I received mine today. I use a reciprocating saw strictly to cut tree branches . My intent was to replace my Milwaukee M18 Hackzall with the Skil PWRCore 12 reciprocating saw. Instead, I'll keep both. Together with my two-handed Milwaukee M18 Super Sawzall, the two one-handed recips will let me keep a 6-inch blade in the Skil, a 9-inch blade in the M18, and a 12-inch blade in the Super Sawzall. My impressions were the same as yours: front-heavy but eerily free of vibration. Even when you squash the trigger, the speed ramps up slowly, like my PWRCore 12 jigsaw. I like that feature. I'll probably be using this saw mostly with the larger, heavier 4ah battery, which should provide more voltage under load and help balance the weight.
Good information! I have an old DeWalt 36V Max (32V nominal) recip and it weighs three times as much--more power but it beats you to death! A one handed recip that has little vibration at a third of the weight is what I'm looking for. I picked up the Skil oscillating 12V saw because of light weight as I need to do crown moldings, all sorts of work on drywall etc. and required a small, light weight saw to squeeze in tight spaces and not vibrate me to death and can be used for an hour without taking my shoulders out. Really happy with the oscillating saw, throw a Diablo blade on it and go.
I want to get the 12v oscillating saw as well. I've heard it has practically no vibration. What do you think? I have a 20v DeWalt oscillating which is really nice but has been getting fixed under warranty for 3 months now.
@@tgltoday2717 It does have little vibration, very sliim head to get in tight spaces and at 2.8 pounds, very light for overhead work. I've used it to remove lap sealant on those rubber RV roofs and to scrape paint on a house with no issues. Generally, after using up the 2 Ah battery, it is time to give your hand a break from the mild vibration so I've used the tool for 4 hours or so with no numbness noted. I'd like to get the optional 4 Ah battery for all day use without running out. Looked at the Makita but my 5Ah packs on that porky brushed motor model is very large, over 5 pounds in weight and although powerful, I passed on it for the lighter, much more compact, lower vibraton and quieter Skil 12. I use it for precise cuts, scraping adhesives/paint--not typical construction work so find it the right tool for the job. My recip saw use is generally when nothing else will work so the one handed models might do it. Heck, it's biggest use is tree trimming so slinging around a 13 pound (?) recip over your head cutting branches is major overkill and gets very tiring after 30 minutes. Skil 10.8V with a 4Ah battery should do it..or maybe the Makita? Decisions! (My wife loves the USB power on the Skil batteries) :)
@@EVnewbie I'm glad you thought vibration was good as in so little as well. I just remember how bad that Subcompact DeWalt vibration was. You make a good point on the use of the 2ah SKIL battery. If I were to run that battery dead in one use I'd want a break for sure. I myself am trying to decide now if I want to buy the Skil 12v or get the Makita subcompact recip saw. That is the one I was waiting to get but now that I've used the SKIL, if I see a good deal on it again, I might have to just pick it up for myself. I like how small the 12v battery was for being able to charge your phone with the USB. Defiantly a great idea on that one.
@@tgltoday2717 Recip saws suck a TON of power and I looked at the Skil 12V kit but it has the 2Ah battery. I was hoping they would have a kit that came stock with the 4Ah battery so I can have two batteries and two chargers because--two = one and one = none so like to have options. Alas, still looking around for the Skil Powercore 12 recip with a 4Ah battery option with no luck. I guess I'll have to go Makita sub compact because I have four of their 18V 5Ah packs when I do tree trimming. I have 14 trees to deal with so need some runtime. Always fun to get THAT close and something screws you up!
@@EVnewbie I've only seen it with the 2ah as well. I see the 4ah batter is currently $40 on Amazon. Wow 14 trees, I'd go with the Makita subcompact as well since you have the batteries for. I'm thinking I will as well if that subcompact ever goes on sale.
I've not watched much on the Metabo, but I've heard a lot of good things about them. I totally agree on Skil. I saw that Lowers had the Skil 12v 5 tool combo kit on sale for $99 as of yesterday incase you are interested. Thanks for watching.
