Sliding miter saws

[Dave Lehnert]

Is there such a thing as a sliding miter saw accurate enough for woodworking? I have read reviews till I am blue in the face. All saws low to high price will have a review "This saws junk, sending it back" and "Best saw ever"

Looking for a 10" to replace my 20 year old Craftsman non-sliding saw.

[Jim Andrew]

I'm really pleased with my Makita. It is the 10" and it will cut about 12 1/2". Mine cuts really accurate. I check once in a while with a framing square. Most accurate saw I've ever had, and I've had several. Mine came with the bag for dust, and I got the sears switch box and the small dia hose and hooked a shop vac to the dust port. Haven't figured how to get all the dust but works far better than a bag.

[Stuart Gardner]

You betcha they're accurate enough. I think almost any high quality saw today is going to give you real good results. I have a Hitachi 10" Sliding Dual Compound (over 6 years now - bought at Lowes) and couldn't love it more. Super accurate results. But I'm keeping an eye out for that new Bosch whatever they're calling it non-sliding saw. That looks waaayy cool :cool:

[Van Huskey]

I have the Milwaukee 12" and had several Bosch/Makita in the past both 10 and 12. They all can work fine if you use them correctly, but you can move the blade with imporper hand pressure.

If you want the most accurate slider around just get a Festool Kapex it IS more accurate and easier to use accurately BUT I have yet to see the need to pay the $1300. For that money you can get a really accurate high quality used RAS.

[Will Overton]

get a Festool Kapex it IS more accurate

Since my Bosch cuts square enough that no light shows through when I hold an accurate square against the cut, I wonder how the Festool can be more accurate. :confused:

Did someone drink the Kool-Aid? :)

I have a Bosch 12" scms which was not to great out of the box. It came with a construction grade blade. I swapped that for a Forrest Chopmaster and it is as accurate as any other saw (table, ras) I ever used. The 12" was not really necessary as it turned out, so if I had to replace it I'd probably get the 10" Bosch to save a little room.

[Michael Peet]

I also have the 10" Makita SCMS. Sometimes if I have a piece that is not long enough to be supported by the fence on the offcut side I get a less satisfactory cut.

I have come to really like using a crosscut sled when I need more precise cuts, but obviously it doesn't work on long pieces.

I think both have a place in the shop.

Mike

[Matt Meiser]

I've got a Makita 12" which I haven't had all that long and I haven't done that much woodworking since I got it due to other stuff going on but I'm impressed so far for what I have done and with checks against an engineer's square while setting it up. The laser doesn't seem like its going to be all that useful for precision work since the line is just too wide and too fuzzy at the edge but lining it up by putting a tooth on the mark still works too. The dust collection is fair but I found trying to make it better by attaching a shop vac actually makes it worse because it sucks the rubber dust boot closed. I think that could easily be solved with some silicone and a piece of springy wire. A drop from my DC along with a big box hooked to the DC behind works very well for the shop. The factory blade is even well-regarded.

As for the Kapex, I played with one in a store and you can flex it just like the others. Their angle finder thing is neat. I've not seen the DC in action but that's what really seems to be its claim to fame.

BTW, they are quite heavy. Mine is on a Ridgid MSUV which makes for a really heavy combination too.

[Paul McGaha]

I have a 10" Hatachi SCMS thats a little less than 3 years old.

I'm happy with it.

[david brum]

Love my Hitachi. It's nearly all I use for crosscuts now. I once bought a Harbor Freight slider. Now that was something that wouldn't cut accurate joints! It went back the next day.

[Dave Lehnert]

You betcha they're accurate enough. I think almost any high quality saw today is going to give you real good results. I have a Hitachi 10" Sliding Dual Compound (over 6 years now - bought at Lowes) and couldn't love it more. Super accurate results. But I'm keeping an eye out for that new Bosch whatever they're calling it non-sliding saw. That looks waaayy cool :cool:

I forgot about the new Bosch. Have to see what that one is like.

