Dewalt DW780 or Bosch Glider

[Paul Dell'Anno]

Looking to buy a new miter saw. My DW706 is on its last legs. Want to upgrade to a slider and so far, the Dewalt DW780 and the Bosch Glider are at the top of the list. Does anyone have any experience with these saws. Also, are there any other saws which I should look at? Thanks in advance for the help

[Van Huskey]

I would add the Milwaukee 6955-20 to the list, I am assuming you have dismissed the Festool Kapex.

The Kapex would be my choice if money wasn't an issue.

The Bosch and Milwaukee woule be tied for second with the Dewalt next in line.

Of the two I would take the Bosch if the Bosch's limitations on cut height and side did not bother me.

[Rick Fisher]

I don't much like 12" Sliders.. too big.. I have used the Bosch glider and found it to be okay.. I would not buy the DeWalt at all...

I lean towards Makita and Bosch now for reliability and quality.. Festool would be my choice if my old Hitachi ever dies..

[Cyrus Brewster 7]

I don't much like 12" Sliders.. too big.. I have used the Bosch glider and found it to be okay.. I would not buy the DeWalt at all...

I lean towards Makita and Bosch now for reliability and quality.. Festool would be my choice if my old Hitachi ever dies..

I will have to agree with Rick on the DeWalt... I believe the DW780 came out last fall and was supposed to address one of the issues the previous model had - terrible slide bearings. It still has the rough castings of the previous model, and from what I felt when I got a chance to use the dw780, the bearings only felt slightly better than a 10" Ryobi.

Definitely add the Milwaukee to the Makita/Bosch choices. I personally have a 10" Makita and like it a lot.

[Timothy Wolf]

I am looking at getting one of the new Makita four rail sliding saws. I have a non sliding 12" Makita and really like it. I have not used the new sliding version but have been impressed with it in the store. I am also considering the new Bosch glide, but it may be more than I really want to pay.

[fRED mCnEILL]

I have had a Makita slider for 10 years and its still going strong AND accurate. If I was going to buy a new saw it would be the Glide for space saving. Also Bosch is a good brand overall which I don't consider Dewalt to be. Everything I have ever bought from them has been less than satisfactory.

[Leo Graywacz]

I purchased the Bosch Axial Glide. Out of the box accuracy sucked. Everything needed to be tweaked. I had to do some destructive work to fix it also.

Both fences leaned in, I had to put a piece of paper at the outside ends of each fence. That gave me a perfectly square cut on both sides of the blade.

I had to adjust the vertical square of the blade, took a few tries but I got that to come in perfect. Although you need to check it if you do bevel cuts and bring it back up to square, it doesn't always seem to come back to perfect 90.

But the kicker was the 45s. They were bad. If I took a piece of molding and did a right and left 45 and joined them the joint was about 1/2 degree off. That's 2 degrees in a square. Worthless.

After I did a bunch of tests on the 45s I found that the right side was dead on and the left side was the problem. I took drastic action and I removed the plastic detent off the saw and cut it. That's right, you heard me, I cut it so the 0-60 detents (right) were one piece and the 15-50 (left) were on the other detent.

The saw has 4 screws that you loosen to move the detent plate to adjust 0 degrees. And after you do that everything else should be perfect. Well it wasn't. So now the right detent plate adjusts the zero through 60 and the left adjusts the 15-50. Took me three tries but I got the 45 dialed in. More perfect than any other miter saw I have ever used. I really think I have it dialed in closer than .05 degrees.

So now, after all the tuning has been done it is a very accurate saw.



The glide mechanism is fantastic. So smooth. I put a little resistance on it using the screw so it wouldn't slide around by itself. To bad it doesn't have a laser.

I made a cart for it with a vac. Nice setup for the shop.

http://fototime.com/CA5802E37DA86EE/orig.jpg

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http://fototime.com/25A5839590B119A/orig.jpg

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I use the iSocket to turn the vac on and off when I pull the saws trigger

http://fototime.com/40A0028EC266AD3/orig.jpg

[Mark Ashmeade]

Odd. Mine had been a demo unit at Peachtree, and the box had been rained on. I got a hundred off, and it was dead-on accurate in horizontal and vertical planes.

I've had it about 18 months now, and it's a winner.

Still, the RAS beats the ass out of it for crosscuts over a few inches.

[Leo Graywacz]

I have taken 10" plywood and crosscut it and put the two pcs together and they are nearly unisaw good.