I'm in too many tool lines right now, lol. But my first power tools as an adult were some Skil 18V about 15 years ago, so they will always be special to me.
Yeah Skil and Metabo are both severely underrated. Part of that is Lowe’s fault for not promoting or marketing them much and kinda putting them to the side compared to Dewalt and their store brands.
Right. I've almost bought into the line more then once. I'm pretty excited as I did finally buy a 1 handed recip and since vibration is such a huge deal to me, I'm very impressed with the one I got. I'm working on a video for it hopefully today.
looks to be a cool little recip saw for light to medium JOBs. My dad has a couple Skil 12V tools and asked me to buy him a spare battery, I may end up giving him this saw as well, the price difference is less than $50 and although he's never complained when borrowing my Bosch 18V recip saw I know that one has too much vibration over extended periods.
Thanks man. I thought you only used that when you needed a quick charge. Didnt realize you could do it for the full charge to get the first 25% done faster.
I have a 9" diablo pruning blade and it works great on tree branches. It has carbide teeth. I'm not really sure about roots underground, but I think that as long as it's not hitting a bunch of rocks, it would hold up pretty good in the dirt. Hard to say for sure, I know dirt and chainsaw chains dont get along at all. Let me know how it does in the dirt if this is the route you go.
I really think you should’ve gotten the Milwaukee 12 volt way more power and it’s smaller. But the downside it does cost quite a bit more. You can get nice 4ah batteries for your saw
I don't disagree at all. The Milwaukee is definitely a better saw. I actually gave this one to my grandpa and started getting him a few other skill 12 volt tools. And now that you mention it, I did actually end up getting the four amp hour battery for him. Thank you for watching.
Make sure that the battery pack is inserted all the way into the charger to make good contact. My pack was a little hard to insert, returned the package thinking that charger was DOA. It was probably OK, I was not inserting pack with enough authority.
@@tgltoday2717 You talked me into it, ordered from Acmetools for $79. Everyone else is raising price up. This could also be..... a bread knife with a long blade.
I think that same thing happened here. I know my grandpa has some old corded Skil tools and they seem to work just fine still. I was really excited when I saw that they are making a huge push into the battery market and from what I've seen on their 20v tools anyway, it looks like they would be at least great homeowner tools.
I'll keep buying if they keep coming out with new stuff in 12 volt. Need: Fan Radio Gas pump Shower head and pump for camping shower Inflatable toys pump Spotlight Shop clock? Hot plate? Hiking SOS alarm?
Haha that would be pretty nice. They should start making their accessories for both 12 or 20v. Then they would really have something going. I know they have both 12 and 20v inflators, just not sure if they do more then just tires but I'll be looking into that now. They also have a bluetooth speaker in the 20v but left out the 12. A fan, I'm actually surprised they dont have one of them yet.
@@tgltoday2717 They have the Bluetooth speaker called 7 in 10 watt Bluetooth indoor speaker. Not sure why they just didn't call it the 12v speaker. It uses the 12v.
They are made by 2 different manufacturers. Skil (Chervon-FLEX,EGO,SKIL, SKILSAW etc,) Milwaukee (TTI- MILWAUKEE, RYOBI, HART etc.)... But we have to remember al tool brands copy each other in many ways. Personally SKIL is much better than Milwaukees lower tier (
@@adwhite804 I know they're made by different manufacturers And I would like to try that out the flex But I don't want to spend the money on a new brand without them being out for a while
Does that model# on box matches the one on the tool ?? I received my kit by mail today and the model number on tool was RS582801?! More surprisingly.. is the shoe of the blade is solid, doesn’t pivot!!!! I’m really confused like if there’s another SKIL 12v brushless model has the blade shoe doesn’t pivot, do you know anything about that ? EDIT: the shoe is NOW pivots somehow, lol I think it was jammed or something first times, I was even hitting on it hard to get the joints to move.. although, and aside of that I still find it weird that the Model # on tool doesn’t matches what’s on box
I don't remember if the numbers matched and my grandpa has the saw now so I can't go check. I do know that I just looked online when I registered it and I used the number on the box and it pulls up as the correct saw. Sorry I can't help you out anymore there. I'm glad you got the shoe to pivot. I remember when I first used it, the shoe was really hard to move at first. Once it moved the first time, then it moved pretty easy. It was like stuck from the factory possibly. I also used the Makita 18v subcompact for the first time yesterday and I saw reviews saying that it didn't have a lot of vibration. I can tell you that the Skil has practically none compared to the Makita I used. I hope you like the saw. Let me know what you think once you start using it more.
