Skil 4.5-Inch One-Handed Compact Circular Saw Review: A Lightweight Cordless Cutter for Trim, Subfloor and Tight Spots

Introduction

If you work in the trades and you are tired of hauling a heavier saw around all day, Skil’s 4.5-inch One-Handed Compact Circular Saw deserves a spot on your shortlist. It weighs just four pounds, and after using and abusing it on plywood, molding and dimensional lumber, the picture is clear: this is a saw that excels at thin materials and tight work, with a few trade-offs you should understand before buying.

Specs and Kit Contents

The headline number is weight: only four pounds. Cutting capacity is one inch at 45 degrees and one and a half inches at 90 degrees. The blade sits on the left-hand side, the arbor size is 3/8 of an inch, and there is a dust blower and extraction point on the opposite side of the blade. The saw also has a blade brake, and it works very well.

The kit includes the saw, a blade, an attachment, a fence, a 2Ah battery and a charger. Skil rates the motor at 6,000 RPM, which gives it plenty of speed for the thin stock it is aimed at.

Cutting Performance: Plywood, Bevels and Plunge Cuts

On one-inch plywood, the saw impressed. The dust extraction point works really well and does a good job of keeping dust away from your face. With the included Skil blade, cuts came out smooth and clean.

Setting a bevel is easy: spin the locking nut, set the angle where you need it, and lock it down. Even cutting hardwood with the stock blade, the saw sliced through smoothly. Plunge cuts are also a genuine strength. Given the depth adjustment and the compact footprint, dropping the blade into a workpiece mid-panel felt controlled and precise.

Battery Life and the 2Ah Question

The included 2Ah battery is the main compromise. On smaller applications it works fine, but ripping through one-inch boards and thicker dimensional lumber, it sagged a little under load. Step up to a 4Ah or 5Ah battery and the story changes completely: no problems at all, and cuts stayed smooth.

Battery life itself was actually pretty good. The 2Ah pack dropped a couple of bars after a series of cuts through 2x material plus a few more cuts afterward, which is respectable. With a 4Ah or 5Ah pack you can get many, many cuts out of a charge.

One quirk worth knowing: when slicing through a 2x6, the saw sometimes left about a sixteenth of an inch of wood at the end and would not cut all the way through. Board thickness is never exact, and that particular board may have been a touch thicker, but it is worth noting since the saw is rated to cut through 2x material. The built-in LED light, meanwhile, illuminates the cutting area really well.

Where This Saw Fits Best

This saw is phenomenal for thinner material such as subflooring, or anything around an inch or half an inch thick. Floor installers and anyone doing molding work will love it. It is also genuinely useful for blue lumber like 2x4s and 2x6s when you need to reach into tight areas, for example cutting a joist when you do not want to reach for a reciprocating saw.

All the adjustments, including the 45-degree bevel, were easy to make. The limitations are real, though: heavy stock with the small battery is where it struggles, so pair it with a larger pack for tougher cuts.

Buying Advice

Buy this saw if your work centers on sheet goods, subfloor, trim and molding, or if you need a light one-handed saw for confined cuts in dimensional lumber. If your day is dominated by deep rips in thick framing lumber, treat this as a secondary saw rather than your main one, and budget for a larger battery than the included 2Ah pack.

Conclusion

The Skil 4.5-inch One-Handed Compact Circular Saw is a lightweight, well-designed tool that does exactly what a compact saw should: clean, smooth cuts in thin material, excellent dust extraction, easy bevel and depth adjustments, and a useful LED light. Accept its limits on thick stock and small batteries, and it is a very likeable addition to a tradesperson’s kit.