sliding mitre saws - any recommendations?

There's a bewildering choice of these things, from £50-500.

A rank amateur, so I don't need a 24-7 workhorse, but would like something easy to use and accurate.

would appreciate any feedback....

Reply to
bib
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The first thing you need to consider is what are you going to use the mitre saw for? and how often will you use it? If you're just going to use it a few times and then let it sit in the garage gathering dust then why pay a small fortune when you can buy a cheapy one and forget about it after use. On the other hand if you're going to be using it on a regular basis and you need clean and accurate joints then pick a model which performs the task you need it to perform.. I have a mitre block which my father knocked up 60 years ago from some offcuts of floorboards and I still use it whenever I need a mitre joint and so long as I take my time it provides a perfectly acceptable finish.. What jobs have you in mind for using the sliding mitre saw on? Ash

Reply to
Ash

I have an Axminster own label. I'm considering a Wickes own label to replace it, they look pretty good for the money.

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Do you need the extra cutting capacity of a sliding saw though?

Reply to
The Medway Handyman

There have been times, and I have a job to do soon where it would be useful.

As it happens, and in the absence of any other advice here, I'd already narrowed it down to the very machine you've linked to above.

Wickes had already told me at the beginning of the week that they only had 2 left, that this model was to be discontinued and replaced by another supplier (similar spec) at just under £200, so I placed the order this morning. The link is now empty so my guess is I bought the last one or the penultimate.

However from my earlier research Wickes told me that #186891 was in fact a Wickes-badged Draper saw and I strongly suspect it's identical to the one I've linked below. The amazon deal (market place retailer) is almost on a par but there's a delivery charge. The second deal is pricier and there's an anomaly in the product description (the header says 2000w but lower down it appears to have a

1500w motor).

Out of curiosity I also phoned Draper to find out why the saw was being discontinued. The guy I spoke to said it's very possibly because the manufacturer (lol! it's not made by Wickes and it's also not made by Draper!!) has possible filed for bankruptcy like a lot of their suppliers! What's the world coming to?

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With uncertainties over the warranty (manufacturer defunct) and better price the amazon deal is a no-brainer if Wickes can no longer supply it.

Thanks for replying - best of luck.

Reply to
bib

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They look amazingly similar to the one I bought two years ago from Aldi for £49.99 complete with 3 years warranty. I have done a lot of work with it and its still going strong. At that price I would have been happy if it fell apart after I finished building the workshop which was the reason for buying one. Here is what I built with it.

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Mike

Reply to
Muddymike

Do the horses arses not catch on the door-frames?

Reply to
Bikini Whacks

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Do the horses arses not catch on the door-frames?

And your point is???

Mike

Reply to
Muddymike

Beg pardon, horse's arses.

Reply to
Bikini Whacks

Seems a bit extreme to just hide the garden shed ....

Reply to
Ash

Beg pardon, horse's arses

Think you missed the point .... looks like he was embarrased with his garden shed so he build a fantastic mansion to disguise it :o)

Reply to
Ash

What did you user for the roof?

Ash.

Ps ... looks terrific mate

Reply to
Ash

interesting - a multiple-arsed horse.

Reply to
bib

Yeah, well you'd definitely want one of those saws for that job - I'm impressed.

Looks like you struck gold with the Aldi purchase, though when I checked their latest offering it appears to be a smaller blade. Still, a very good deal.

I've come unstuck with cheap tools before and without specific guidance usually stick to the get-what-you-pay-for principle...hence my middle price range choice here. And a few positive online user-reviews.

Reply to
bib

The roof is Steadmans AS2000,

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cheap but as the workshop is in a very prominent spot as you come up the drive to the house I wanted something reasonably attractive.

Thank you, I have to say I am quite proud of it especially as its all my own work and design.

Mike

Reply to
Muddymike

I have had good use out of Aldi and Lidl tools. They mostly come with a 3 year warranty and I think that at the price a working tool guaranteed for 3 years is brilliant. Their replacement policy is good as well. I burnt out the SDS hammer drill from Lidl after 2.5 years of quite heavy use. No problem, telephoned the helpline and a new drill complete with case, bits, and chisels etc was delivered FOC 4 days later. The compressor I bought from Aldi came with a leaky connector on the end of the airline. No problem, after a phone call to the helpline a new hose arrived in the post. I still occasionally use the leaky one as an extension, they don't seem to want the old ones back. The nail/staple gun I bought with the compressor was fantastic for fixing all the cladding on the workshop.

