Hi Everybody,

I've been a homeowner for about two years now and I'm expanding my tool collection to get started into amateur woodworking and DIY household projects. I want to start with making workbenches and basic storage cabinets for the basement and eventually get into building vanities, bookshelves, dressers, etc for the rest of the house. Here are the woodworking tools I have so far:


  • Cordless drill & impact driver
  • Cordless 6.5" circular saw w/ Diablo 40T Fine Finish blade & Kreg Rip Cut guide
  • Two sawhorses
  • Reciprocating saw
  • Kreg K5 Pocket Hole Jig


I have enough budget for the moment to get what seems like the next logical tool: a miter saw to get precise cuts on 2x and 4x lumber as well as the ability to do baseboard and crown molding in the future. I've been going back and forth for months on whether or not I should go all-out and get a 12" sliding compound miter saw or if I should opt for a 12" non-slider. I've looked at the 10" sliders but I think I want to have the vertical capacity that a 12" blade provides for versatility. So far I'm partial to DeWalt tools so I'm basically comparing the DW716XPS vs the DWS780. The two questions I keep circling around are 1) would I be sacrificing accuracy by getting a slider, even when it's in a locked non-sliding mode, and 2) am I ever going to need the added horizontal crosscut capacity when I get a table saw down the line? Note that I'm not a contractor and will never be cutting roof rafters or new construction apart from framing up a finished basement. I've heard plenty of people say "Get all the saw you can afford now so you won't regret it later", but if I will likely never need a slider's capacity for home DIY / woodworking project work then I could use the $200 upgrade price elsewhere (such as a jig-saw, table saw, or a router). Let me know what you think!