I was looking at saws tonight at Lowe's. The Dewalt 10" had the same cutting Capacity as a 12" Bosch.

[James Baker SD]

I had a Bosch 12" slider and despite all the adjustments I did over hours and hours I could never get it to cut a perfect 45 degree miter vertically to make a tight, no gap showing picture frame. The Kapex I have now does (admittedly after about 2 hours of adjustments).

James

[Jay Allen]

I have the DW717 10" and it works great for what I need. It did take some adjusting out of the box, but it is dead-on and holds the adjustments.
I bought it as a replacement for the 8 1/2" DW712 that was destroyed in a fire, mainly because of the blade interchangability.

[Bob Direso]

I have found my Makita 10" slider to be very accurate. The only issue I have had is occasional kickback if something isn't just right, like a little warp in a board. There is also a stop for making dado cuts that moves into that mode without me realizing it which stops a full slide movement. I think it involves the vac hose interfering with the adjustment switch but I'm still not sure yet.

[Thom Porterfield]

I have the Makita 10" SCMS. I think it is without a doubt the best investment I ever made in a power tool, dollar for value. It was great out of the box; it's superb with a better blade and some fine tunings for squareness. I use a 15" acrylic draftsman's triangle to check square at the limit of the slide extension. And for those weird cuts that aren't supported by the fence on both sides, I use a scrap that does, and check to be sure it has parallel edges.

The only thing that isn't perfect about the saw is its dust control system. The bag is absurd--I got rid of it right away and put on a hose. But the hose kept being in the way, so now I am using a PVC elbow to deflect the dust down behind the saw, and made a shroud to collect the blown dust. Only half the dust the saw produced went into the bag anyway. The rest comes off the bottom of the blade. There is a slot at the bottom of the shroud that is connected to a shop vac beneath the table. This system doesn't get all the dust, but it keeps all of it in one place.

[Dave Lehnert]

For everyone who has the Makita saw. Is it the new model sold now or the old model discontinued about a year ago.

[Dave Lehnert]

Looked at this saw at Sears Hardware tonight. Slide was smooth and seemed like a very well built saw. But for $269?

Started reading the reviews and it gets better reviews than the name brand saws costing $200 more.

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_00921239000P

[Michael Peet]

For everyone who has the Makita saw. Is it the new model sold now or the old model discontinued about a year ago.

Mine is the discontinued one.

http://www.makita.com/en-us/Modules/Tools/ToolSupport.aspx?ID=10934

Mike

[Jim O'Dell]

When I bought my SCMS, I wanted the Makita 1013 (discontinued one) but got the Hitachi for a steal of a price, and it had a rebate for a free 2 1/4 HP router as well!! I'm happy with it, but wanted the bigger base the Makita had, and the slightly larger motor. But the Hitachi has worked very well. I recently got a new blade for it, but haven't installed it yet due to not having anything I need to cut. That was another nice thing about the Makita, it reportedly came with a very nice blade. The Hitachi sounds like the Bosch blade mentioned above. Fine for rough framing, but not final cuts in hardwoods. Jim.

[Michael Simpson Virgina]

I have a Festool Kpex and have to say you wont find a more capable saw. While the laser pointers needed adjustment they are now perfect and I can split a pencil mark down the middle using the laser lines on ether side of the blade.

[Paul McGaha]

Michael,

How's the dust collection on the Kapex?

Does your shopvac or dust collector get all the dust?

Do you have to have some kind of hood behind it?

I'm collecting maybe half the dust at my SCMS. Probably will have to build a hood something like Matts and rework my dust collection at the miter saw and the hood to improve it.

PHM

PHM

[Erik Christensen]

I would guess the Kapex captures 80-95% of the dust generated by the saw.