I received mine today. I use a reciprocating saw strictly to cut tree branches . My intent was to replace my Milwaukee M18 Hackzall with the Skil PWRCore 12 reciprocating saw. Instead, I'll keep both. Together with my two-handed Milwaukee M18 Super Sawzall, the two one-handed recips will let me keep a 6-inch blade in the Skil, a 9-inch blade in the M18, and a 12-inch blade in the Super Sawzall. My impressions were the same as yours: front-heavy but eerily free of vibration. Even when you squash the trigger, the speed ramps up slowly, like my PWRCore 12 jigsaw. I like that feature. I'll probably be using this saw mostly with the larger, heavier 4ah battery, which should provide more voltage under load and help balance the weight.
Glad you like it. For what Skil is, I really think they provide a great homeowner tool with a lot of bang for your buck.
Good information! I have an old DeWalt 36V Max (32V nominal) recip and it weighs three times as much--more power but it beats you to death! A one handed recip that has little vibration at a third of the weight is what I'm looking for. I picked up the Skil oscillating 12V saw because of light weight as I need to do crown moldings, all sorts of work on drywall etc. and required a small, light weight saw to squeeze in tight spaces and not vibrate me to death and can be used for an hour without taking my shoulders out. Really happy with the oscillating saw, throw a Diablo blade on it and go.
I want to get the 12v oscillating saw as well. I've heard it has practically no vibration. What do you think? I have a 20v DeWalt oscillating which is really nice but has been getting fixed under warranty for 3 months now.
@@tgltoday2717 It does have little vibration, very sliim head to get in tight spaces and at 2.8 pounds, very light for overhead work. I've used it to remove lap sealant on those rubber RV roofs and to scrape paint on a house with no issues. Generally, after using up the 2 Ah battery, it is time to give your hand a break from the mild vibration so I've used the tool for 4 hours or so with no numbness noted. I'd like to get the optional 4 Ah battery for all day use without running out. Looked at the Makita but my 5Ah packs on that porky brushed motor model is very large, over 5 pounds in weight and although powerful, I passed on it for the lighter, much more compact, lower vibraton and quieter Skil 12. I use it for precise cuts, scraping adhesives/paint--not typical construction work so find it the right tool for the job. My recip saw use is generally when nothing else will work so the one handed models might do it. Heck, it's biggest use is tree trimming so slinging around a 13 pound (?) recip over your head cutting branches is major overkill and gets very tiring after 30 minutes. Skil 10.8V with a 4Ah battery should do it..or maybe the Makita? Decisions! (My wife loves the USB power on the Skil batteries) :)
@@EVnewbie I'm glad you thought vibration was good as in so little as well. I just remember how bad that Subcompact DeWalt vibration was. You make a good point on the use of the 2ah SKIL battery. If I were to run that battery dead in one use I'd want a break for sure. I myself am trying to decide now if I want to buy the Skil 12v or get the Makita subcompact recip saw. That is the one I was waiting to get but now that I've used the SKIL, if I see a good deal on it again, I might have to just pick it up for myself. I like how small the 12v battery was for being able to charge your phone with the USB. Defiantly a great idea on that one.
@@tgltoday2717 Recip saws suck a TON of power and I looked at the Skil 12V kit but it has the 2Ah battery. I was hoping they would have a kit that came stock with the 4Ah battery so I can have two batteries and two chargers because--two = one and one = none so like to have options. Alas, still looking around for the Skil Powercore 12 recip with a 4Ah battery option with no luck. I guess I'll have to go Makita sub compact because I have four of their 18V 5Ah packs when I do tree trimming. I have 14 trees to deal with so need some runtime. Always fun to get THAT close and something screws you up!
