Which Mitre Saw- Can't afford Kapex (Yet...)?
- Thread starter Brian H
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builderbob
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Before I had the kapex, I had the bosch 10" sliding compound mitre saw. It was a great saw. I actually sold it to a friend and he trashed it. It worked great for crown...it actually had bevel and mitre detents for laying the crown on the flat. You may want to check that out!
builderbob
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If you're looking for just a mitre saw, then look for a 12". I also had the bosch version of that as well. It was fantastic! Just know that you will be limited on the width of stock you can cut. Best of luck to you!
Wooden Skye
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I recently bought a hitachi 12" slider and like it. More compact than most sliders, but I ditched the supplied blade.
What you buy should reflect the work you are looking to to and the system that works for you to complete the work. I am a finish carpenter and the DW716 handles about 90% of what I do . I have a 10" Hitachi SCMS that is usually set up in my little shop which takes care of the other 10% when I need it. The Dewalt is a very accurate after an initial tune up and it holds whatever tolerances you tune it to for a long time assuming the saw is not abused. I have had mine close to 8 years now and it is holding up just fine.
Figure the cost of a new quality blade into whatever saw you end up buying because aside from the blades that used to come on the Makita 10" scms the stock blades are terrible. I have an FS Tool SM6300 in mine now but would also reconmend the Everlast MT 1280.
Figure the cost of a new quality blade into whatever saw you end up buying because aside from the blades that used to come on the Makita 10" scms the stock blades are terrible. I have an FS Tool SM6300 in mine now but would also reconmend the Everlast MT 1280.
Guilliaume woodworks
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I've always used dewalt 12" slider for large crown jobs, and have been happy with it...recently bought 10" makita slider and am very impressed at its performance..super smooth and accurate right out of box..but have not cut crown with it yet...good luck
Brian H said:
It's a nice saw, but I suspect it's no kapex. I have one and generally I like it, but I think I would like to switch over to the Kapex at some point (just a hobbiest). I'm going to wait until the next generation of the Kapex, but only because I have the 780 right now. Out of the box the 780 required a little tweaking to get everything dialed in, no big deal. I like Festools approach to setting bevel, you can dial it in much easier and the saw geometry seems to make that easy (haven't used one yet, so take my impressions with a grain of salt). The 780 uses the familiar clumsy approach to setting bevels, but the bevel gauge is larger than most saws and the preset stops at 22.4 and 45 are easy enough to use. DC on the kapex is likely better as the dust boot articulates with the saw head. On the 780, it is mounted to the rail, so it moves in and out with the saw head, but it does not articulate up and down. So if you're cutting something against the fence, the initial cut produces a bit of dust and as you get further into it the dust is captured better. For anything cut on the flat, the 780 does pretty well. For a non-Kapex, the saw generally does pretty well. All this assumes you're using a vacuum of course. The LED's on the 780 are quite nice and I like them a lot better than lasers in daylight. This is the one feature on the Dewalt I am likely to miss. I'm sure there is a lot more slop at full extension on the 780 than you'll find on the kapex. On mine it's easily 1/16 or more, but I seldom need precision at full extension, I'll use another tool for that. The rails leave something to be desired. The saw head doesn't slide on these rails as well as some of the others. The rails are also kind of small for a saw of this size. And of course you need adequate clearance behind the saw for the rails, where the forward rail design on the kapex allows for closer placement to the wall. I love the built in angle transfer device on the Kapex, it's simple and it works! (I did buy this to use with the dewalt, but it's better suited to work with the lasers on the Kapex). The dewalt has some sharp casting bits on the underside by the handles that need to be filed down...just annoying, nothing more. The blade on the 780 is good for rough cuts, but for finish work I put something better on. At least with the kapex you have something decent out of the box. The 780 is a bit heavy, but among 12er's, it's not that bad. I think it's around 55 lbs. Of course the Kapex is 47-48 lbs, which is more desirable if you're carting it around. The clamp on the 780 is the typical throw away piece you get with most saws. It's just too clunky to use, whereas I actually like the Festool clamps and would probably use them!
