so The orange numbers are for if you're not Using a track which as you can see it's At least a/4 inch tall and that's going To give you the ability to cut deeper if You are using the track then you use and You can see a little track symbol right Here use the white so if you want to cut A 1 and 1/2 in depth of cut then you can Set it right there and if you want a one And A2 without the track you set it Right there so really easy to read and Easy to operate this just push the

Button locks into place at 1 in on the Track and you're good to go with a 1in Cut so really easy to operate that depth Of cut obviously max depth of cut at 2 And8 in or 2 and a/4 in um with the Track in place I believe uh the uh box Actually says Max of Cut 2 and8 in at 90° here on the rear of the saw we have Two Allen wrenches one of those is going To be for installing your blade we'll Use that here in a moment this other Allen Rich right here that's for Actually putting your tracks together so You can see right there so I like that I Like that this is not just hovering Around somewhere in the original box but It's actually on board the tool and Ready for you to use that when you need It you have a dust Port right here and That's going to swivel so it goes into The place where you need it sounds like It's got some detents in there as well It kind of locks in where you want it Also you're going to get a an internal Port of I believe 1 and 1/4 in and External of 1 and 78 so fits a lot of Your different hoses and you get an Arbor lock right here so you can push That when you're actually want to Tighten that blade or remove the blade And then for bevel Cuts bevel cuts are Very easy you have a little thumb screw Here on the front and the back and That's basically just to kind of lock it

Into place or tighten into place uh and When you want to Bevel you can fill little detents at 22 1/2 So at zero 22 and2 there's a small Detent at 45 there's a detent and if we Want to go beyond 45 we can go up to a 47 in then all I have to do is flip this Little lever right here to 47 and now That'll let me go on over to 47 I can Crank this down to tighten it and now I Can go at 47° loosen this up go back Over take it back to 45 and now now the Max is going to be at 45 also you can go to -1 as well so we Can go from -1 all the way to 47 now to Get the ne1 there's a little slide Button right here and so I need to slide This back and that lets me come on over To that negative one and then when I'm Done there just bring it on up and now That's going to take us back to zero so Again push it back let's just go to Negative 1 and then come come back and it's Automatically going to stop at zero now We get a magnesium base as well as a Magnesium Cover and on the Magnesium base we have Two knobs here now what that's going to Do that's going to tighten the friction On the track when we get it on the track And I'll show you what I'm talking about

Right here so you see these little cam Tabs right there so when I turn that That basically is is providing more Pressure against the side of the uh Ridge on the track and again keeping That more more secure so you can take it To where you don't have any slop in that Side to side Movement just by using that little cam Feature there so you can see when I'm on The track this will be pressed here and Then as I turn this it's actually Applying more and more Pressure against that Track and what we have right here is an Anti-tip feature now what this is for When you're cutting and you're cutting At a 90 there's probably a slim chance That you're actually going to you know Provide enough side force that it's Going to going to tip out of the track However if you're cutting out a Bevel so now you've got a lot of weight Leaned out there kind of away from the Base of that in fact if I just let it go It's falling away that's without the Blade in it so what you can do is slide This out and you can see the little Tongue that sticks out and it actually Locks that into the track and still Slides but now it's not going to tip Over because you've got something Holding there so even though there's Weight out there and even adding a

Battery and and a blade you're going to Have a lot of weight out there but the Saw is going to stay there because of That anti-tip feature now let's go ahead And install this blade and to do that if We take a look here at the saw again We're going to go to this little uh Maintenance icon or the little wrench Icon and I'm going to push that forward And so I have to push it down and you'll See once I get to a certain spot it Locks in and if I turn this around You'll see that the arbor screw right There is lined up with that hole so Again push it here and again it's now Locked in I have to push this to get Here but there's no detents there but if I just flip that forward now my lock is Automatically unlocked and all I have to Do is push it forward and that locks it There now I can go on forward again and Get all the way down here and lock it And now it's locked all the way up so if I want to put that in a box or something Like that that kind of gives it it most Common compact uh capability of course That's without the blade in it right now If had the blade in it we would have it Sticking all the way down Here so we're going to go Back and now flip it again and stop at The first Detent and let's get this blade in since This is a blade right saw meaning when

We're using it the blade is on the right Hand side that means That our screw or bolt that retains the Blade is going to be standard right-and Thread or righty tidy Lefty Loosey and Not the Opposite slide that up there make sure You get it on the Arbor and then also make sure your Washer locks in because it is keyed in Two different Spots and we'll push the arbor lock There Tighten That replace our allen wrench by the way You always want to do that without a Battery in it as you See and now we're ready to cut and by The way with our brushless motor and our 6 amp hour battery we're going to turn This 6 and 1/2 in blade for up to 5,000 RPM and we should have plenty of power To make Cuts but let's go See so we've got the track that actually Comes with with the rigid track allw This is the 27 1/2 in long one we get Two of these and then I've also got an Option that you can buy you can buy the 60-in track as well um you can also buy This in a kit I believe with it or or Bundled or something like that but Anyway wanted to show you both if you're Going to be breaking down a lot of sheet Goods making a lot of long cuts um would

