Exchange-a-Blade 2100005 9-Inch Laminate Flooring Cutter

Great tool, durable stayed sharpGood quality

Used for several years.

I like the tool and wish I had purchased it sooner. I did about 150 Square feet of the first bedroom of our 4 bedroom home, just using a traditional miter saw and table saw, until I remembered a YouTube video of a guy who used one like it. My laminate is 12MM and cutting it with the electric saws created a dust bowl in my garage. This tool saved me a ton of time, buy not having to go outside to make every single cut. I made a wood block the same height as the cutter and when you place the panel down, it keeps it level and makes a cleaner cut, not perfect but easy enough. I also put another block under the cutter, since it is plastic and did not look like it would last too long, if I did not provide more support under it as well. I also put my foot down on the cutter, to keep the panel straight and it makes it easier to cut as well. It does take some effort, but I did another 700 square feet with this tool and no dust and just some chips of the laminate. It did not work for angle cuts for me, since the laminate panels are 9 inches wide and would not fit, but for straight cuts, made my job much easier. You can see from the pictures, it cuts down on top and then tends to break off the rest, but this is the side that gets hidden under the trim anyway. It was easy to setup, just a few screws to tighten and you would think that it is cheaply made, but it held up and planning on doing my daughters home next week with it. Price was good too, lumber liquidators had one for a few bucks more, but looked like the same quality. Saved me $2500 bucks by doing the work myself and watching the Youtube videos. I made some of my own tools too, take a few cut off scraps and attach a piece of wood, just a bit over the end of the panel and glue it and screw it together, so when you hammer with the dead blow or rubber mallet, it will not break the panel and it makes the install go much better. Plus, you can use the metal puller up against the wood, to pull in the tight spots, by making smaller ones too. The results were great and floors look wonderful and no more carpet and sold the used carpet on Offer up for 20 bucks for each room.

Highly recommended for all of the reasons others have indicated in their reviews. Far and away, the two major advantages are that (1) the Exchange-a-Blade allows for a lot of cuts to be made without dust getting everywhere and (2) the Exchange-A-Blade makes it quick to make the majority of cuts you'll need for a project. The cuts are just fine (splintering is rare) for anything that will be hidden (e.g., under baseboard, a molding, or quarter round). The blade does noticeably dull over time (about the first 5 to 10 cuts only required a single compression of the lever). However, I found that many more cuts can be made by simply compressing until the laminate begins to deform, then relaxing pressure on the handle a bit, then compressing again (a bit harder), then relaxing a bit again, etc. -- in this manner, a nice cut can be made even when the blade has lost a bit of its edge. One additional advantage of the Exchange-a-Blade is that it's relatively portable. It's easy to pick it up and move it to a location as needed while putting down laminate. The bottom line: I wouldn't do a laminate project without this.If you don't have much experience with laminate, you should be aware the Exchange-a-Blade is not intended to, and will not be able to, make every cut you will need to make. Almost certainly, you will need additional cutting tools in your arsenal. The Exchange-a-Blade won't help much with rip cuts or with detail work that you'll likely need to do near doors, wall corners, etc. Finally, it should be noted that the "cuts" made by the Exchange-a-Blade, while fine if hidden, are not perfectly even and, thus, would not be suitable for some situations (e.g., if you needed to butt two pieces of laminate together, you would want to use an appropriate saw (e.g., table saw or miter saw) that gives a perfectly clean edge).

5/5 start for the price (139.00 when I bought it in may 2015).I put laminate wood flooring down in a small bedroom (about 400 to 500 sqft).If this product were more expensive, I would have rated it at 4/5.I'm not much of an instruction reader (yes, I'm a guy) so I looked at diagrams to get it assembled. It was about 90% already pre-assembled.The instructions said to chop a piece of paper to make sure the blade is in perfect alignment; too bad I waited to read till my job was almost done to do that part. It doesn't matter if my cuts weren't pristine because they were all end pieces. I was doing a staggered pattern. nothing special.Pulling the lever down could be done with one hand. I'm a 5'4" 135 lb male with average build.Don't chop too fast. You know when you are chopping at the right speed when you can hear the CraaaCK! noise. You'll know what I mean when you try.***NOTE:The measurement protractor piece of metal slides for adjust-ability and has a yellow, plastic knob that tightens down to keep the protractor from moving. I had to put a cloth underneath the plastic knob in order to keep the protractor from moving so I could keep it at 90 degrees.This product deserves a 4.5/5 stars for that.If I calibrated this thing right, I might have gotten smoother cuts. Again, all my cut ends happened to go under the "quarter round" molding. Look that term up if you haven't seen it before. DO NOT take up your previous molding. it's way EASIER to put your laminate wood floor down then tack quarter round molding around the corners. Come-on, be nice to yourself :)I borrowed a chop saw with angles on it for cutting the molding corners.Hopefully that info helps someone out.Peace out-Josh