Milwaukee 6955-20 12" Sliding Miter Saw Opinions

[jason mowery]

Does anyone have the Milwaukee 6955-20 12" sliding miter saw? I'm looking for something to replace my Dewalt GWI RAS, and am hoping this is up to the job. Frankly (and I know there is a huge following of folks into old Dewalt RASs), I haven't had much success getting it calibrated accurately, and it drives me nuts to have less than square crosscuts. Anyway, the reviews on the Milwaukee on Amazon are favorable, but I was hoping to get some thoughts here. Are sliding miter saws capable of being accurate enough for woodworking, or are they better suited for carpentry work? Any others worth considering besides the Milwaukee? I'm going the 12" route for make crosscut capacity.

Thanks in advance for your help!

[Tim Pape]

Jason,
I bought this saw about 3 months ago and couldn't be happier so far. It is a beast though, both in power (good) and size (bad depending on what you use it for). It is constructed like a tank, so it should last a long time.

It has a really good dust collection setup compared to any other CMS that I have used. I do wish it came with a stop and clamp/hold down, especially for the price. I also wish the table was a bit bigger, but that is easily fixed. All in all a great saw, and the variable motor is a sweet addition that is hard to explain unless you try it.

Hope this helps.
-Tim

[John Carlo]

I looked at buying one at the HD. It had much to impress me with. Then, on a whim, I picked up a square to ck alignment, and the fence was not meeting the table at 90 deg. It was bad enough to make me question the square so I tried 2 more.

[Don Morris]

Jason,

My 2cents: I looked at/read reviews/went to the BORGs to put an eyeball on all the 12's too, and the Milwaukee was impressive, even though it's a little more expensive. However, if you're looking for dead-on cross cuts, that seems to be a "Maybe". I have a 10" Hitachi which is pretty close to dead-on but I like the taller fences and cross cut abilities of 12"s. In reading multiple feedbacks I came across one from a high end contractor who upgraded his 10's to 12's. After a short while he ended up going back to his 10's. So it seems that it matters how critical you are and just what you do. I've decided to keep my 10 Hitachi and put an add-on taller fence on it for taller crown molding so I can do a "nested" to the fence technique. If I need to be real critical about dead-on cross cuts, that's done with a sled on the Table Saw. But if I didn't have to be absolutley dead-on, and I was in the market for a 12", and $$$ wasn't a factor, the Milwaukee sure is attractive. I liked that digital read out too.