Carpenter Phil Edwards checks out the brushless circular saw from Draper for Professional Builder.
I recently got my hands on the new brushless circular saw from Draper, which is part of its D20 20 volt range of cordless tools that has been released close to the company’s 100 years anniversary.
Brands are making their impact on the market with brushless tools, these tools are designed with professionals and passionate builders in mind, bringing the power of 20v cordless tools without the high price tag.
First impressions of the tool were positive. Comfortable handle grips with rubber moulds and simplistic design. Although no carry case is provided with the tool, it is easy enough to carry and store. With the unit included is a 3ah battery, 240v charger, guide and dust port. [It was supplied with 3.0Ah battery & fast charger (00594) OR, as part of the D20 range, for those who already have D20 batteries and charger, can be purchased as bare tool (55519).]
The electric brake was very impressive, it allows the user to immediately stop the blade when the trigger is released, this is a perfect example of a good safety feature and allows the user to have full control of the tool should something occur while cutting through material.
For strength and durability, I performed a test in my workshop, cutting through 5×2 C16 treated timber, a common material found for first fixing in construction to see how many cuts a fully charged 3ah battery could handle.
It managed 82 cuts of the material, although along the way of using this tool I noticed a few things which I need to bring to attention. First of all is the power was lacking for what I wanted. I was having to take it slow on the cutting because under load, the motor was cutting out through pressure. This is not something I would have expected from a 20v brushless tool.
Another is there is no LED light, something that could have very easily been introduced in the manufacturing stage. An LED light illuminates the blade cutting area letting the user clearly see the cut line.
Draper has big competition to battle against in the market of cordless tools, and I think maybe their target consumer might be the light duty worker or someone who need the tool for small projects, this is because of its reasonable pricing and 20v platform range of tools where their batteries can operate in other Draper D20 tools.
