Makita BSS611 18v Circular Saw: Discontinued — What to Buy Instead

The BSS611 was Makita’s 18V LXT 6-1/2 in cordless circular saw from the first wave of lithium-ion LXT tools. A 6-1/2 in blade on an 18V platform was a genuinely new proposition at the time: enough depth of cut for framing timber and sheet goods without a cord.

It has been superseded. Makita’s current model in that slot is the XSS02Z, and retailers list it explicitly as the replacement for the BSS611.

Your batteries still fit

This is the part that matters if you own one. Makita’s 18V LXT battery mount has not changed since the BSS611 was current. A modern 5.0Ah LXT pack will run an old BSS611, and the packs you bought for the BSS611 will run a current LXT tool — slowly, because early packs were 1.5Ah and 3.0Ah, but they will run it.

So a working BSS611 is not a stranded asset. Keep using it, and buy current batteries when the old ones fade.

The wear items are the brushes and the base plate. A brushed motor’s carbon brushes are replaceable and cheap; a base plate that has been dropped and is no longer flat or square to the blade is the more common reason these get retired, and it is worth checking with a square before you spend money on anything else.

What to buy instead

The Makita XSS02Z, linked below, is the direct successor: the same 18V LXT platform, the same 6-1/2 in blade, sold as a bare tool so it runs on batteries you already have.

It is still a brushed motor. If you want the efficiency and runtime that brushless brings, Makita’s XSH or XSR models cost more and give it — but for a saw that gets used in bursts rather than all day, the extra runtime is worth less than the price difference.

One genuine improvement to note: modern LXT circular saws have electric brakes, which stop the blade in a second or two rather than letting it coast. Once you have used one, setting a saw down with a spinning blade feels careless.