So I'm in the market for a small miter saw that's lightweight and actually portable. Pretty much all the players have one, I'm just wondering which one is "best". And I'm also looking for a small table saw. Same type thing - small and portable for taking to a jobsite easily. Primarily for toe-kick and trim. I'm tired of lugging a 12" SCMS around to cut a few pieces of 4" toe-kick.
I think Sony brought out a new type of saw that stores and transports like a
7.25" blade and then centrifugally expands to a 12" blade at full RPM. The fold-out workhorse type stand has too many joints in the legs for me. The locking devices take almost an hour to make the thing stable enough to even cut a 6x6 at 45 degrees or rip a small sheet of OSB down the long way. There is a lot of play when the slider is out the 96 inches though.
Delta makes a decent one. Think I picked one up years ago for 69.00 still going strong but the switch is stuck on,on. Usually set it up between two portable saw horses with a power strip attached with a working on/off switch. I have the Hitachi 12 and love it. I need the additional size because I do a lot of large crown molding.
I started with a 18 wide 30 inch long (size can vary according to your needs) piece of stable plywood, and screwed a 30" long 2x4 to the face along each edge. A scrap of 1/4" ply on top of the 2x gets what follows up higher so a 2x can be cut.
Get a couple 1" angle iron or angle aluminum, and modify by cutting off most of one leg so it so it has legs of 1" and 3/8". Fasten them at a 90 degree angle to the 2x's and on top of the stacked 2x and 1/4 ply, just far enough apart that the shoe of your favorite circular saw (plug in or battery powered) will support the saw but capture it but so it can slide forward and back in the channel without slop. Pooooff! Poor man's radial arm saw.
Cut the angle so it is long enough to park the saw outside the cutting area, between cuts. Prop the moveable guard open, and go to town. It can still be used to cut bevels.
I use this rig for cutting stuff that is usually going to be cut square, and this keeps it easy and accurate. It is really handy for natural and manmade siding.
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