aldi sliding mitre saw - opinions please

[Owain]

Well, if it's bright yellow you're less likely to trip over it, and if it's barbie pink you're more likely to get your face smacked if you take it onto a building site.

Owain

[Stuart Noble]

For someone with no interest in low end tools you seem to study the market very closely.

[Doctor Drivel]

No. Just the colours.

[Andy Hall]

I have interest in all tools and look at products from all parts of the market when the opportunity arises.

[meow2222]

sure

how is it idle to not use an unusable guard?

NT

[Stuart Noble]

You'd have to be totally mad to use a chopsaw without a properly functioning guard. It's usually a build up of sawdust that stops them moving freely. On a table saw I regard them as optional and usually more trouble than they're worth.

[Doctor Drivel]

Do you prefer polka-dot?

[Andy Hall]

.. or poor design, materials and manufacturing.

They are far from being optional.

" In a study of 100 accidents at woodworking machines, accidents at circular saw benches accounted for 35% of the total, with most resulting in the amputation of fingers. Eighty three percent of these accidents occurred while ripping or cross cutting, and in most cases the saw guard was either missing, or not properly adjusted. Many of these accidents would have been avoided simply by having a correctly adjusted saw guard and using a push stick."

[Doctor Drivel]

operational errors, not equipment itself.

[Andy Hall]

Both.

It's operator error not to have a guard fitted when it is possible to do so. It is certainly the machine if the guard doesn't work, sticks or is not usable because of bad design or manufacture.

[Doctor Drivel]

Can this cut standard laminate boards?

[Stuart Noble]

What were the other 17% the result of if not ripping or cross cutting? Sitting on it maybe? I don't use a guard because I prefer to watch the blade. That and listening to the motor usually gives you advance warning of mishaps. You don't put your fingers near the blade any more than you walk in front of cars when crossing the road. That said, I don't think anyone should use a sawbench at all without at least some preliminary training

[Kaiser]

Looked at them today, Max crosscut 200mm at 90 degrees.

[Andy Hall]

Kickback, probably - usually through not having or removing the riving knife or having the rip fence toe-ed in towards the blade.

The blade can be seen perfectly easily through a properly designed guard.

That depends on other noise and the power of the motors. If you are wearing hearing protection, this becomes an even less reliable way of determining the onset of a problem.

That's undoubtedly what the 35 people mentioned above said. I'm sure they didn't put their fingers near the blade. Usually. Then one day the machine leapt out and bit them since obviously they hadn't put their fingers near the blade.

I certainly agree there.

[Doctor Drivel]

Will cut them, so sounds a decent buy.

[Kaiser]

Sliding action was fairly smooth, the aluminium base felt sturdy, also had a depth of cut adjustment.

Plus a 3 year guarantee.

[Doctor Drivel]

@ £50 worth it for a first time saw.

[Stuart Noble]

IME kickback simply does not happen if you're using the saw properly i.e. you are applying firm and even pressure downwards and forwards. This means using your hand and standing directly in front of the workpiece. Against that kind of pressure the belt will slip before it throws it back at you. If you're messing about with push sticks, there is always the chance the workpiece will lift at the back through lack of downward pressure. I use them within an inch of the blade but not otherwise.

Yours doesn't get coated in sawdust then?

A good reason not to wear defenders or listen to Radio1

I don't believe in poltergeist or possessed machinery, but I do believe in peoples' inability to to concentrate for very long. I expect some of the 35 got their hair or their kipper ties caught in the blade.

[dennis]

I was just thinking what a 5hp motor could do with a piece of wood. You wouldn't want to be on the end of it. I always use a full face mask on the saw, googles just aren't going to work.

Also there is nothing wrong with using a feather board on a saw AFICS.

[Dave]

Speaking from experience, the dynamic range of hearing is tremendous. I have stood under a military jet's engines, that have both running at idle and could talk, by shouting, to someone stood at the side of me. This was while wearing proper industrial ear defenders. So it is possible to hear what the tool is sounding like as Stuart says.

Dave