DeWalt miter box coplanar base , but rotating portion is dropped down 1/16" - 1/8"?!?

[Ellery Coffman]

So, I finally put a level across by DeWalt miter box. I've attached a picture of the problem.

It appears the middle portion of the table top is lower than the two coplanar ends. The middle portion rotates and rides on a PVC shim. I have barely used the saw, so this is a disappointment. I had planned on cutting mdf for the back of the fence as there are bolt holes for this. I can see it being very cumbersome to use mdf for the bottom too as there are no bolt holes to attach it too and if I make two adjacent 45 degree cuts, the middle portion would fall out...

Are all miter boxes this poor in quality? What should I do? I am concerned that when I cut material it will never be perfectly 90 degrees.

238966

[Ellery Coffman]

So, I just went to Lowes and all the new DeWalt miter saws have a similar gap, but it's hard to tell with labels in the way. The DeWalt I did find without a label was about 50% better than mine and you could easily slip stuff under the straight edge like several dollar bills (and see the gap for that matter)... I tried to slip a dollar bill under a machined level on one of the Chinese made Hitachi's and could not! I also looked at a Makita and saw no gap, but there were labels, so who knows.

Funny how the DeWalt is marketed as a "professional" miter box; yeah right. I think a monkey could have designed the saw better; what a joke! DeWalt is not what it used to be.

I now remember cutting some trim on the left and seeing it slightly buckle down toward the middle of the cut. Now I know why!