Miter saw - need your advice, experience, and guidance before purchase

[Pbmaster11]

Which one? There are tons out there.

$350-$600ish

[dcustoms]

I love my Makita LS1216L alittle more than your looking to spend but you'll never have to get another one. The 10 inch version has a ton of capacity and in is your price range...model number LS1016L

Best of luck to you,

[Dyami Plotke]

I've heard great things about the current Makita offerings. My own saw, the Bosch GCM12SD is a bit higher than your budget, but is a fantastic saw too. The glide mechanism (Vs standard rails) is much, much smaller & just as accurate.

[strong]

I'd recommend one with built in lasers not the add on, they batteries keep dying on mine and there a pain to change.

You may want to consider dust collection too. Some like Festool do a better job of this.

FWIW I have an inexpensive Ryobi and it certainly does the trick. I'm considering moving up to a Festool though at some point mainly for the 2 reasons I mentioned.

My only other comment is sometimes you really do get what you pay for.

Good luck!

[calmari]

Biggest question is what features do you want? Your main decision points are:

- Blade size: 10 or 12"

- Sliding or not

- Single or Double bevel

Larger blade is more $, sliding is more $, double bevel is more $...but you can make tradeoffs to save a little. For example, a slider will let you cut wider boards, so you can go with a 10" slider and get increased cut capacity over the fixed 12"; you don't lose that much in overall cut capacity and not have to deal with the $$ that comes with 12" saw blades.

Personally I have the Hitachi C12FDH. Its a 12", fixed, double bevel and I've been pretty happy with it.

[dcustoms]

I'd recommend one with built in lasers not the add on, they batteries keep dying on mine and there a pain to change.

You may want to consider dust collection too. Some like Festool do a better job of this.

FWIW I have an inexpensive Ryobi and it certainly does the trick. I'm considering moving up to a Festool though at some point mainly for the 2 reasons I mentioned.

My only other comment is sometimes you really do get what you pay for.

Good luck!

The dust collection on the new Makitas is top notch.

[knotscott]

My miter saw collects dust unless I'm cutting some long boards like molding. My TS with a good miter gauge is more accurate, and easier for me to use. I may be in the minority, but my question is do you need one?

[Pbmaster11]

My miter saw collects dust unless I'm cutting some long boards like molding. My TS with a good miter gauge is more accurate, and easier for me to use. I may be in the minority, but my question is do you need one?

Excellent point Scott,

I do have an incra 3000 miter sled dealybobber and it is great. Although I would like to be able to quick shop some long boards up! I think i need a miter saw (eventually build a station with wings) to be able to cut longer boards that are not safe on the table saw.

[Sac]

+1 on the Makita. When I get around to it, that is the one that I am going to get.

[CessnaPilotBarry]

Mine lives next to KnottScott's... In the shop, I only used it for rough cuts. I disassembled it and replaced it with my jigsaw and a hand saw.

A great way to crosscut long boards is to use counterweights on the sled. With a bit of experience, you can move the whole shebang with two fingers. I picked up a few 3 and 5 pound iron plates rather cheaply at yard sales.

The miter saw is great outside the shop, though.

[vbdcb]

Jumping in here... I'm looking to replace my 20 y/o sears chop saw with something more accurate. I can't seem to ever get a 90 horizontal/90 vertical cut. I bought it when I knew so much less and was just looking to chop 2x4s. Now I'm doing a lot of cabinetry and frames, so I would like to build out a whole miter saw station so I can do accurate, repeatable cuts without having to set up the TS. I will check out the suggestions above.

[vbdcb]

I've heard great things about the current Makita offerings. My own saw, the Bosch GCM12SD is a bit higher than your budget, but is a fantastic saw too. The glide mechanism (Vs standard rails) is much, much smaller & just as accurate.

I like the axial-glide on that saw.

[Jim DaddyO]

My first choice would be the Bosch glide saw. Love that thing. But I am into cool engineering features.

My next choice would be the Makita, in tests it came out second only to Festool by a small margin (not by enough that would explain the Festool being twice the price though)

[Texfire]

If I may suggest another way of looking at it, what do you want it to be able to do for you? What are you going to cut with it? How much horizontal capacity do you want/need? Is dust collection a must have or a it would be nice? Are you including the price of a good blade in the purchase cost? Can you do what you want with a 10" blade, or will you need to move up to a 12"?

I decided on the Bosch GCM12SD because I wanted 12" horizontal capacity, overall compactness and good dust collection. It was second to Festool in dust collection, but half the price for fairly equivalent cut capacities cut quality. Since that's the only one I have personal experience with, that's all I can recommend, but I expect you'll find perfectly adequate saws if you don't need that capacity or compactness.

[Spencer_J]

I owned the makita 10" compound sliding miter saw previous to the latest model. it was amazing. I noticed that the RPM's were 600 higher than the current model. also, the work surface was much larger than the new one. since I decided to move accross the country, it got left behind. I got the new LS1216L in january 2012. Wonderful machine. the laser is spot on, haven't touched it since. one amazing feature i use daily is the miter locking mechanism which pretty much gives you infinite detents. I've tried to force the miter away from the locked position and I can't budge it.

That being said... No matter how much suction i have hooked up to that 1" dust port, it still sprays %40 of larger dust particles. I cut a lot of wide boards and heavy beams. I've had to re-calibrate it 6 times or so for square to the fence/ blade and now the vertical miter is off just enough to make my picture frames look pretty off. It's sat on the same work bench since i purchased it. I've bumped into it a few times but no serious heavy blows. I've also found that the upper fences do not lock perfectly parallel to the lower fences (i took the air blow gun for five minutes making sure there was 0 particles stuck in there). This saw is really starting to take up my time with tiny discrepancies which build up to inches of gaps and confusion. I'm planning on building a new 10' extension wing and fence/stop system. Anyone have advice or experience with my troubles? Did i get a lemon or is it time to re-build the saw?