Highly recommend getting you a one piece Longer or a 60in at least uh track now The rigid track is specific to the rigid Saw the rigid will not work on a Milwaukee track or RI track or a Fest Tool track or a Makita track it's going To be specific to their track now They're making a very nice track the Other interesting thing here is that With the rigid track even though again Our saw will not work on a Milwaukee Track the Milwaukee Clamp does work with the rigid track so You can see I can slide that in and We're going to be able to use the Milwaukee clamp so these are a little Bit beefier than the included rigid Clamp probably don't need a lot of Pressure but if you already have or you Want the Milwaukee clamps they will work With the rigid track now again I'm very Happy with the makeup of the rigid track We get two of these Teflon strips right Here and that's where the the saw Actually rides so you can see that Tongue right there fits in that Ridge or That grp groove on the Magnesium plate Or base and that slides very easy now Let me show you how to adjust This this is not rocket science but I Just want to show you how we adjust it So I'm going to loosen these up so That's kind of as Loose as it gets and You can

See we can get a little bit of Deflection on the track here and it Glides really really easy so what we do Is we just turn this we slide this until We get enough friction where it almost Doesn't want to easily go and then we Just back off a touch to where it still Glides but we get no deflection from Side to side so now to me that's ready To go it's going to be nice and straight And make your straight cuts and this is Also where this little slide out tab That anti-tip feature so you can see That engaged not engaged the saw will Actually come off of the Track so as a safety measure you may Want to always just kind of flip that And then that's kind of now one with the Track wherever it goes and any side Pressure it's actually going to be Locked into Place keep in mind this little piece of Rubber here on the right hand side that Is made to line up with the exact place Where you want this blade to go now this Blade is actually going to ride right Against that rubber uh they call this The Splinter guard now there's no way to Manufacture this to make this exact to Whatever saw is put on here even though It's the same saw every time so what They do is this actually protrudes Further than where it should be and so You're going to make a sacrificial cut

On the first cut that's literally going To make this be right flush against the Blade on your specific Saw so your first cut should always be Not on the stock you're trying trying to Cut but into some foam board or just Hang it off the edge and we'll show you Here in a moment okay so we've Got our track off the edge of our Material going to take our Saw put it in our track now we do want To back this up to where we're sure that It's actually going to cut all the way Through and all the way down the end of That Material [Applause] So you see there when I come down the Ring knife actually goes down to the Blade let me pull this battery out the Battery's out so you'll see here if this Were a solid piece of wood we weren't Cut yet it would still push that ring Knife up until I got down in the slot And then it would actually come out and Get down there and do what it should Do I'd probably recommend to actually be On a piece of foam board that would help Uh secure that uh Splinter guard as You're cutting It but as you can see now it's Tred up Exactly to our Blade [Music]

[Applause] [Music] [Applause] One of the great things about using a Tracks saww is I don't have to take a Straight edge and draw a complete line Where I want my cut to be you absolutely Can but as you can see I've just got a Little crows foot right here right here And over there really I could do two and Have a straight line you know two points Uh one plane anyway and all I have to do Is line up the actual cut Edge on the Actual point where I want now keep in Mind everything is going to be cut right Of our Splinter edge here our Splinter Guard um so The Edge that it's on Obviously the Blade's going to ride on The right hand side of that so Understand that when you're marking out Your sheet make sure you're not Overlapping those cuts you're going to Lose that eighth of an inch or so uh so I'm just going to put this on those Points and again if I trust my marks I Don't have to break out my tape measure Now if you want to double check triple Check you can still run a tape measure To the edge of the Guard or edge of the Track and you're good to go and I'm not Using any clamps here I'm actually just Using uh this tape here on the bottom There's like foam pieces and it grips Quite well so you can see really doesn't

Move around if you got a really dirty Surface you may want to use clamps or You may just want to clean it and then All you have to do is apply a little Pressure and it really doesn't want to Move so I'm going to use this without Any clamps on this first cut put my saw On make sure again my friction is set Where I want It I'm at 0° bevel and I got my depth Set where I want it I'm cutting some 3/4 In birch plywood so not the toughest Stuff but definitely not just a/ quarter Inch you know bundle of Sheet so I'm going to back this up now I Could start right here and plunge it Fact I'll do that So I'm going to stop right there you can See already we're getting plenty of dust Here so let's hook up some dust dust Extraction and see how much of that we Pull [Music] Away now I'm going to back my saw all The way up to the edge and start Over [Music] So you see we're still getting a little Bit of dust to the right front of the Blade even with the extraction On but it's not a [Music] Lot And you see we're all the way through

