I recently bought a Makita track saw (SP6000J). It's factory reconditioned, but I've never had a problem with reconditioned tools before, and I'm not sure if that is relevant in this case. I noticed a problem with it after I unpacked it. When I adjust the tilt and lock it down, the base plate ends up a slightly different distance from the blade each time. When it's locked down it's 100% solid, but while the tilt knobs are loose the baseplate can shift left or right relative to the blade about 1mm, and when it's locked down it looks like there is still about 0.5mm of variation in the position where it locks down. The angle relative to the blade can also change slightly, depending on if the front or back is closer to the blade.
It looks like the baseplate casting has a pin or nub that slides in a plastic guide on each side as the saw tilts. The pin is a little too narrow for the slot it slides in.
This is my first track saw, buy my understanding is it should cut exactly on the rubber strip on the edge of the track every time. It seems like my saw will sometimes cut away too much of the rubber strip, and then the next time it might cut 0.5 mm away from it, which seems like too much tolerance.
I could work around this by always pushing the baseplate one way when I lock the tilt, but if I forget it might ruin a cut. Is this normal, or should I return/exchange the saw? It was a black Friday deal I bought online, so it would be hard to exchange, and if I return it I doubt I'd be able to easily find another one at the same price.
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