Buying a Sliding Compound Miter Saw - Need Counsel

[roger wiegand]

Rather that attributing people's apparent success with different tools and techniques to their tolerance for inaccurate results I might suggest there is also an aspect of skill and care in the use of the tool. Take the handsaw-- capable of producing the best and worst possible cuts in the hands of different operators. It is rather disparaging to presume that those of us who are happy with a SCMS are only happy because we're willing to put up with crappy results. We might just have learned how to get a good result from a tool that is certainly capable of bad results when misused.

[andrew whicker]

I recently went down a rabbit hole of RAS's and found the used beefy ones to be quite affordable (a few hundred dollars). I sincerely wish I didn't build up so many nice cabs around a miter saw. Now I have to find more wall space for another long run for my newly acquisitioned RAS. I have space though. If you are space limited, go with the RAS over the sliding miter so that you don't end up too invested with something that doesn't work as well.

I have a Bosch glide / robot arm. It is Heavy. It is a pain to take to job sites. I will be getting a small Hitachi slider soon enough to take to job sites. I'm tired of hauling around a boat anchor. The Bosch miter saw stand is excellent, however.

[Thomas McCurnin]

I have a DeWalt DWS780 which is pretty accurate and has a nice pop up base for remote work, but gets banged around and needs fence adjusting frequently. I also have a stationary Hitachi CF10 which I have rebuilt twice because the saw is deadly accurate and a joy to use. That said, about 60% of my crosscut work is done on the radial arm saw. I have a very old 1950s 12" DeWalt-Rockwell radial arm saw that I love as well. If I had to pick one, I would pick a miter saw that could be tethered with a long measuring stop-fence, could be mounted in a recessed cabinet top with some slop on the mounting holes so one could adjust the alignment with the stop fence, and that had a nice long spindle that could accommodate a dado, and could miter and bevel. None of the three fill that bill, so that's why I have three.

I haven't shopped new saws recently but those four attributes (miter, bevel, dado and 12") would be the winning combination.

[Michael Rutman]

Going to disagree with anyone that says don't get a Kapax, but I remind everyone I'm a hobbyist and far far far from a professional. I had a Ridgid and never used it, once I got my Kapax it became my go to tool over the Sawstop. Any cross cut less than 12" is going on the Kapax every time. I'm not going to bring out my sled when the Kapax is just ready to use. Based on my experience I'm going to hypothesize a lot of negativity towards miter saws comes from people's experience with anything below top of the line. Other miter saws may cut as well as the Kapax, but Festool put a ton into making setup a breeze. I've never seen anything like it.

For reproducibility there is no way I'm going to get more accurate than the Kapax dual lasers. If I need to set up to match a prior cut I can set the stops and not feel a difference between the reference board and my new cut. I cannot do that on the Sawstop, there will be just enough that I can feel it with my finger. The Kapax can also cut crown molding at over 4 1/2", which my table saw can't do. I can score delicate wood with my Kapax and then immediately cut it without adjusting the blade. I can get a scoring blade for my table saw, or just use the Kapax.

Tablesaws are great and if you can only get one tool go for the tablesaw always. However, my personal experience is that anything a table saw can do there is another tool that does it much much better. It's just that I don't have every possible tool that the tablesaw does.

[lou Brava]

Both Dewalt & Makita saws will get you accuracy provided you have the right blade it's sharp & saw is bolted down to vary stable bench/table.
I use mine for repetitive cuts when cutting hundreds of parts for lets say a stair railing or a miter/cross cut on a long boards. I've cut miters on long 8" wide 5/4 Oak that came out near perfect. All this could be done on a RAS & I used to have one but moved switched to using a portable compound saw and don't miss the RAS at all. On the plus side is it's ability to be put away when not needed, negative is getting out setting it up when needed.
It all boils down to what your specific needs are just don't think a good quality sliding compound saw can't be accurate.

[Aaron Inami]

I will repeat my earlier statement about Makita:

"The Makita has decent dust collection, but suffers on accuracy and factory slide alignment as well as soft metal used for the detent presets."

If you bought a Makita and got a "perfectly aligned" unit, then great. I know that many customers received an out-of-alignment saw where the slider tubes are mis-aligned. This causes a curved cut on long sliding operations. It's a real pain and hassle to try to re-align this element. The soft metal on the detent presets can impact your accuracy if you use those common angle detents a lot. The soft aluminum wears and the detents become loose.

