Customer Reviews

Bosch TracRac T3B Portable Miter Saw Stand

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I purchased this stand for my Bosch 4412. Assembly was unplesant, with lots of little parts and complex instructions. Much of this could have been done at the factory, but they apparently decided my time was worth less than theirs. The saw fits very nicely, and after 6 months, I have almost forgiven them for the assembly.
The controls are very nice and tool free (though the tracks must be kept CLEAN and lubed with teflon spray). It has one adjustable leg, but if you work outside at all, you will still find yourself using scraps of wood on two other legs to keep it from wobbling. It is very strong and rigid, even with the arms fully extended. My one major objection (see, I said one, I have forgiven them now. This has been very cathartic!) is the legnth of the arms. They could have extended 12 extra inches each direction by just making the arm long as the stand.
The stand really is much better than any others on the market. It is light and portable, and even has tiny little wheels for rolling over hard, even surfaces. It has made loading the monsterously heavy and ill balanced sliding saw a one man job (with breaks!) much better.
The accessory extension stops are also very nice for cuts of the same legnth (like stair pickets). I added a little shim to the face of it so I can use it as a support extension wich helps for long, light trim and things like that. For those of us with more than one miter saw, an addational base can be purchased which makes switching between them a 60 second (no breaks) job.
I hope this helps, and please, don't respond to it in your review. No one likes that!

This is a pretty serious piece of hardware. It's bigger than you might expect, so if you have space limitations, that should be a consideration. As other reviewers indicated, the setup is a little tedious, but once you sort out all the hardware bags, it's straightforward. Don't bother searching around for the bushings for the wheel assembly by the way, they don't exist (a manual misprint/typo -- there are only bushings for the roller guides) -- you'll know what I mean if you buy one. As for attaching the saw, that can be fairly tough the first time. In order to get the camlocks set correctly, I slid them on first. Then I loosely attached the base rails. Then I wrestled the saw into place. That guaranteed the camlocks would slide correctly when they were released.

Here is the NUMBER ONE thing you have to know about this stand. When you mount the saw, make 100% sure it is perfectly balanced front to back. My beautiful Bosch 5412L took a serious header off of it when I released the camlocks all the way -- a very sick feeling when your 65 pound 500 dollar saw tips backwards off your 250 dollar stand (and y'know, they don't bounce . . . ) A miscalculation on my part, bad one. Kudos to Bosch, after weeping bitterly for a few minutes, I set it back up on the stand, set it to zero bevel/miter, pulled out the combo square and the sucker was true, but that's a different review.

One last issue I had with the stand, two of the legs showed up with broken locking pins, so they won't lock out or up. This could be a bit of a safety issue and makes collapsing/setting up very tough. I called TracRac (Bosch first, but TracRac handles all this stuff) and they immediately promised two new legs would ship the next day. Good responsiveness. I'll repost if there's any trouble with the parts showing up.

Bottom lines:
The Good: Tough piece of hardware, well built, holds a lot of weight and provides a great support extension, wheels are a nice feature for portability of some very heavy sawage. Good customer service.

The Bad: Assembly a bit of a pain, but straightforward. Must be VERY cognizant of the balance front to back, especially with a sliding compound miter. Hard to catch falling saws, it turns out. This was my bust, but the manual could have been a little sterner about the warning . . . for dense folks like me. Broken locking pins were disappointing, but customer service was responsive.

Edit: Tracrac did a good job of getting the replacement legs out to me asap. Got them installed and everything works as advertised. I'll leave the rating at 4 for the assembly and poor leg design. Ultimately, if you buy this, at least you know Tracrac will make things right.

I bought this stand with a Bosch 4212L (12" dual bevel compound miter saw) with the intention of leaving the saw mounted and storing it vertically mounted on the stand. However, the stand is really not set-up to do that, it is possible but you would need a fixed item to lean up against and than create a way for the stand to mount so it wouldn't fall.
The saving grace is that the saw itself is bolted on to two rails with feet which than mount to the stand with a another rail system that has two levers. This makes it easy just to remove the saw (releasing the two levers) and put on a shelf out of the way when not in use. Then the stand can simply be stored vertically out of the way. The stand is very compact when broken down. This makes me feel a little more secure rather than my expensive saw sitting vertically on the stand and waiting for a fall.
That aside the stand is nice and works well when erected. The 4212 is a big, heavy saw but the stand does a nice job of supporting it in all aspects. The wheels work well to move the saw and stand over SMOOTH surfaces from one work area to the next. The material support arms are adequate and slide out and in with relative ease.
I wish there were a system to ensure the saw was parallel with the base when mounted so your support arms didn't become out of plane with the saws fence.

Overall, I am satisfied with the purchase however if I had spent full retail I am not so sure that I would be.