Our material nothing hanging on There so we definitely pulled away the Majority of the Dust but we still have Some residual I didn't expect this to be You know a Fest tool that's going to Cost you twice as much money I didn't Expect that but it is pulling the Majority of everything nothing's coming Out in the back of the saw everything's Coming out somewhere around here uh so There could be some better extraction But again I think for the money you'll Be impressed with this so just just Wanted to let you know there is a bit of Residual but not a lot now there's my Stupidity right there not continuing the Cut and finishing that cut and now I've Ruined that piece of plywood on that end Now I do have a little bit of Splintering not bad at all I think a Better blade would probably remedy most Of that but all that should be an easy Sand to uh to clean that up we'll go for Another round on this Birch [Music] [Applause] And this time we're clean Through after we turned the extractor on Again we got a lot of it removed again Just a tiny bit of splintering there but A better blade again is probably going To be the answer to That now we're going to give the rigid a

True workout on this uh Purple Heart This is every bit of 84 so 2 in thick Yeah little more than 2 in thick on this Purple heart I forget the janga score on This like 16 million no 16,000 or Something like that anyway probably one Of the hardest of anything that's Actually available for the most part Really pretty stuff too but anyway let's Give this a cut and see what we think Going to max out our depth here going to Go all the way Down and I would recommend before you Make Cuts like that and cutting into Your tables that you make sure your Depth is going to be about [Music] [Applause] Right A Yeah [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] W [Applause] [Music] A so a few saw marks from the starts and Stops on that purple heart so I Definitely recommend having a a full Battery before you start something this Hard uh and then that would eliminate Those start and stop marks there but That could be sanded out also still

Impressed that this saw would cut this Purple heart that is some really hard Stuff I did have to replace the battery Put another battery in it cuz it did Overheat but I literally it took about 15 seconds to swap that out and then it Was back and Going we're very impressed with the Rigid tracks all there's a lot of great Features on this first off the Deflection on the track is dead on in Other words there's hardly any if at all You can really tune this to Glide very Well on the track at the same time have No deflection left or right now I think A better blade would be in store and if You're using this for Hardwoods would Definitely recommend that and I think That's really going to help in Performance as well as when you're Actually cutting and that ease of cut as Well as less splintering in the end as Well now if it cut through this purple Heart then it can cut through probably Just about anything you're going to be Cutting did it struggle in doing so yes It did it actually cut out because the Battery overheated because the battery Still showed two cells but it was very Hot to the touch literally threw another Battery right on it the saw kicked back On and cut right through with no problem At all now that was after we had cut a Lot of the sheet Goods uh but still

There was life left in the battery I'm Just recommending if you are going to Start a really hard cut into some really Thick hard wood uh number one better Blade that's going to help and number Two get a fresh battery when you start Now otherwise The Cutting was very well Again it cut right through I couldn't Push it really really hard but I gave it A nice steady pace and it cut through This purple heart so cutting any miters And some typical 2 by Lumber is going to Be no problem for this and cutting your Sheet Goods it's really going to speed Things up and it's a lot easier to cut Sheet Goods on a table than it is to Muscle around a 4×8 or 4×10 uh sheet of Plywood or sheet Goods around on a table Saw and probably less dangerous as well Now pricing on this is $399 for the kit now that kit is tool Only per se not a battery so it comes With the saw and two of these 27 1/2 in Tracks now I would highly recommend Again if you're going to be cutting down Sheet Goods or even you know long Lumber That invest in a longer Tru back it's Definitely going to save you time and You're going to get a trer cut can you Put these together and get them nice and Straight yes you can in fact I would Recommend that when you do that put them Together Loosely and then lay them on a Level or up against another straight

Edge and get those dead straight and Make sure after you clamp them down nice And tight that it stayed nice straight And true but again if you're going to be Making a lot of long cuts highly Recommend you getting a longer track to Do so then you're not worried about Where that Junction may be or if it's Going to actually you know cut out a Line or not now also notice they sell a Kit form with a battery and a charger as Well and I think it's somewhere around The $600 Mark however here's what I Would recommend because rid's always uh Running some specials on batteries and Tools things like that you can buy this Bare tool for $399 and then for $179 you can buy 4 a hour battery a 6 Amp hour battery and a charger and you Get to choose a free tool as well well So that's four things you're getting for That $179 that will be able to power your Tracks saww as well as give you another Tool to use also hey be sure to check This out for yourself also keep track of Us on Instagram Facebook Twitter and Even Tik Tok and if you don't mind hit That like And subscribe button if you Haven't done so already and by all means If you hated our video well give us a Thumbs down but would you let us know in The comments why have a great day keep Smiling