Mike

Reply to
Muddymike

I have an older Wickes saw. No laser, 2000w and a 1'' bore (the links below are 16mm) and the sliding rails are shrouded inside some massively built steel plate housing but as far as I can see it's basically the same model. It is built like a tractor. Oodles of power.

There is no bypass for the depth of cut stop stop screw, so you can't make a shallow cut, then a full depth cut then a stopped cut again without re-setting the depth screw (and making test cuts again) each time. A flip-out preset would have been a great improvement Probably only an issue if you are making housings in shelf uprights etc which, frankly, are better done with a router. The option would be nice, though.

There is a metric scale on the fence, but only on the right hand side which, as the saw can only be operated right handed (rt thumb operated blade guard/descent lock) means you can only use it if you are cutting "waste on left". This means that the saw body is between the operator and the measured piece, which just makes the scale useless. Hard to describe but you'd get my drift immediately if you used it.

The carriage slide lock is ineffective and adjustment is impossible because of the shrouding, which is also impossible to remove without a manual (yes, I've tried) I can't locate a manual, or an exploded view, either.

In practice this isn't much of a problem but I would still prefer a locked-down, non-sliding saw head unless I wanted it sliding.

12'' boards are no problem. If the sides are parallel, neither are 24" boards

- just flip the board front-to-back, line the kerf up again by eye/feel and re-cut. I'm not saying you'll get a jointed edge, but unless you then want to edge-band the cut without further sanding or planing. the 24" cut will be good enough for most practical applications.

I keep a fine cross-cut blade on mine and use it for ALL cross cutting under

24"" - including panels - and therefore I can keep an excellent rip blade on the table saw which doesn't need constant blade changing.

Lack of a laser is no problem. Just bring the stationary blade down to a scribed cut line and eyeball it. Probably more accurate than the laser anyway. I don't see the point of a laser which only operates when the blade is spinning... surely the time to line the blade up is when it is stationary? What do I know.. ? Only that I'd prefer to reach the end of my days with the same number of fingers I started with.

Wickes/Draper/SIP saw, overall? tremendous, rugged piece of kit with some minor annoyances.

Would I go for another? Definitely, if the niggles were fixed and I believe they may have been with the current model but I can only review the one I have

if you want help/advice/backup from Wickes, forget it. In my experience they are staffed by nerds who don't give a toss, know nothing about the products and are happy to misinform and mislead customers just so they can get back to giggling with their mates in a corner as quickly as possible.

e.g. I heard the local branch had some end of line router bits in stock, so I made a special journey to go and buy some. Looked around for a while and finally asked for assistance. Kid told me they had definitely sold out. Absolutely, definitelu, positively.\\Next day a friend bought two boxes of bits from the same store, so I went back the day after that. This time they HAD sold out.. Grrrr! I've had experiences of being sent the full length of the store (a big one) by an assistant to find a more appropriate/quialified assistant (?) and then had to travel the _full_ length of the store again to the section where I made the initial enquiry.. this has happened on several occasions, when I had a sprained ankle and was hardly able to walk, even with the stick I was leaning on. No offer to find/page the appropriate staff member at the initial point of enquiry.

Crap staff, generally. There are some exceptions, so when you find one, keep him/her for your very own and treasure him/her for future contact but the chances are they will have moved on by the next time you use the branch..

That said, there is some good stuff in store, if you know what you want and what the market is. Their own brand power tools can be superb or mediocre depending on what's available. Fasteners are extortionately expensive, sheet goods _can_ be quite competitive (full sheets) or a total rip-off, as I found when I took a half sheet (unmarked price) to the checkout and found it was a quid cheaper than a full sheet.

Buy the saw though, you'll not regret it if you want brute force and a good quality cut.

On Fri, 3 Apr 2009 19:00:43 +0100, bib wrote (in article ):

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Reply to
Bored Borg

I can understand why your user name is bored borg ... :o)

Ash

Reply to
Ash

thanks for in-depth overview and the up-beat appraisal, Borg.

Reply to
bib

I was going to say how fortunate you've been but I suspect a lot of this generosity towards the consumer has been one of the many spin-offs of the credit boom. It was probably unsustainable retailing. I worry now that we'll regress to a phase when we get what we're given and made to feel thankful for it - a vortex of ever-diminishing competition.

Of course, I hope not. I'll have a look at Aldi and Lidl when buying my next tool.

Reply to
bib

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