It is not perfect, but a big improvement over any other SCMS I have seen. It is really apparent if you have been using the saw for a few hours and when time to clean up you realize it takes 2 minutes vs 10-15. The main thing I have noticed is that it seems to only miss the larger chips - big things with some velocity that escapes the air shroud around the blade; but all the really fine dust is captured. The fine dust is a problem, not only for health reasons, but because it stays suspended in the air long enough to migrate far away. What this has meant for me, in my use of the tool, is that cleanup is limited to course sawdust within a few feet of the saw as opposed to having to vacuum every horizontal surface in the entire room.

[Jim Andrew]

Regarding the dust collection on my Makita saw, the rubber flap does want to close when the vacuum is on, so I put some tape on it to hold it open. If there is someone good with plastic, think you could design a much better flap. Maybe wider and extend down a bit, looks like it could be improved significantly. Thinking about experimenting with sheet metal. Jim

[Steve Griffin]

I have used the hitachi 12" sliders and found them plenty accurate for fine furniture and cabinets.

But for my shop, I opted to save about $700 on my two chop saws by not going with the slider feature, and purchasing a 48" sliding table for the table saw. I also saved room in the shop by not needing such deep miter saw stations, and find it is no trouble to use the table saw for the .05% of cuts which are greater than 8".

What I couldn't live with is 10" blades, which run out of height so fast when cutting posts and miters on edge.

Lots of ways to address the crosscut operation, and I encourage you to look at your shop as a whole, not just each particular machine.

-Steve

[Thom Porterfield]

Dave:
Mine is the older one. Other than the need for manufacturers to continually make new models of things, I can't see any reason for the upgrade. The things I would have improved on haven't been. :)

[Ben Abate]

I have two, one is an older DeWalt 12 inch slider and it still does a great job of trim and what have you. I was able to obtain a slightly used Festool Kapex from a friend and I found it awkward at first but now I really enjoy it. And the dust collection with a CT22 works pretty good. Not 100% but about 90% or so. It also cuts very well. I no longer use the DeWalt since buying the Kapex. As with any saw the blade makes a difference in my opinion. One very nice feature of the Kapex is the room behind the saw. It is designed to take up less room. My DeWalt required at least 6 or 8 inches more than that Kapex. On the older DeWalts the saw head and the sliding tubes moved in and out. With the design of the kapex the tubes are stationary and the saw head moves in and out leaving more room behind the saw. I believe someone asked if a hood is needed, nooooo but, if building a permanent station it wouldn't hurt but it's not necessary. I did notice a difference in using a larger diameter hose on the Kapex than the regular hose you would normally use for sanding attachments. Don't quote me but I believe the larger hose is 50 mm? I think, I had a new hose from a dust vac from Sears ( after market hose Orange in color) years ago and it was lying around my garage. I thought about seeing if it would fit and it did. Then I found a website explaining about using a larger diameter hose and it is recommended. I don't know what the brand name of this larger hose is but it was advertised in do it yourself and Popular Mech such magazines years ago and I'll bet it still is available. I may have purchased it out of a Wood Working mag too, can't really remember. It has the correct size of outlets that fit the CT 22 and CT 33. And it's 50 mm. Again not sure of the larger hose from Festool but I think it's in the $100.00 range and I think this one was $29.00 or so with attachments.

hope some of this helps
Ben

[Dave Lehnert]

Thats for all the info.

The Festool people seem to like it a lot but 1) Way out of my price range 2) the two features that gets top score with the Festool, Dust collection and Space needed behind the saw is not tops on my list of features I look for.

[Michael Simpson Virgina]

The dust collection on the Kpex is really good. It all depends on what you are cutting and what kind of fixture you have attached to the saw.

Out of the box I would say I get about 90% of the dust. I use a Festool vacume connected to a Dust deputy cyclone and a couple of blast gates so I dont get 100% suction. If I connect the Festool vacume directly to the Kpex I can get 95-100% collection. The saw has this little rubber hood that scoops up most of the dust.

Now all that said if I connect my zero clearence inserts for some real fine cutting I get about 50-60% pickup.