Bosch 4410 vs Makita LS1013

[John Michaels]

I'm in the market for a 10" sliding miter saw. If you read the online reviews at places like Amazon some people will the state the Bosch is the best and the Makita is total junk, or the other way around. I believe the recent article in Fine Woodworking gave the Bosch first place and the Makita second.

Any here at the creek have there own opinions as to which saw I should buy.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

I have some Makita tools. They atend to be tough and well made. So does Bosh. Bosch tends to be more sophisticated.

[David Tiell]

My brother bought the Bosch and uses it regularly in his construction busy for everything from cutting rafters to crown molding. He swears by it. Based on his recommendation, I bought the Bosch 12" for my shop. A very well made saw that I would recommend to anyone.

[Dan Clark]

I looked at the Bosch and the Makita LS1013. Here's what I found...

1) The Makita is NOT, repeat NOT junk! It is a very fine piece of engineering.

2) In terms of overall quality, I'd give the Makita an A+ and the Bosch an A. Why? Well, the head on the Makita felt very slightly more solid. I thought the machining was slightly better. The head movement was slightly better.

3) In terms of features and usability, I'd give the Makita B+ and the Bosch an A+. The problem with the Makita is that the design as about 7 years old while the Bosch is about 2 years old. The Makita is just long in the tooth.

For example, the handle on the Bosch can be set to four positions. I found a 45 degree angle worked best for me. I found that Makita's fixed vertical handle to be very uncomfortable. And there were several other small issues.

So is the Bosch perfect? No. It turns out that the left bed extension is about 3/64 higher than the main bed. This gives a bevel to your cuts. I took it out and just use my miter saw stand supports. The bed extension needs to be either adjusted, repaired or replaced. I haven't had time to get it fixed.

Overall, I have a higher opinion of Makita products than Bosch products. But I still like the 4410L miter saw better than the LS1013.

Good luck with your decision.

Dan.

[Dave Sweeney]

My FIL has the Makita LS1013 and everytime I use it I swear that someday I'm gonna get me one. Almost everything on the Makita just seems so very user friendly. If I could change one thing on the Makita though it would be the handle. I find it a tad awkward to use and would much rather prefer a D handle type.

There hsn't been very much negative said about either of these two saws. If you filpped a coin I'm betting you'd be happy no matter which one came up the winner.

[fred woltersdorf]

i have the makita ls1013 and i would buy it again in a heartbeat.i learned on a hitachi and i didn't and still don't care for it.

[Stephen Morrison]

For those who have the Bosch 4410L, how accurate is the laser feature? Can it be turned off? Every laser line system I've seen has not been accurate. I would be inclined to remove it if possible.

[Dan Lautner]

I compared all the 10" sliders six months ago and went with Makita. The Makita has a unique large singe piece table and a rock solid slide. The Bosch is a great example of industrial design. I was not impressed with the flex when I played with the Bosch in the store. The Bosch has more bells and whistles for adjustments and excellent ergonomics. I just heard too many issues of poor quality control on the Bosch. One of my local suppliers stoped carrying the Bosch due to a large number of returned units. I believe the Bosch is now made in Malaysia but I'm not certain. The Makita is a solid time tested slider that I use almost every day for construction of my house as well as woodworking. The only tools I seem to buy these days are Makita, Bosch, Milwaukee or Festool (I would love to see Festool make a slider).

Dan

[Rick Williams]

Like Dan, I compared all the sliding compound mitersaws before I bought the Makita. I make a lot of boxes with mitered corners and accuracy is critical. If the sides are 4" or less I cut them on a jig standing up with the table swung at 45 degrees. Sides up to about 11 1\4" I cut on a jig laying flat with the blade swung to 45 degrees. Either way the cuts were spot on as the saw came out of the box. Laser is adjustable to either the left or right side of the blade as desired but I honestly don't use it much. This saw has been around for several years now and the research I did reflected that the folks who bought this saw and had used it for several years were very pleased with the purchase. Can't speak to the Bosch as I don't own one and have never used one. Very pleased with the Makita.

[Allen Bookout]

John,

I do not know about the Bosch 4410 but I have a couple of their other tools and they are excellent so I suspect that the 4410 is very good also. However I did recently buy the Makita LS1013FL and I am truely impressesed after using it a bit. I would buy it again and never look back. The saw was dead on accurate out of the box. Some comment has been made about the vertical handle but that was a non issue with me as my radial arm saw that I had for over thirty years had a vertical handle and it was just second nature for me to grab hold of it and go to work. As mentioned, the laser can be switched very easily to show on either side of the blade or can be turned off with a switch on the top of the unit. It seems to be pretty accurate but have not used it enough to really give a good evalutation.

Here is a thread that I started right after I got the saw: http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=46098

I think that you are going to be a happy guy whichever one you choose.

[John Michaels]

Thanks for all the advice. This summer I bought the Bosch 4000 portable table saw. What a great saw, the fence is dead on accurate. I've had my eye on the Makita miter saw for a few months now, but based on my great experience with the Bosch table saw, thought I'd get a second opinion.

Thanks again for all your help.

[Scott Thornton]

I owned the Makita for some time. It was a good saw, no real problems. I later upgraded to the Bosch SCMS, but the 12 inch. IMHO, a much better saw and worth the extra money...great features. The only thing I don't like is the dust collection on the Bosch, doesn't work...all that engineering and the dust doesn't go in the bag...besides that, top notch in everyway.

Either way, you won't go wrong if you stick with one of these...

[glenn bradley]

I would apply a large grain of salt or outside "influence" to any publication that labeled either of those saws as junk. The Bosch is the one I'm dreaming of due to the control layout but I've had my hands on both and would take a Makita in a heartbeat.

In a recent review (FWW? Don't recall.) The Bosch got a few negatives along the line of the laser guide not being as good as it could be and such. the Makita took a hit on a control location but, I think if Basch hadn't moved ALL controls up front they wouldn't have noticed.

The "first place - second place" between these saws almost become user-subjective. This is on 12" saws but might help:

http://www.woodnet.net/plansnow/review-mitersaws.pdf