2019 Miter Saw options?

One thing in a miter saw i have to have is a vertical handle. A D handle style just doesn’t work for me.
 
Got the saw last week. and set it up on Friday. Took advantage of the Ebay 15% off, a seller was initially selling it for $509. I got it for $447

The saw arrived very well packaged, it had "protective" box edges and shrink wrapped really well. I Got the saw out and set up in 10 minutes. It was deadnuts accurate out of the box. Checked with my woodpecker squares and triangles. A few cuts on a jointed board and couldnt see any light, and of course 45's made  for perfect 90's. I have NEVER had any tool come out of the box so perfect before.

The laser is weird, but I dont use one anyway. The blade that came with the saw is surprisingly good, however I get a weird vibration on some cuts. Put my indicators on it and the blade isnt co planar (cant expect perfection on a provided blade) I ordered a forest chopmaster that should be delivered any day now.

I cannot believe im about to say this, especially on the FOG.....But IMO, It outperforms the kapex. I spent all weekend cutting crown and little detail moldings for a room I'm redoing and its phenomenal. The safety switch is actually really nice, I love how I can just shift my palm over to activate it and make the cut.

My only concern with it is the switch to move the saw to the detents feels a bit chintzy and I dont care for the way the bevel lock works to tilt it to the right. Kapex definitely has that down. overall I could not be happier with it, especially for the price point. Dust collection is fantastic, especially paired to my MIDI. Honestly given the choice, I think I would choose this over the Kapex. I didnt want to like it but man, Im glad I gave it a shot...

Thanks for the help guys!
 
Nice, glad you enjoy it too and maybe makita got on the issue of the saws not being adjusted properly from the factory. I’m definitely not knocking the kapex as I’ve used one a few times and it’s an excellent saw but the motor issue kept me from buying one and now that I have the makita I don’t regret my decision at all. Keep us updated if the Forrest blade fixes that weird vibration, I put a tenryu silencer on mine and it’s still there. I’ve noticed it’s only when plunging into the board so if I start with the blade pulled towards me and push through the cut it doesn’t do that so I avoid it that way on everything but really wide boards. Whatever it is it doesn’t seem to mess up the cut, I noticed it felt pretty bad one time on a 12” wide board and put a woodpecker square across and couldn’t see any light.
 
To clarify, you went with the LS1019 or the battery version?

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Can someone reiterate what it takes to calibrate the rails on the LS 1019L. I'm very happy with the saw, but while cutting  perfectly when mouldings are standing against fence, cutting boards flat produces out of square cuts. I was not able to budge the Allen screws that lock to the rails
 
morts10n said:
Can someone reiterate what it takes to calibrate the rails on the LS 1019L. I'm very happy with the saw, but while cutting  perfectly when mouldings are standing against fence, cutting boards flat produces out of square cuts. I was not able to budge the Allen screws that lock to the rails

With any new miter saw, it’s good practice to square the fence to the blade for square cross cutting, and check the blade is verically plumb when zeroed before using the bevel facility.
This is done usually with loosening Allen bolts, or screws, or both.
If the bolts/screws are tight, they have probably been threadlocked at the factory. Firm even pressure should break the seal.
 
[member=2330]morts10n[/member] Scroll up to reply #7 in this thread.  You will need to loosen those little hex screws.  I hate it when little screws like that are overtorqued, they are so easy to strip out.  Try alternating counterclockwise and clockwise force on them just to loosen them up a little.  And make sure that allen key is fully seated before applying torque. 

Are you sure the miter scale doesn't need to be adjusted?  Try doing an 8" sliding cross cut.  If the rails are skewed, the back edge of the blade (facing you) will create a stepped lip on one side of the kerf since it's not following the same kerf established by the front edge of the blade. 

If you don't see that stepped lip inside the kerf, you might be okay and may just need to adjust the miter scale to get the blade 90 degrees to the fence. 
 
I've been running the Makita LS1019L since July '17. Mine had the rail issue, which I adjusted and haven't touched since. My only beef with the saw is the aluminum detent gauge. Mine has some play from wear and tear. Rock solid saw that I found much more capable than the Kapex ( I sold both of them later that same year). Colliflower now has zero clearance inserts for it (I bought two!) and there is a guy on Instagram who has made a trial batch of stainless steel detent plates. plan on adding one more, just can't decide on battery or corded.  I highly recommend this saw!
 
