Miter Saw Recommendations?

Robert166

robert166
Corporate Member
The ole Kobalt miter saw I bought from Lowes several years ago has been a decent saw, but the accuracy is not that great. I am not ready to purchase a Festool, but would like to hear user opinions on the brands they have. I have a blade size of 10 inches, mainly because that is what my table saw is. And for doing small projects, a 12 inch seems excessive, but not dismissing it altogether. So what is your opinion on the new miter saws today? "Bosch CM10GD Compact Miter Saw Dual-Bevel Sliding Glide Miter Saw" for $599.00 has some decent reviews, and I like their other products. Does anybody have one of these?
 

bobsmodels

Bob
Senior User
Don,t be limited by blade size. You really do not want to use a table saw blade on a slidding miter. You want a special miter blade for sliding miter.

Bob
 

Gunnage

New User
Greg
I’m interested to hear the responses. I have a 12” Rigid slider and it’s ok. Mostly I use it for cutting rough lumber down to more reasonable sizes prior to milling.

I have considered the Bosch mainly because that is the only one besides the festool that doesn’t have bars that stick out the back drastically increasing the footprint.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Robert166

robert166
Corporate Member
Bosch has some good reviews and some bad on youtube. But the bad review was from several years ago, so those issues could be corrected now.
This is the negative review, kinda negative....
 

Bas

Recovering tool addict
Bas
Corporate Member
I have the the Bosch CM10GD, it works very well. It needed a few minor adjustments to get everything square and parallel, but it's easy to do and the manual shows all the steps. It can crosscut 12", and the glide mechanism is very smooth. Miters are very accurate. I'm still using the stock blade, and get very nice cuts.

The only thing that is somewhat subpar is the dust collection, but most miter saws have that problem. The smaller footprint of the saw allowed me to build an enclosure to capture the dust, which has worked out well.


 

tvrgeek

Scott
Corporate Member
Bosch and Makita seem to be the top of the heap. I have a Ridgid and am not overly impressed. I hate those yellow ones.
 

Gofor

Mark
Corporate Member
I have the DeWalt 12" slider. Good accurate saw with a couple of draw-backs:

1. The hold down clamps are useless. Poor design and they just do not work

2. Mine has the laser light. Don't waste extra money for that model if using it for furniture work. The 12" slider without it is cheaper and otherwise identical. The problem with the laser light is that it only shadows the plate of the blade when its spinning, so does not show an accurate line for the kerf as the teeth stick out. If you have to lower the blade to register the kerf on the cutline, the light isn't needed IMHO. If you can live with a 64th" discrepancy, the light works fine. I normally mark with a knife instead of a carpenters pencil, so rarely use it. For construction work the light would be a plus as with experience, you can pretty much eyeball the slight offset you need.

3. For the dust collection to work, you do need a vacuum, and it costs extra for the attachment to hook up either a 1 1/4 or 2" hose. The included bag is useless. I feel that the "universal adapter" should be included. I my use, I found that a 1 1/4" vac hose was as efficient as a 2"in keeping the saw dust clear in the rear of the saw.

Otherwise it is an excellent saw. The fences were square to the table vertically as well as to the perpendicular cut line, and all the bevel and angle adjustments were right on. All preset detents for the common angles were also accurate. All are easily adjustable if one needs to tweek them. The slide does not deflect, so it makes accurate, repeatable cuts, both vertically and beveled. The slide has a positive latch which secures it when transporting, and when just making chop cuts. It is a belt drive, which I like. As with any 12" slider, it does take up some real estate. The motor has some kick to it when you trigger it that takes a little getting used to. The handle and switch work well with both right and left hands.

