Review: Dewalt DWE575 Circular Saw

The Dewalt DWE575 circular saw is a lighter weight, no frills saw from Dewalt and it has a pretty good reputation with people that use it. Let’s take a closer look at this one.

Cutting Power & Motor

For a smaller circular saw this one has pretty good cutting power. It has a 15 amp, 120 volt motor that can spin the blade at a no-load speed of 5200 RPM. It draws a max of 1,800 watts of power. This saw has a brushed motor, which means it won’t be as power efficient as a brushless motor and can require maintenance on the brushes over time.

This saw has good enough power for medium to light duty ripping and cross cutting and may struggle with thicker or harder materials if you try to push it’s limits. People who use this saw for household work or renovation find it to be sufficient in terms of cutting power and the lighter weight makes it less fatiguing to use for longer periods of time. On the job site it might come up short when compared to other more powerful circular saws that are available.

Blade

This saw uses a 7-1/4 inch blade with a 5/8 inch arbor. This saw includes an 18T carbide tipped blade that is meant for framing and ripping. This saw will benefit from a blade upgrade out of the box. For better cutting capability it’s a good idea to upgrade to a blade with more teeth that is specified more for the types of cuts you need to make. Some people who buy this saw find that the included blade has a hard time staying straight during cuts, which is another thing to consider.

This saw makes it pretty easy to change blades. There is a spindle lock that can be pressed to lock the blade in place and a single wrench can be used to loosen or tighten the nut on the arbor. The wrench is stored on-tool so you won’t have to worry about finding it when you do a blade swap.

Cut Depth & Bevel

This circular saw has a maximum cut depth of 2-9/16 inches at 90 degrees and 1-7/8 inches at 45 degrees. It has enough cut depth at both 90 and 45 degrees to cross cut 2x4s, so it can work well as a lighter framing saw if you work with that size of lumber.

Bevel Adjustment

The bevel can be used to tilt the blade up to 57 degrees to the right. The bevel has stops at 45 degrees and 22.5 degrees which are great for quick angle adjustments. The bevel work well on this saw and adjustments are fairly painless and easy. There is a bevel scale and adjustment knob at the front of the saw.

Depth Adjustment

The cutting depth on this saw is adjustable and has a maximum cutting depth of 2-9/16 inches at 90 degrees. The lever for adjusting the depth is located at the back of the saw and there is also a scale help set specific depth measurements easily. The depth adjustment works well on this saw and doesn’t try to do anything too tricky.

Both the bevel and and depth adjustments are implemented well on this saw. People don’t have any issues with these particular features and they make the saw easy to use.

Sawdust Collection

This saw doesn’t have any dust collection port or method for connecting to a dust collection system. There is a feature though for blowing dust off the cutting path and out of the way of the blade, which works well to keep the cutting line clear.

Safety Features

This saw is a little light on safety features but it’s still a safe saw to use if you take typical safety precautions into consideration.

Let’s start with what this saw doesn’t have for safety features. This saw doesn’t have any sort of trigger safety lock, so you can turn it on pretty easily just by pressing the power trigger. There also isn’t isn’t a blade brake on this saw and the blade will spin out after cuts.

The biggest visible safety feature is the blade guard system, which protects the blade and does a good job of keeping the blade covered when not making cuts. Dewalt touts that this saw has an anti-snag ball bearing guard. The guard does work smoothly and it doesn’t feel like it gets in the way during cuts.

Build Quality

This is a fairly well-built saw even though it uses a lot of plastic in the construction of the housing. The plastic helps keep the weight down, which is a positive for this particular saw. The lever locks for the depth and bevel adjustments are good quality and people don’t have issues with them for the most part. The footplate is made from aluminum and is good quality. The power cord is also designed in a way to keep it from wearing out if you accidentally pull it too hard.

Accessories

This saw comes with a couple accessories but no bag or case. The version we looked at included a blade and the wrench. There’s not much for aftermarket accessories for this saw either. One nice thing about this saw is that it has on-tool storage for the wrench, which comes in handy.

Setup & Assembly

This is a pretty easy tool to get up and running. The manual does a decent job of showing you how to change the blade if needed and there’s not really much else to setup. You can calibrate the bevel stops if needed. You will probably be using this tool within a half hour of unboxing.

Warranty

Dewalt offers a 3 year warranty on defective parts or workmanship. They also include a 1 year free service contract and a 90 day money back guarantee. This is good enough to help you out if you have quality control issues in that first year of use.