[Brian Gumpper]

It has tons of power, but when doing a larger cut it deflects - it’s obvious when you check the cut board for square or the zero clearance insert.

Most miter saw blades you get at the big box stores are thin kerf and the larger the diameter the more chance of deflection. The Ridge Carbide I sell the most of is a full kerf blade and people like it because they are more rigid which will give less or no deflection.

I'm sure your friends saw has a 1" arbor or I would say try a full kerf table saw blade you have lying around as a test but a 10" table saw blade will be 5/8" arbor

[Dave Sabo]

Late to the party , but I think you should take a serious look at the Milwaukee 10” & 12” saws. They are not great as far as jobsite portability is concerned, but they are very accurate and have good dust collection too - if that’s your thing.

The new(ish) Makita is a really good saw if you get an aligned one from the factory or care to take the time to do it yourself. But who want to do that ? And it ain’t as easy as aligning a fence or an angle stop.

Kapex is arguably the best of the lot, especially the newer ones if you can stomach the price, slim blade availability, and don’t mind the vertical handle. The two above are almost as good at 50-75% le$$. Pick your poison.

[Tom M King]

My old Dewalt 708 cuts accurately just like it always has. I have never hung it up in a cut because I don't do push cuts. Pull cuts make good dust collection possible. Dust collection is actually really good, and it's been used in finished houses with no dust outside the collection box.

I don't recommend that for anyone else with less than several decades of RAS use though. A friend did hang it up once, and put a lot of sawdust in the air by doing a push cut. He is not allowed to use it any more. It made me mad that it got hung up in a cut. That's why they don't stay calibrated. Fortunately, that one time didn't seem to do any damage.

I don't like lasers because the lines are too wide.

This DC box was made as a prototype maybe two decades ago. It worked so good that I never had any reason to change it, and it's still used today. 1/2" wide slot all along the back into a plenum box below to 6" duct. 3hp four bagger DC does better than wishful thinking. Anything less than 3hp is wishful thinking.

[Paul Richard]

All good questions and feedback folks - thank you. Some clarifications…. It’ll mostly be used for trim work (built in shelving/cabinets, etc), crown/base/picture-frame molding, then for cross cutting parts to be used in furniture and cabinet making. I plan to get one of those big dust hoods, so I’m ok with it being dusty, and space, while it is not unlimited, should not be a problem either. It’s for a basement shop where I have plenty of room. Lastly, I don’t plan to move it all that often and very rarely if ever brought to a job site via truck.

[Michael Burnside]

... Pull cuts make good dust collection possible ...

Unless I'm misreading this, and if so apologies, but you should never pull a sliding miter or chop saw.

[Tom M King]

You didn’t read it wrong. Sounds like you also didn’t read my whole post. If one cannot do a pull cut under complete control without having to think about it, it shouldn’t be done.

To tell me that it should never be done is simply an insult. How many million dollars worth of work have you produced?

[Michael Burnside]

I read it, just wanted to clarify if I missed something. Sounds like I didn't. Agree to disagree, no insults intended.

[Richard Coers]

All good questions and feedback folks - thank you. Some clarifications…. It’ll mostly be used for trim work (built in shelving/cabinets, etc), crown/base/picture-frame molding, then for cross cutting parts to be used in furniture and cabinet making. I plan to get one of those big dust hoods, so I’m ok with it being dusty, and space, while it is not unlimited, should not be a problem either. It’s for a basement shop where I have plenty of room. Lastly, I don’t plan to move it all that often and very rarely if ever brought to a job site via truck.

I hope you read my previous post, because all these comments wouldn't narrow the decision one bit for me. It's like reading Amazon reviews. You'd never buy anything if you read all the reviews there either.

[Holmes Anderson]

If you plan to permanently locate the saw on a cabinet along a wall of your shop, then the cabinet depth required may limit your saw choices. Non-sliders and the robot arm Bosch are not a problem because they can be pushed back against the wall (or back of your DC housing) but the saws with dual bar sliding mechanisms require significant space behind the saw for the sliding bars. You may be better off with a non-slider depending on the cut capacity required for the jobs you plan to do. Non-sliders are less expensive and generally more accurate and durable. If you are not going to put the saw against a wall, then another possibility to consider are the old Hitachi's that most of the finish carpentry guys used before Metabo took over. They aren't easy to find in good condition though.