@@EVnewbie I've only seen it with the 2ah as well. I see the 4ah batter is currently $40 on Amazon. Wow 14 trees, I'd go with the Makita subcompact as well since you have the batteries for. I'm thinking I will as well if that subcompact ever goes on sale.
Skil is an underrated gem these days. Metabo HPT is another brand that doesn't get enough recognition.
I've not watched much on the Metabo, but I've heard a lot of good things about them. I totally agree on Skil. I saw that Lowers had the Skil 12v 5 tool combo kit on sale for $99 as of yesterday incase you are interested. Thanks for watching.
I'm in too many tool lines right now, lol. But my first power tools as an adult were some Skil 18V about 15 years ago, so they will always be special to me.
Yeah Skil and Metabo are both severely underrated. Part of that is Lowe’s fault for not promoting or marketing them much and kinda putting them to the side compared to Dewalt and their store brands.
I like that the shoe pivots, my M12 fuel is fixed
Agreed. The pivot shoe is a huge plus. For the value Skil packs a lot into this tool imo.
I'm sure that your grandfather will be thrilled. It's very thoughtful of you.
Thank you. Yes, he is excited to get it I was told. He likes the other 12v SKIL tools I recommend he buy and he will now have 2 battery's as well.
The cost of the Skil is hard to beat
Right. I've almost bought into the line more then once. I'm pretty excited as I did finally buy a 1 handed recip and since vibration is such a huge deal to me, I'm very impressed with the one I got. I'm working on a video for it hopefully today.
looks to be a cool little recip saw for light to medium JOBs.
My dad has a couple Skil 12V tools and asked me to buy him a spare battery, I may end up giving him this saw as well, the price difference is less than $50 and although he's never complained when borrowing my Bosch 18V recip saw I know that one has too much vibration over extended periods.
That would be a great gift for your dad. Like you said, for light to medium duty jobs, it works great.
I have this system! Not this saw yet, I'm definitely looking at this next. Thanks for the video!
The 12v SKIL system is a great system. Thanks for watching. Let me know what you think of the saw when you get it.
If you would have pressed that yellow light it would have charged a lot faster for the first 25% of the battery helpful hint..
Thanks man. I thought you only used that when you needed a quick charge. Didnt realize you could do it for the full charge to get the first 25% done faster.
Would love to see some diablo blades on that bad boy.
I couldn't agree more. I didn't have any at the time of this video but I do now.
Underappreciated? Let's not forget that Skil worm drive saw and many other Skil tools built this country.
I've not used a lot of Skil, but I think they are a great tool at least for the average guy. Yes, I've seen the worm drive and it's pretty impressive.
As of October 2024 it's 59 bucks at Lowe's
Sweet deal. Thanks for letting us know.
Great review. What type of blade would you recommend for cutting tree roots in the ground?
I have a 9" diablo pruning blade and it works great on tree branches. It has carbide teeth. I'm not really sure about roots underground, but I think that as long as it's not hitting a bunch of rocks, it would hold up pretty good in the dirt. Hard to say for sure, I know dirt and chainsaw chains dont get along at all. Let me know how it does in the dirt if this is the route you go.
@@tgltoday2717 Are the blades interchangeable with other brands?
@@michaelcowart6100 yup. They work with all brands unless someone makes an oddball I'm not aware of which is totally possible.
8:26 You always set your tools on their sides so they don't fall and hit you or others on the head.
Agreed. I've seen plenty of tools that have fallen that way.
I really think you should’ve gotten the Milwaukee 12 volt way more power and it’s smaller. But the downside it does cost quite a bit more. You can get nice 4ah batteries for your saw
I don't disagree at all. The Milwaukee is definitely a better saw. I actually gave this one to my grandpa and started getting him a few other skill 12 volt tools. And now that you mention it, I did actually end up getting the four amp hour battery for him. Thank you for watching.
Make sure that the battery pack is inserted all the way into the charger to make good contact. My pack was a little hard to insert, returned the package thinking that charger was DOA. It was probably OK, I was not inserting pack with enough authority.
