Crafts­man 207.25530 Elec­tric Hand Saw

I recently had the oppor­tu­nity to try out this handy lit­tle skill saw on the Bun­galoft remodel project. I had a few pieces of ply­wood to cut so I gave it a spin.

The saw has a great retro look with its all alu­minum case. It has a nice feel to the alu­minum han­dle and the switch falls right into place under your index fin­ger. The well thought out front knob fits neatly into the palm of your hand and makes you feel like a car­pen­ter before you have even switched on the saw. It’s plenty beefy too — good for hold­ing down that pesky warped plywood.

The Sears Crafts­man Model 207.25530 comes with a really cool, all-metal, lift-top case that includes a stor­age area under­neath the saw for man­u­als, blades and tools. So, before com­menc­ing work, I con­sulted the blade col­lec­tion to  the proper one for the task.

Find­ing the right blade.

Right on the back of a blade sleeve is this handy blade selec­tion chart. Just go down the list until you find the right choice.  Looks like the Chromedge Ply Tooth blade should make the cut. Using the con­ve­niently sup­plied wrench pair, I installed the blade and set up to make the first slice.  Much to their credit, Sears chose to keep the cost of the blade low by avoid­ing the unnec­es­sary extrav­a­gance of car­bide tips or the addi­tional expense of pro­vid­ing ade­quate set to the steel blade teeth. So it’s use­ful to keep a wedge handy to pre­vent blade from bind­ing in the saw kerf just in case the wood has a bit of personality.

Depth of cut adjustment

After set­ting blade depth with this cool, chrome-plated adjust­ment knob, I plugged in the saw and let her rip. The saw cut nicely with only a lit­tle bit of smoke emerg­ing from the cut. Sure enough, the wedge came in handy to help com­plete the cut. All-in-all, a sat­is­fac­tory expe­ri­ence right out of the box.

For every­one from the week­end wood butcher to the McMan­sion­ista, this tool deliv­ers with­out com­plaint. If you can get your hands on one of these pup­pies you won’t be disappointed.