I'm confused. I've been reading everything I can bout compound miter saw recommendations.
I'm a newby. Here's what I can appreciate. It makes sense to me to buy the sturdiest saw I can afford. One without play in any of the mounting mechanisms. And no play in the platform either. Nice positive click stops even before you tighten down the platform. no play, no slop.
But as I read this ng, I am a believer in Hitachi, , dewalt, and Bosch. maybe makita
I generally come to believe I want a 12" so I don't regret my buy. Then I get the feeling that a 10 " would be more affordable and I may never need a 12" unless I build a deck or house. Not likely.
Delta, a saw that I think looks great at the store, is highly toughted by some and blown to bits by others.
I don't want to spend any more than I "have" to. There are a few other tools I want to get. Delta looks good to me.
I even saw a craftsman pro that fit my above criteria of no slop no play for
249.00 but the ng in general doesn't seem to like craftsman. I generally understandd that however this pro model seems like a good value.
In short. What's wrong with the delta and craftsman pro and why buy the bosch or dewalt?
I can't speak to the Delta but the top of the line Craftsman are decent saws. I have a 12" and I'm happy with it. After reading here, I went to Lowes and compared deflection on the $600 Dewalt with my $300 Craftsman and there is no appreciable difference. Both saws will flex if you place tangential pressure on the handle.
The most important thing of all is to set the saw up PRECISELY square in every direction. This is not easy to do but is important. I use drafting squares and a dial indicator.
Then forget the Bosch 4912, but it's a fantastic saw. Smooth as silk, cut like glass, accurate, all controls within easy sight and reach from the FRONT, handle adjustable for vertical and horizontal.
But it's pricey as hell.
Charlie Self "If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to. " Dorothy Parker
You didn't even hint at what you expect to do with it, or what your budget is..
I just bought a 12" Ryobi. Some who used it 8 hours a day would wear it out in a month. On the other hand, someone who only wants to cut base molding would want a 10", and someone needing to cut 1x12s would need a slider.
For me, the Ryobi 12" made sense; it might not for you.
I doubt you would wear it out in a month with everyday use. I have a friend who bought a 10" Ryobi CMS years ago, and built his (two story) house (every
2x6 stud had to be cut), a three car garage and two other two car garages for other people and a large storage shed. It's still working but the break is just beginning to wear out.
You have to temper some of the reviews here with the plain fact that some people (OK most of the subscribers to this forum) have only used one of any brand of any selected machine. It makes it mighty hard to get an answer to, "which of these saws is better". More often than not you'll here people respond that their (insert multi-hunnert/thousand dollar tool here) performs well. This is not a condemnation of other brands.
Also keep in mind that most people don't want to be thought a fool and will generally lie about how well their (insert multi-hunnert/thousand dollar tool here) performs. It's a Ford/Chevy thing.
In other words, glean the good parts/the parts that look legitimate and take the others with a grain of salt.
UA100, who isn't too wild about his Pantysonik cordless drill which is way contrary to what you'd normally hear here...
years ago ryobi made some very good miter saws. they stopped doing that for some reason. now all of their miter saws seem to be junk. same thing with routers. they used to make one of the better routers on the market, but they dropped it and expanded their homeowner junk line. bridger
Unisaw A100 wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
So three or four years ago, I needed to do some homeowner stuff - an arbor, a storage shed, some trim & finish carpentry around the house. I convinced myself that I 'needed' a CMS, and brought home a DeWalt 705 12" from the local BORG. Worked great for all of those projects. I did upgrade the blade to a better crosscut blade, however.
Started doing some furniture and cabinetry work (sawdust therapy, sort of...), and things rather get out of hand. I cut most of my really tight miters on the Unisaw now, but the CMS gets used on almost every trip to the garage shop. I'd buy it again in a heartbeat.
I have used an Hitachi 10" slider at the local Adult Education shop. It gets heavily used, but has lots of loving attention from folks who know how to care for it, as well as the other tools there. I can't see the value of the slider for those things I do. I'd rather use the crosscut sleds on the big saw.