The 780 isn't a bad saw, I do like it a lot, but I have lower expectations when it comes in at less than half the price of a kapex (found mine for $475 new vs. $1100 for a recon Kapex, however I did spend $120 on a Forrest blade for the 780). Still, in typical festool fashion, the kapex does bring a little extra to the table which is probably easily justified if you're running a business, but for a hobbiest, just a little harder to justify.
NERemodeling
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Hey Brian,
You really need to think about what you need the saw for, if you are mostly planning to do crown, base and other trim than you really dont need a slider, but you would probably want a 12" blade.
is the saw going to be stationary or moved from site to site, a 12" slider can be a bit big to move around all the time.
a slider has more moving parts which leaves more room for error within the saw itself so if it isnt necessary that you have a slider, a standard miter saw might serve you better
slider is obviously more expensive
do you have a TS55 or TS75 or plan to get one? if you were getting a slider to cover yourself in the event cutting wide boards then you can always use your TS for those.
I have a Makita LS1016L and wouldn't recommend it to you. It is a great saw on paper but it is always coming out of square, has some wobble in the blade that i cant get rid of, has a terrible 0 degree bevel detent and a garbage fence design.
although i am not too big into dewalt, i have heard good things about there miter saws
like Bob said above, you may want to check into Bosch, from what i understand they also make a very good saw with some nice features. i wish i went bosch
also, like most have said.. expect to put a new blade on the saw right out of the box for nice cuts in trim.. for trim work i use a Forrest 80t chopmaster, its a great blade but at about $140 might be more than you want to spend freud (industrial line) puts puts out a decent blade for the price, just be sure to get something designed for a miter saw (usually has a -5 degree hook angle on the teeth)
John
You really need to think about what you need the saw for, if you are mostly planning to do crown, base and other trim than you really dont need a slider, but you would probably want a 12" blade.
is the saw going to be stationary or moved from site to site, a 12" slider can be a bit big to move around all the time.
a slider has more moving parts which leaves more room for error within the saw itself so if it isnt necessary that you have a slider, a standard miter saw might serve you better
slider is obviously more expensive
do you have a TS55 or TS75 or plan to get one? if you were getting a slider to cover yourself in the event cutting wide boards then you can always use your TS for those.
I have a Makita LS1016L and wouldn't recommend it to you. It is a great saw on paper but it is always coming out of square, has some wobble in the blade that i cant get rid of, has a terrible 0 degree bevel detent and a garbage fence design.
although i am not too big into dewalt, i have heard good things about there miter saws
like Bob said above, you may want to check into Bosch, from what i understand they also make a very good saw with some nice features. i wish i went bosch
also, like most have said.. expect to put a new blade on the saw right out of the box for nice cuts in trim.. for trim work i use a Forrest 80t chopmaster, its a great blade but at about $140 might be more than you want to spend freud (industrial line) puts puts out a decent blade for the price, just be sure to get something designed for a miter saw (usually has a -5 degree hook angle on the teeth)
John
sessler2013
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I have the DW780 with the mobile base. HD had them on sale about two months ago where you got the saw and the base for 599$ its a simple saw with all the features you would expect, came out of the box dead on accurate for me.
It depends on what you need. The rolling stand probably won't do stairs too well, so you might find yourself breaking it down to carry up a flight of stairs. The rolling stand doesn't fit well in many cars either. But rolling stands can easily be rolled with the saw on it.
snowman996
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Stay away from a Makita LS1016, I bought one and sold it after two months of frustration...
jeep jake
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i really like this oneBrian H said:
http://www.powertoolsupercenter.com/DEWALT-DWX724-Compact-Miter-Saw-Stand-p/dwx724.htm
festoolviking
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As for the stand IMO:
I got the DE7023 but would have liked the DE7033 which wasn't available when I got my saw. The 7023 is a bit long when transporting it but is great for long boards. Last year I picked up two of the DE7035 which I use as saw-horses aswell as a stand for the saw on "small" jobs. It has the same profile so the "clip-on brackets" (DW7231) for the saw fits perfect.
Festoolviking
I got the DE7023 but would have liked the DE7033 which wasn't available when I got my saw. The 7023 is a bit long when transporting it but is great for long boards. Last year I picked up two of the DE7035 which I use as saw-horses aswell as a stand for the saw on "small" jobs. It has the same profile so the "clip-on brackets" (DW7231) for the saw fits perfect.
Festoolviking