EDIT: Please note that there are 3 Brands of this stand all made by TracRac. Research all three and compare prices prior to commiting to one brand or the other. Also, all the accessories are interchangeable.
1) Hitachi UU610 is the same stand minus the wheels.
2) Bosch T3 which you are looking at.
3) The TracRac 24322 T3 Professional is also the same stand but comes with extra extension stops.

This stand has some good features -- it's strong, solid, well balanced. I bought it after comparing with others, largely on the basis of its adjustable leg and the fact that it can be wheeled around with the saw still attahced. The adjustable leg IS a good thing. However -- the wheels, at 3 1/2" diameter, are too small for anything but finished driveways and floors. And I found it impossible to remove and re-attach the saw working alone, which is what I do. Since it's too heavy to load in my truck (alone) when it's all together, it's impossible for me to transport it alone. The problem is with the cam locks, which require precise alignment and do not slide well. So it went back. Now we'll test the refund policy... stay tuned. Oh, and yes... it does come as a test of one's assembly skills -- over seven bags of hardware, many packages of parts, takes well over an hour. Completely unnecessary. Check out the competition. Follow-up notice posted a week later: The refund and return proceeded amazingly quickly, painlessly, and fairly. I used the return label provided online, dropped the 47-pound package at Staples, and a week later had a full refund less only $9.99 shipping charge! I had packaged it carefully, but not at all in identical condition to that in which it arrived here. I couldn't be more pleased with the customer service!

After reading all the other reviews for this saw stand I expected assembly the be a major pain. Maybe I was set up to expect the worst but I found the assembly to be quite simple and straight forward. In fact, a large majority of the pieces that are assembled by the user need to be adjusted for the particular saw you use anyway... if things were pre-assembled you'd have to loosen up bolts, adjust, re-tighten bolts. Anyway, my point is that you shouldn't let the assembly stories scare you away from this saw stand.

The stand is one heck of a product. Very sturdy and easily adjustable. As another reviewer pointed out the wheels aren't real large so it may still be a pain going up/down stairs.

Things I really like about this stand: I can quick-release the saw fast and easy. I can collapse the stand and wheel it around with my saw attached. Wheels. Support for very long pieces. Adjustable leg (only one... not exactly perfect for very uneven ground). Heavy duty.

I looked at a DeWalt stand at a local big box store and found the Bosch to be a superior product in terms of mobility and adjustability (ease of use).

When building this stand, it's important to understand what and how the different setup points affect your saw and rack. I would start with having the customer find the center balance point of their saw, with their saw in the raised(not locked) position. From there, it's rather easy to figure the best way to locate the saw on the rack with the sliding plates.

Once that's complete, the stand works like a dream. Tons of material support, rock solid in most situations, it's also nice to be able to separate the saw from the stand easily for transport and use in a variety of locations and situations. You can also buy from trac-rac a "trac" and mount it anywhere, and your saw can be mounted to a tailgate, trailer, workbench etc.

Yeah, it's expensive, but with the acquision of some more slider locks, i'll be able to use my belt sander, router table, and other power tools on the stand. It's an ultimate shop solution.

I looked at several Stands including all the major brands, even purchased the Sears Craftsman "Pro" model which cost the same as this model which after putting together promptly took it back for a refund, everything except the body was plastic and parts broke while trying to put it together, I purchased a reconditioned Bosch from another dealer for $185 and $8 shipping, it went together real easy and the finsh was like new, I am a professional trimmer and was very impressed.

I couldn't find the perfect stand, but this one comes close. Stand itself comes assembled, but the extentions and stops require quite a bit of assembly. Allow maybe an hour. But when you're finished you'll have something to be proud of indeed. Beautiful craftsmanship and materials make this a solid piece of eye candy for the technically inclined. Extremely stable and strong, I have no reason to doubt the claimed 500# capacity. Just well thought out, except for the wheels. Why won't anyone make a stand with larger wheels? The now discontinued Delta and the HD stand are the only ones I've seen with the larger, more functional wheels. The small wheels work fine if you're moving around inside a house, but at some point you're going to want to leave and rolling this thing out to your truck with 4" wheels isn't going to be easy.

After using the stand about three times, I was rolling it down a sidewalk and all a sudden it stops. I look on the ground and one of the wheels was rolling down the street. Cheap little plastic caps like the ones you put on BBQ/Weber wheels fell off. Contacted Bosch, will update what they do...

assembly was a little annoying, otherwise it seems rock solid,
i don`t like that you can`t add more supports which i think you need when you cut long moulding etc, also a flip stop would be nice
what i really like are the wheels but it should have a handle to pull/push it but i am going to add one :-)
biggest disappointment was that it was made in china, thought it was made in usa like the counterpart from hitachi.

Edit: I lost one of those rubber inserts of the legs and called Bosch. For some reason they referred my to the TracRac customer care department. So I called them and was talking to an Customer Care person instantly and she send out the replacement part out fast with no charge.

The customer care department at TracRac is really great which is rare these days.

Thank you