Patriarch, who is glad to have a bunch of imaginary friends to hang out with on this very wet day in Northern California...
On Wed, 31 Dec 2003 19:27:44 -0600, JD Paddle wrote (in message ):
My first compound miter saw was a Hitachi 10" (non-sliding, non-laser). It was very inexpensive at the local Lowes. I was working on a playhouse for my daughter and with the cost of all the other stuff for the house it seemed right for the time. However, after attending a class at the local Woodcraft store where I was shown the proper way to tune up the saw (I never did get a great miter cut on it). I realized that I was never going to get any great cuts from this saw even with the Forrest blade I put on it. The reason it turned out was because the metal fence was off and there wasn't any way I was going to get perfect miters. Now, for less than $150 USD, it wasn't a bad saw by any means, in fact it's perfect for construction and any other place where rough cuts are OK. However, as I started doing more fine furniture it became obvious that it wasn't going to cut it.
I did a lot of research and my list came down to three saws. Mostly due to what I considered my "needs" were. I wanted a 10-in saw (I just spent a fortune on a great 10-in. Forrest blade and didn't want to have to ditch that), but a non-sliding 10-in model doesn't generally cut 4x4's very well, so I also wanted it to slide. Because the only saw of the three that I could try in my hands at the time was the Bosch, and I really liked how it felt and cut, that's what I bought. However, two weeks ago, I found out that the place that repairs PC, Milwaukee, and Makita also sells those brands. I found I could have also tested the PC and Milwaukee 10-in sliding CMS (for kicks I did test them, and you know while not as nice looking, I think I might have gone with the Milwaukee over the Bosch ... but really all three were extremely close in both feel and the way they handled). One very important thing is NONE of the three saws I looked at were under $400. I think that may be above your price range, so I'm not sure that helps.
If you don't think you are going to cut things larger than 2x4's, then you may not need a 12-in. saw. A 10-in. may do the job you need. If you are going to cut these larger sizes, then a sliding 10-in may do the job too. However, they will cost you more, so you may be better off with a 12-in. If you do look at 12-in saws, don't rule out Ridgid. I looked at one the other day while browsing at HD, and it didn't look too bad. Certainly a step up from my old 10-in Hitachi. But, I only looked at it and haven't used it.
I started out with a Craftsman 10" CMS which cut beautifully. I became acutely aware of its shortcomings when I was helping a friend build a deck around his above-ground swimming pool. Not enough capacity.
I couldn't really justify buying a 12" sliding CMS considering the cost and the fact that I already owned a table saw and a radial arm saw, so I bought a 12 Dewalt CMS. This cuts well too but what a horse! I just about herniate myself every time I pick it up. That never was a problem with the Craftsman.
I guess my next purchase is likely to be a Trojan miter saw stand (about $280). That should improve portability considerably.
But I digress. Don't buy a 10" unless you're sure you're not going to cut 4X4s. Wayne is absolutely correct.
Well, I JUST bought the Dewalt 12", double compound, non-sliding. Couldn't justify the extra $250 for the sliding feature. I bought Dewalt because I haven't had 1 complaint about any Dewalt tools. I DID have my speed control on my router go bad, but there's also a service center within 10 miles of my work, and they had a great turn around time, and Dewalt even warrantied the work even though it was 2 months out of warranty.
I'm VERY happy with it. The first thing I made was a miter work station, with 3' extensions on each side of the saw, as well as a sort of box around the back of the saw that is hooked to my dust collection. After playing with it for a while, I decided that I didn't even need to hook the saw up directly to the DC hose, as the DC port on the saw is in the back, and just shoot the dust into the open DC port.
It was a breeze using the miter saw in conjuction with the table saw. They sure complement each other very well.
The accuracy of this saw was right on out of the box. No adjustments necessary.
I also bought the Ryobi 12" and I've been pretty happy with it so far. I don't use it all day long every day, but it's been great for weekend work, and I like the little extra cut I get with the 12" over the 10". The stops on mine are all nice and solid and to my amateur eye dead on right out of the box. No complaints whatsoever.
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