MAKITA 18V Rear Handled Circular Saw XSR01

The Makita 7-1/4” circular saw 18Volt XSR01

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One of the most argued tool topics in modern construction is the sidewinder vs the worm drive circular saw.
Whatever the reasoning, today there’s a lot of cordless circular saws out there but none of them come close to the worm drive in design or power, until now.

MAKITA 7-1/4” CIRCULAR SAW 18V XSR01
Makita has a new cordless cutting solution for framers, form contractors and carpenters. They developed a rear handled 7-1/4” saw and powered it with two 18-volt batteries.
The Makita 7-1/4” rear-handled 18-volt circular saw is designed to cut the cord on a framing jobsite and offer a real cordless solution for worm drive users.

[Archifx]

The gold standard when it comes to tool reviews. Thanks rob! Just bought one.

[skylerbrycesmith]

I just got this saw and I’m completely blown away with how well it works. Makita seriously thought about everything and made a game changer. Best purchase I’ve made in a very long time.

[aeromedical]

Do I need this tool — NO
Would I use it on a regular basis — NO
Do I want it —- HELL YEAH!

Needless to say, my sales pitch is not exactly winning over the wifey.

[brandonknight]

Haven't touched a mag77 in several years, since I bought this Makita saw!

[carravagio]

I'm just a homeowner / weekend warrior and I'm constantly blown away at what the big tool makers are doing with 18v lithium ion power tools and now outdoor power equipment. Its a good time to be a consumer with all these great options. thanks for the great consistent videos, would love to see longer tool on tap videos. Kudos from NC

[JS-.-]

Home Depot has a hack for this right now. I got the saw and 2 batteries for $150. If you add this kit plus 2 additional batteries (free) to your cart it reduces it to $150 for the saw and batteries and the additional batteries are $99. Total is $250 and then you can return the additional batteries which makes the saw kit for only $150. Bargain for 2 5ah batteries and the saw!

[whilomforge]

This saw is at home depot right now with four batteries for $259! I freakin love this saw

[Senpany_kit_abuse]

I just bought this kit from Home Depot for 250$ and they throw in a two pack of 5.0 amp hour batteries so the saw, dual charger, and (4) 5.0 amp hour batteries all for 250. Winning

[badopinion]

This saw is the most impressive cordless tool our company has ever purchased! It performs and handles so closely to a corded model and the runtime is impressive to boot. $360 is a fair price imho. Thank you Makita and great review guys!

[Bigdon]

Bought my first makita drill 15 years ago and still using it no problem ever

[IMPACT-NATION]

250K Rob!!! Way to go man. This is where people of the trades come to learn about tools amongst many other awesome things. Always a pleasure my friend. Huge fan

[eagleridge]

OK anyone wondering if this saw is worth buying, stop 2nd guessing this saw, I own 3 personally and 4 of my employees have also purchased their own, I'm not exaggerating this saw in my opinion is better than every corded saw I own and I have 14 corded saws, skill, bosch, milwaukee, dewalt and 1 makita hypoid, I haven't used any of my other saws as soon as there was enough of these saws on our jobsite, I did do a few modifications, I drilled a tiny hole in the safety thumb button and slid a 7/16 crown staple into the hole then clipped off any extra material this allows us to use this saw in any position, 1 more thing any of you crazy framers out there that reverse cut into lumber ie. backing the saw into the wood on a bevel, and have maybe experienced that extremely dangerous kick back from inserting into the wood to fast or the wood shifting, this saw can do those reverse cuts easily, the power is amazing, the blade brake is weird the first day you use it but becomes a godsend, we pin our guards most of the time ( also a modification we do to all saws is drill through the blade guard near the BL logo high enough to miss the blade by 1/4 inch and insert an 8 penny galvanized nail into the hole bend it over on the back side and it slides back and forth about 3/8's of an inch to allow for a secure guard pin and release) my stress of my guys pinning guards and cutting then lowering the saw to a table floor or near their leg or whatever has nearly disappeared because of the quick blade brake absolutely love that feature, 1 last modification I did to better the saw was I used a small triangle file and put every 1 degree increments on the bevel gauge, it took 15 minutes to do this on each saw but increased the accuracy of bevel cuts for my apprentice carpenters. If you use worm drive saws buy this saw you will love it. 1 draw back, yep there is 1. the retractable saw guard is not magnesium and is fragile 1 of my saws took a 6ft drop and it bent and cracked the guard at the arbor point, I firmly grasped the guard and forced it straight again and haven't had a problem with it but I know if that saw gets dropped too many more times that guard is gonna break, I have some saws that have withstood 20 ft drops this saw I don't think would survive that abuse but time will tell, , also my 8 employees have been using these saws for 8 months now and my profit on projects has gone up absolutely a game changer.

[toddparker]

Thanks for this informative review. Was looking at the Milwaukee and Dewalt rear handed saws and noticed this saw from Makita on sale. Going to pick it up tomorrow and the kit also comes with 2 extra 5amh batteries. Love this channel.

[GDannnn]

Looks solid, i'll probably never need such a large circular saw but its nice and a bit mind boggling to see what the tool companies are doing now days. Innovation on top of innovations.

[Intelligent_investor]

I now use the DeWALT 60v dcs577, i am a fan. It has a heck of a lot of power.

[VENTSHD]

I love makita tools they never let me down, I've got the normal 36v saw but I wish I had that one looks great.

[WesleyBrace]

This saw is amazing. I own one. In cordless saws I have used the Dewalt 20v, the Bosch 18v, the Makita 18v, and the Rigid 5th Gen... This Makita 36v cannot be compared to those saws. It's in a different class.

[dewalter]

worm-drive is nice for plywood because the weight of the saw lays on the board but for cutting 2x4 or so it feels to top heavy.and stressed the wrist

[jonahburros]

Just to add to the worm drive vs side winder debate, I would like to add a non-conventional test that put me in the sidewinder camp fully. I spent years working the cut table for steel and aluminum construction. I was cutting long angles on corrugated aluminum sheets that I would stack up to 3/8" with metal cutting blades. First, i must address the need to stack the material 3 sheets thick, volume production of large structures with a single cut table feeding up to 10 install crews called for mass output. Second, because it was aluminum, i ended up switching to more of a ripper blade because the closeness of most metal blade teeth eventually caused gum up in between the teeth due to the softness of the aluminum. These were hardcore, loud and rough cuts. Every worm drive i used, from multiple high-end manufacturers, ended up burning out the motor.
The cheaper sidewinder designs stood the test of time. I could not kill the DeWalt and Makita sidewinders that I used over the period of 2 years. I went through a lot of blades but the sidewinders could hold up to the stress and constant power needed while the worm drives would not last more than a day without complete motor failure. While i understand that this is not a typical wood cutting environment, it does show the difference in the simplistic engineering of the sidewinder vs the worm drive and its potential longevity. I hope this helps some people.

[VivaLaGolf]

I think this may be the one saw I can carry on the truck and not worry about having a corded one “just in case”. I’ve seen the kits now going for around $270