I wonder if I got a defective detent plate. They are molded and not machined. So unless one of the molds is faulty (lucky me) then it seems suspect.

But to me it matters not because I got the machine working good.

Possible I might be more picky (anal) than you about the accuracies, but mine was not acceptable out of the box. If it had no adjustments it would have gone back in a second.

[Roger Feeley]

I had a Bosch Glide for a while. It came from Amazon and had a bed that was dished. They sent a second one and it was about the same. Bosch was great about trying to resolve the problem but I finally sent it back for a refund. You can read the full review here:

I have a 12" Dewalt DW703 that has served me well. I put a furniture grade blade on it and when it's sharp, I don't have to sand the cuts much at all. I wanted something that would cut wider pieces of material and I also wanted something for dados. I really hate my table saw dado insert. I never made a zero clearance insert for dados and that big hole just scares me. My lovely bride of almost 35 years bought me this saw for my birthday. I am one lucky guy.

The saw seems rock solid. The things I noticed that are different from the Dewalt.

1. As just about everyone notices, the glide is very loose. Bosch put an adjustment to add some resistance but I haven't done it yet.
2. It's not a soft start motor so there is a kick that I didn't get with the non-sliding Dewalt. It's just a thing.
3. One thing I didn't expect but should have is that the blade doesn't bury itself as deeply. The Dewalt, to get maximum cut width, went way down. The bed on this saw is about a half inch lower than the Dewalt. Again, just a thing but I was cutting some Baltic Birch plywood and I had some tearout on top. I don't think I would have had that with the Dewalt.
4. The handle seems higher than the Dewalt. I wound up rebuilding my stand and shortening it by 2" so it wouldn't be awkward. Part of the awkwardness comes from the safety (see item 1 below)

A couple of negatives (maybe)
1. There is a thumb safety release that I didn't have with the Dewalt. It's pretty stiff and I haven't quite got the hang of it.
2. The saw is very awkward to carry. The way the weight is distributed on the saw and where you are supposed to grab it make for a difficult lift. On the positive side of that, Bosch put in some locking pins that are easy to find and engage.
3. I am used to a zero-clearance insert on the Dewalt. It was a solid piece of plastic that I installed and then cut. Bosch has two pieces of plastic that can adjust inwards but they don't make for true zero clearance. I haven't figured out whether I care about that or not given item 3 above. It may be that I need zero clearance along the back more than the bottom. It could be that I never needed it at all.

I should mention that I am a hobby woodworker and that this saw won't travel.

Now I have to figure out what to do with the Dewalt.

Update:

1. The saw may be soft start. I was using it this morning and that's how it's behaving now. I did change blades but I can't imagine that having anything to do with a change in behavior. I started a support case with Bosch.
2. The table on my saw is not flat. The center is low by .029" which seems excessive to me. I have started a support case with Bosch.

Update:
Bosch told me to take the saw in for repair. They said that the saw isn't repairable but I could save shipping that way. The repair people tell me that the process will take about 3 weeks. I am waffling about what to do. The box is long gone so shipping back to Amazon would be a hassle.

Update:
Sadly, this saw is going back to Amazon. Customer service was great to deal with. I told them that the saw is defective according to Bosch tech support. The representitive I had was unfamiliar with woodworking tools so I dictated the reason for her as she typed and she was very appreciative that she didn't have to do that herself. I was informed that a shipper would come to my house to pick up the saw. I told them that the original shipping container is long gone and they said that wasn't a problem. Too bad about the saw but Amazon customer service gets 5 stars.

I will still buy the saw but I will be going to my local Woodcraft where I can see and touch the thing. I would have gone for a replacement with Amazon but I didn't want to get another bad saw and go through the whole process again. I thought it best to go brick and morter for this item.

Update:
I'm happy to report that everyone involved couldn't have been better.

Amazon offered to replace the saw or give me a refund. They offered to pay for return shipping even though I didn't have the original packaging. Because the saw is heavy, they scheduled a pickup with a trucking company. Amazon said I didn't even have to box the saw. The trucking company wanted me to box it in something...anything.

My experience with Bosch was better yet. I approached it from two directions: a support phone call and an email. The phone support guy told me that the saw was out of spec and was not repairable. He said I could return it to Amazon for refund or take it in to a local repair place where they would determine what was wrong (everything) and take care of me. They also said I could ship the saw back to them at my expense. That's about the best I could expect from a frontline support guy.

Meanwhile, the email folks were evaluating my case.