That's a great tip. Thank you for letting me know. I know I have a few Dewalt batteries that are hard to put in like that. Its kind of annoying.
It's great for small jobs. I won't be building a house with it. Great for pruning.
I totally agree.
This with a Diablo blade would be perfect.
Totally agree.
@@tgltoday2717 You talked me into it, ordered from Acmetools for $79. Everyone else is raising price up. This could also be..... a bread knife with a long blade.
@@UPdan I'm guessing you got the battery and charger with it as well?
Yep got the exacty thing there......it ok thou..
Thanks for watching. I'd still like to know how this compares to other 12v recips.
i like skil. my 1st 3 powertools when i started construction company is skil brand. sadly its dead here. weak marketing and distribution.
I think that same thing happened here. I know my grandpa has some old corded Skil tools and they seem to work just fine still. I was really excited when I saw that they are making a huge push into the battery market and from what I've seen on their 20v tools anyway, it looks like they would be at least great homeowner tools.
bought one to cut small trees down. 2 inch to 3 inch
The size really do work great just for that. I hope you like it. Thanks for watching.
skill is made from the same makers that put out Flex tools,of course skill is going too be Great
Indeed they are. Chervon has flex, skil, ego, kolbalt and masterforce. I've not been disappointed with any of the skil tools I've used so far.
If you only care about speed then just get a damn pruning blade....
Majority of the people on the internet who watches these review videos only care about speed so I have to make sure that's included.
Definitely heavy for a 12 volt tool
I thought their 20v brushless jigsaw was a bit heavy as well lol
I'll keep buying if they keep coming out with new stuff in 12 volt.
Need:
Fan
Radio
Gas pump
Shower head and pump for camping shower
Inflatable toys pump
Spotlight
Shop clock?
Hot plate?
Hiking SOS alarm?
Haha that would be pretty nice. They should start making their accessories for both 12 or 20v. Then they would really have something going. I know they have both 12 and 20v inflators, just not sure if they do more then just tires but I'll be looking into that now. They also have a bluetooth speaker in the 20v but left out the 12. A fan, I'm actually surprised they dont have one of them yet.
@@tgltoday2717 They have the Bluetooth speaker called 7 in 10 watt Bluetooth indoor speaker. Not sure why they just didn't call it the 12v speaker. It uses the 12v.
Looks like they copied milwaukee
That could be. I'm not familiar with the M12 reciprocating saw enough to know.
They are made by 2 different manufacturers. Skil (Chervon-FLEX,EGO,SKIL, SKILSAW etc,) Milwaukee (TTI- MILWAUKEE, RYOBI, HART etc.)...
But we have to remember al tool brands copy each other in many ways. Personally SKIL is much better than Milwaukees lower tier (
@@adwhite804 I know they're made by different manufacturers And I would like to try that out the flex But I don't want to spend the money on a new brand without them being out for a while
skill doesn't need too copy anyone
*Looks like they copied Milwaukee, who copied Bosch*
Does that model# on box matches the one on the tool ??
I received my kit by mail today and the model number on tool was RS582801?! More surprisingly.. is the shoe of the blade is solid, doesn’t pivot!!!! I’m really confused like if there’s another SKIL 12v brushless model has the blade shoe doesn’t pivot, do you know anything about that ?
EDIT: the shoe is NOW pivots somehow, lol
I think it was jammed or something first times, I was even hitting on it hard to get the joints to move.. although, and aside of that I still find it weird that the Model # on tool doesn’t matches what’s on box
I don't remember if the numbers matched and my grandpa has the saw now so I can't go check. I do know that I just looked online when I registered it and I used the number on the box and it pulls up as the correct saw. Sorry I can't help you out anymore there.
I'm glad you got the shoe to pivot. I remember when I first used it, the shoe was really hard to move at first. Once it moved the first time, then it moved pretty easy. It was like stuck from the factory possibly. I also used the Makita 18v subcompact for the first time yesterday and I saw reviews saying that it didn't have a lot of vibration. I can tell you that the Skil has practically none compared to the Makita I used.
I hope you like the saw. Let me know what you think once you start using it more.