I am looking at some miter saws here in the US, to upgrade the cheapie B & D that I bought about 15 years ago. I am torn between 3 models at a local Home Depot, all about $200. I don't recall the model number of the Rigid , but any general comments/opinions about the relative merits of each brand would be appreciated.
I am leaning towards the DeWalt, but am open-minded.
Dewalt DW703 Rigid Delta 36-585
I use the dewalt and am happy. I've had my 12" chop saw for about 12 years now. No problems SH
DeWalt has long been considered one of the best. I have the 12" and like it very much. I've not used the other brands, but Delta has gotten good reviews, as has Bosch. Make sure the handle feels comfortable to you. I prefer the horizontal D handle. Ed
Ed Pawlowski responds:
I've got the Bosch 4412. SCMS, of course, controls all up front, excellent out-of-the-box blade, wonderfully easy to use, slick looking (for those who care), with a D handle that can be used horizontally or vertically. The only problem is the price: I think Amazon gets 7 bills for it.
IMO, it's worth it if you have much use for a CMS that will cut 12-1/2" wide boards very accurately and very quickly, all day long. Otherwise, it's a great item to have to impress the neighbors (sure: most of my neighbors here and in VA will never see the inside of my shop).
Charlie Self "To create man was a quaint and original idea, but to add the sheep was tautology." Mark Twain's Notebook
I like the Milwaukee but it doesn't seem to ever be reviewed. Charlie, is there a reason why other than the fact that it is not a slider?
You could always cut your mitres by hand and then trim them to a perfect shape with a mitre trimmer as seen at:
Lawrence Ramsey asks:
I did a review that included the Milwaukee slider a few years ago. As I recall, there was some problem with extra illustrations and a lack of cooperation betwixt either the company and the magazine or the PR outfit and the magazine, which resulted, IIRC, in the saw being dropped from that piece. But that's about a 4-5 year old memory, as outdated as the review would be now.
You know the old saying, "Sh*t happens." I recall about 23-24-25 years ago doing an article for Pop. Science on a new type of hardboard roofing that looked like wood shakes. Company supplied the roofing, my brother and I re-roofed a house, I wrote the article, included a bunch of photos, and it ran. Next thing I know, my editor at PS was jumping all over me because the company was bitching that the product was not available in the East, so should not have been used. Thingis, they'd shipped us the material. Address in Virginia. Someone screwed up, and I got most of the blame, though I had no way of knowing where the company intended to sell the stuff (don't even know now if they ever did).
What the hell. Mom got a new roof (though the house didn't really need one) and my brother and I learned to hate each other all over again. Maybe it was worth the hassle.
Point being, though, the writer seldom knows what the hell is going on.
Charlie Self "All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure." Mark Twain
I have a 12" Porter Cable and love it.
Up until this Christmas I had the ~$150 Delta 10" compound miter saw and hated it. The back guides were warped so you couldn't get the left and right to cut the same, and it just would NOT stay square. You could fiddle with it for an hour and it would make perfect cuts for a couple of days and then it would drift off again.
I got the new Porter Cable 12" with the laser sites and WOW what an upgrade! I think you can get the Delta badged model of the same thing for about $50 less, but I didn't just couldn't bring myself to buy another Delta.
I've also used the Dewalt 12" and it is a nice piece as well. I personally liked the bells and whistles on the Porter Cable better, but that is strictly an opinion. The Dewalt is certainly a good machine.
If I were you, I'd go for a 12" model even if you have to increase your price range a bit. If the saw isn't repeatable, you might as well stick with the Black and Decker you have now.
My $.02 Jim
"Buck Turgidson" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news.teranews.com:
"Edwin Pawlowski" wrote in news:EKaSb.1344$ snipped-for-privacy@nwrdny01.gnilink.net:
My experience with the DeWalt 705 12" is much like Ed's. In homeowner - handyman - furniture maker wannabe abuse, it has held up very well. It seems to be available at the Orange BORG for $299 most of the time.
The blade was upgraded to the DeWalt finishing blade. A sacrificial temporary fence also helps reduce tearout, and increase operator accuracy.
I have no valid opinions on other miter saws. ;-)
Patriarch
I'll tell ya, I bought the Delta twin laser over the holidays and I'm not too impressed so far. Out of the box the left laser line was way off (easy to adjust though), and I -still- haven't managed to get it to cut perfectly straight at the 0 degree setting. That, and the plastic throat plate had obvious signs of being cut into by the blade
- probably whenever they did the test cut at the factory. Looks like very sloppy QC to me.
It seems like a reasonably well-built and solid saw over all, but after fiddling with it for a number of hours I'm still left wondering if I got a lemon or if I'm just missing some bizarre and subtle nuance to adjusting it.
Disclaimer: I'm a relative newbie to all of this, but I know how to use a square and I know how to follow directions. I bought a Delta 12" bandsaw at the same time as the twinlaser miter, and have had no problems with it so far. That one went together like a breeze and has being working like a charm ever since.
About the only good thing I have to say about this saw -so far- is that it was a helluva bargain (if I can ever get it work right, that is...) - about $180 at the Blue Borg, due to their 20% off weekend sale plus a $50 mail-in rebate. For a tool that sells elsewhere for between $300-$350 I'd say that's a good deal. I can probably still sell the thing and not lose money if I decide not to keep it.
I'll second that. I love my Porter Cable with laser guide.
Brian.
The delta saws I have used and seen have not been very good. decks that are not level are the biggest problem.
My Porter Cable was dead on perfect in every adjustment right out of the box. About the only thing I had to do was move the compound adjustment. The stop was right, but it had moved during shipment.
The lasers were also EXACTLY right. They are set up so that the laser lines are left (the blade cuts in between) but they tend to hide pencil marks so I think I'm going to adjust them so that the lasers fall inside the kerf.
snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com (Pet Quality) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com:
I know you're looking at a 10" Dewalt but for an other hundred dollars you will get a much more useable saw. I've had a DW705 12" saw for more than 8 years of heavy use. The switch went bad about 3 months ago in the middle of a job. I replaced it with another DW705. I looked at the others, but came back to the same saw. Works for me!
you only get 1" of extra cut at most.
On Mon, 2 Feb 2004 12:21:07 -0600, Lawrence A. Ramsey wrote (in message ):
I suspect this is why they make the slidiing version. I know my SCMS came in very handy this past weekend during a fence repair project. No way I could have cut some of the boards with a 10- or 12-in CMS. I had to use either a TS or a SCMS.
One of the reasons I went with the 10-in SCMS was because you really don't get that much more cutting room with a 12-in blade (plus I already had a fairly new Forrest 10-in MS blade and didn't want to have to buy another one).
Wayne
but you sacrifice cut quality with a 12" blade far more flex. depending on the wood it may not matter but some woods will flex the blade.
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