Try sliding the detente plate forward towards you. If it’s too far back away from you there can be some slop on the ls1019. I think the cordless version is better. I have the ls1219 which I like better than both 10” models.
 
I had a Dewalt Flexvolt DHS790AT2

I used it to cut baseboard, rebuild split jamb door frames with a different mounding, cut luxury vinyl locking floor planks, cut 2x4.

It was used outside, under a carport, for 9.5 months on mostly battery power.  This was done to repair flood damage to my older brothers house.

I hated the dust collection.  It was hooked up to a a large Ridgid shop vac sometimes and other times a large craftsman shop vac. I found I couldn’t keep the weird rubber diaphragm open enough to capture saw dust.  To much suction the diaphragm collapsed, and not enough suction dust was sucked up.

During this time I used the Festool TS55 to make rip cuts for trim at the top of ikea kitchen cabinets, and to cut side panels for the ikea kitchen cabinets, and to cut Corian for the shower and tub surround and window ledge.  The dust collection on this was awesome.

I’m looking for another miter saw myself for some work at my home.  I think if all else fails I’ll cut some floor for my own place with the TS55.  Perhaps i can do the baseboard with a coping saw.

 
I have the Dewalt 717XPS.  I felt the Festool Kapex 120 was too expensive for my needs and didn't really offer much more in features than the DW717.  The Kapex 60 was a similar price to the DW but a very poor comparison IMO and it just wasn't built the same as the 120.

The only slightly disappointing thing was the dust collection wasn't as good as on the Kapex I'd demoed. But the fix was very simple!  The problem seems to be that there is very little suction from a shop vacuum down at the dust shoe. Most of the suction is dissipated over too wide an area near the top of the blade.  To solve this I inserted a piece of 3/4" flexible pipe through the dust connection port and down to where the dust collection shoe is located (there's even a small aperture that is perfect to feed the pipe through to hold it in place). The difference is amazing. There's now real suction right near the back of the blade which you can see visually sucking the dust towards it (and also still suction up near the top of the blade where particles get flung). The dust collection is top notch.  It may benefit even further from a slightly bigger dust shoe in combination but I haven't been bothered with trying that yet as I've been so impressed with this simple modifiction.
 

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Wow, well done simon!  It's amazing that a tool manufacturer doesn't invest the time to figure this stuff out and solve the problem.  Thanks for sharing!
 
Does anyone know if a miter saw from Europe that is 110 volt work properly in North America?
 
alice said:
Does anyone know if a miter saw from Europe that is 110 volt work properly in North America?

I can’t see why not but, maybe compare ampage etc.
I have bought stuff from the USA, and fitted a UK 110 volt plug, and plugged it into a 110 volt transformer, and always been fine.
 
I overheard someone at a trade show asking a Festool rep about availability of more 110V versions of tools in the UK. He said that 110V only accounted for 10% of their business worldwide. Rather than been development of any further 110V tools all future efforts would be directed at battery based versions. 

Made me wonder if a battery version of the Kapex was the future and would solve the problems by giving full control of the power source! DeWalt and others already have battery versions so it's doable and the battery power is constantly improving. 
 
simonh said:
I overheard someone at a trade show asking a Festool rep about availability of more 110V versions of tools in the UK. He said that 110V only accounted for 10% of their business worldwide. Rather than been development of any further 110V tools all future efforts would be directed at battery based versions. 

Made me wonder if a battery version of the Kapex was the future and would solve the problems by giving full control of the power source! DeWalt and others already have battery versions so it's doable and the battery power is constantly improving.
The 110V tools are required on UK construction sites (and used extensively in US) so I doubt they will be scaling back on development. There is not a lot of difference between a 230/240V power tool and a 110/120V power tool beyond motor and possibly controller board (if one is present). The non-power related portions of the tools are probably all identical.

As for battery power the Dewalt 60V tools are promising. I have the mitre saw for framing and have used it with and without batteries. It works great with both, but having the option to plug in is the best feature it has. No fear of running out of juice and having to have a load of charged batteries around. One consideration on the Dewalt and probably other battery powered tools is that thinner kerf blades are used which can lead to deflection. Not a big deal for framing, but for trim it can be problematic.
 
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