I consulted with my local retailer and they gave me the name of the Bosch Rep for Kansas/Missouri. I called him. I was trying to decide whether to go for a replacement or refund and then buy the saw locally. We have a couple of woodworking shows soon and I thought I might show up with my straightedge and get the pick of the litter. He expressed a lot of interest in my saw and talked with his techs who were more interested yet. They offered to order in several saws, pick the best and ship that one to me. Then I would use the box and ship mine to the techs for analysis. They would pay shipping. That sounded good to me so I accepted their offer. After all, I do like the saw, I just want one that's right.

Meanwhile, the email support folks got back to me. They wanted to ship me a new saw and have me ship mine back at their expense. It seems that their techs wanted to see my saw. That would make two genuine expressions of interest in what happened to my saw.

I have to say that one offer from Bosch might just be anomalous curiosity by a single person. Two such offers suggest a corporate culture.

I will update again in a week or so when I have more to report.

Update:

Bosch sent another saw in a prototype improved package. Basically, there was a box around the box with foam inserts between. The gaps in saw #2 were just about identical to saw#1. I contacted Bosch. It just so happened that the Woodworking Show was in town last weekend and my Bosch guy was working the show. Last Friday morning before the show opened he and another Bosch tech came by and did their own measurements. They got roughly the same results I did. It was nice to have a pro verify my measurements. I wasn't at all indignant. They offered to try again and had even brought another base with them. I said I was going to give up and send the saw back. Bosch offered to buy the saw and pay shipping. So the saw is gone and I have been promised a check in a couple of weeks.

[start opinion]
I am still convinced that this saw is top quality. Assuming I get the check, I have no complaints about how Bosch handled the situation. I have no complaints about Amazon.

Based on my experience with these two saws, I am still convinced that this is fine saw. If it were shipped upright on a pallet with other saws and handled correctly in shipment, I think it would be very accurate. However, I don't think the packaging is adequate for single shipping to my house. This is an 88 lb saw and most of the weight is not in the base. When that saw is dropped, all of that force comes down on the four feet and exerts a bending moment that would take a lot of aluminum to overcome.

If you are interested in the saw, buy it locally or go get it. Don't have it shipped to you.
[end opinion]

[Mark Ashmeade]

Well, as I bought my saw locally, perhaps that explains the lack of adjustment required. But then again, how did it get to Peachtree? A truck from the port of importation, or a UPS/Fedex trip via their hubs, planes, trucks and staff?

I put a shopbuilt shroud behind it, with a 6" dust port at the bottom, and a piece of vacuum cleaner hose from the GCSM12SD's dust port just dangling into the 6" port. Barely a speck of dust. As the cut completes, and the head travels back, the fan action of the blade blows what little has settled on the table into the DC airstream. I do like this saw.

I still prefer my RAS for larger crosscuts though.

[Leo Graywacz]

I remember reading your review Roger.

I got mine at my local store.

[Larry Edgerton]

I would like to have one for no other reason than they do not have slides. I do a lot of work with cellular plastics and the slides collect the dust. But....

I have looked them over a couple of times, and sorry, that does not look like $800 to me. Fittings look poorly made, and it does not look like it would survive a construction enviroment. Fit and finish leaves a lot to be desired, and I am no longer buying tools made in China, so I will stick to my current saws.

For $800 you fellows should not have to be fiddling.

Larry

[Chris Rosenberger]

I have 2 Dewalt DW780 miter saws. I have no complaints at all. The heads on both slide very smooth, they both cut great. The dust collection is excellent, very close to the Festool Kapex.
I like the white LED blade light much better than the lasers.

[Roger Feeley]

Hi Leo,

How's that Bosch working out for you. The other problem I had (minor) was the safety trigger lock that you have to pull with your thumb. I thought it worked hard but that maybe I could get used to it. My concern wasn't as much for me now as for the me in 10 years when this arthritis gets worse. I can't imagine a person with any significant arthritis working that interlock.

[Leo Graywacz]

The interlock seems to be loosening up a bit. I still don't like it, my Hitachi didn't even have one.

[Jim Neeley]

I've had a Glide since they first came out. Mine came well-aligned and needed no adjustment. I was surprised.

The laser is available as an accessory; I added one and like it although being the "washer-type" it's parallel to but slightly to the left of the blade.

[Mike Heidrick]

I love my 717 10" Dewalt. The LED shadow line of EXACTLY where the blade will cut (and does not go out of adjustment like a laser) is the best scms invention I have seen and it is a dewalt exclusive. I think it comes standard on the 780. Thats why I would choose it.