If you get one, one caution. There is a piece of plastic in the blade trough that just touches the blade. The first time you trigger the saw, make sure it is not down in the trough as the teeth will grab the plastic and throw it up into the blade and may damage the saw and blade. (I read about this when researching the saw). If you have the blade up, trigger it, lower it, and push it through the first cut with the blade spinning, it will cut a minimum kerf in the plastic and will cause no more problems after that. The problem occurs when the blade is started with it resting on the plastic piece when the saw is brand new.
 

redknife

Chris
Corporate Member
FWIW, the dewalt 780/790 has a down light led so the shadow cast on the workpiece is very accurate, including being able to see the teeth without activating the saw. I can attach a Bosch hose directly to the saw, which is the same hose I use for the festool tools, Milwaukee cordless router, titan router, and dewalt cordless planer. I love the DW 790.
 

tvrgeek

Scott
Corporate Member
My Ridgid also has the down light. Good enough for carpentry. I have bought three DeWalt tools. Very unhappy with all of them. Biscuit joiner is OK marginally. Sanders I absolutely hate. Hooks last about 10 sheets of paper, one spindle off center, just don't work as well as other tools. I will have to break down and buy their planer as it is about the only one out there short of a full size. DeWalt is just overpriced B&D as far as I can tell. My old original Delta was better all around but I needed ( wrong) compound. Should have just made jigs.
 

chris_goris

Chris
Senior User
I have been using the 12" version of that saw for about 4 years now and absolutely love it!. It was true right out to of the box!. The first thing I cut with was 45 degree cuts on 8" wide maple. the corners were perfect. You wont be disappointed with it. The matching stand if you can afford it and need it, is also a wonderful thing!.
 
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chris_goris

Chris
Senior User
Bosch has some good reviews and some bad on youtube. But the bad review was from several years ago, so those issues could be corrected now.
This is the negative review, kinda negative....
Im not sure why hes so hung up on the saw slightly moving in and out when locked?. What does that matter?. Yes, you can get the saw to deflect to the side by pushing on it or horsing a cut, too fast of a push or plunge. But when you let the blade do the work, its flawless.
 

Martin Roper

Martin
Senior User
I have considered the Bosch mainly because that is the only one besides the festool that doesn’t have bars that stick out the back drastically increasing the footprint.

Both the Hitachi (now Metabo) and Makita have side rails.

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DavidK

New User
David
i have a 12 inch DEWALT slider. It takes way more space than I expected and if I had to do it again, I would get the Bosch or a model with side rails so it would take less space. I would also seriously think about a 10 inch for the same reason.
 

Gunnage

New User
Greg
Thanks Martin! I hadn’t looked in a while. Good to know I have other options.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Graywolf

Board of Directors, President
Richard
Staff member
Corporate Member
I have owned several of the Dewalt saws, and they have served me well. At present I have the double bevel compound miter saw, I’ve had this one for about four years. It lives and travels in my work trailer so it gets bounced around a little which forces me to tune it about once or twice a month. It’s the price you pay for accuracy on the job. You see I install pre-finished crown moldings just about every day or so. I have used the Hitache, Bouch, and the Makita. All are good saws, although I haven’t traveled with them. So my opinion might be affected by that lack of knowledge.
Dust collection on all of these saws is poor and I’m not sure it’s going to get better without effecting the use of the saw. Work holding I’ve never used on any miter saw, not even on my old Stanley hand miter saw. My answer to work holding is to have good material support so I’m not holding the weight of the work piece I’m just holding it down to the work table. Accuracy out of the box, all of them were very good, I’ve had to tune a few of them a little early in there use. But to me as long as I can bring it into tune without reinventing the wheel I’m fine.
Yes Black and Decker owns Dewalt. They bought the name and some of the designs from the remaining family of an out of business company and reintroduced the Dewalt brand as a separate division of B&D. They also own Porter Cable, and owned Delta for a while. From my experience with companies like Bouch and Dewalt and alike, they are all producing good products and it all depends on your personal needs and work space. For me I have to travel with my tools and they have to take a beating. At this time I have the Dewalt and it has a few issues because of the travel, and it will have to be replaced in the near future. But if I were to want to put it in a shop, I wouldn’t hesitate to do so. With that said, I wouldn’t pick it over the Bouch or vise a versa. With one exception, that is the space design between the two, that’s the rub, what is your space limitation, because when I get down to the nuts and bolts of it they both preformed the same tasks well.
For now that’s my two cents on the subject and I hope I didn’t muddy the water too much
 

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