Customer Reviews

DEWALT DW872 14-Inch Multi-Cutter Saw

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I bought this saw after wearing out my Porter-Cable dry cut saw. It's every bit as good as the P-C, and has a couple of nice design features to distinguish it.

1) The hand-lock for the fence and miter adjustment is great. P-C's saw requires using Allen wrenches for adjustment, which is time-consuming. (Also, the holes in the Allen screws fill up with swarf from the saw, so just getting the wrench into the screw head can be a project.) Adjustments are easy and basically instantaneous.

2) Horizontally oriented control handle and switch is very nice. Because of the way you run a saw like this (more below), the rgonmoics are much better than the P-C.

3) Pin-and-socket saw arm retainer. OH YEAH! P-C uses an old-fashioned chain-and-hook contraption to hold the saw arm down, which can be troublesome to engage. The Dewalt locks down just like their woodworking chop saws: hold the arm down and push in the retaining pin.

4) Quieter in operation than the P-C saw.

I am not a shill for Dewalt; I loved my P-C dry cut saw. I never realized the design could be this much better.

An important note for any dry-cut saw users: THIS IS NOT AN ABRASIVE CHOP SAW! I noticed complaints about blade life in some of the other reviews. Well, if you run this saw like an old-timey abrasive wheel chop saw, you won't get any blade life out of it either. The secret: minimal downward pressure. Rest your hand on the handle with just enough weight to keep the saw arm moving downward, and let the blade do all the work. If the blade throws more than a couple of tiny sparks once in awhile, you're pushing too hard, and the blade will suffer. I was able to make several thousand cuts in heavy stock with my P-C saw before the blade needed sharpening, an this one behaves similarly.

If you're doing a lot of work, get a spare blade. Having the carbide blade sharpened usually runs about 25 cents per tooth, and if you have a spare there's no downtime...

When my abrasive blade chop saw "died", I debated whether to replace it with a similar saw or to try the carbide blade one. I was very hesitant to purchase the DW872 in that it did not seem possible it would do the job. However, the abrasive blade saws are quite expensive to own in that the blades do not last very many cuts and nor do the saws themselves. However, with a 30 day satisifaction guarantee I had very little to lose.
Having used the saw for several projects now, I know that I have made the correct decision in buying the DW872. The saw is much faster than the abrasive saw, makes a cleaner burr free cut. There is very little heat generated in the making a cut with almost to sparks.
Ergonically the saw is very well set up, with the large D-handle being amnidextrious, the vise affording a positive lockup, miter cuts are a breeze to adjust for, and downforce required is smooth. The metal base is the heaviest I have owned on such a saw.
Dewalt you really outdid yourselves on this one and I highly recommend it.

I am a welder/fabricator. To me, time is money and this saw is a TIME SAVER! I mostly work with 2"x1/4" angle iron, 2"sch 80 Pipe and 4" channel. This saw is the best! Cutting time is literally 1/10 th the time of a band saw or abrasive cut-off saw and NONE of the of the clean up. I have 2 extra blades and alternate them at the sharpener. Unfortunately, I only get about 600 cuts out of a blade but, man is it fast. It's light weight and portable and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to save time.

I have owned this saw nearly a year and have just started using it extensively. It is like anything else in life I guess, it has it's good points, and it's bad ones.

The good news is that it does do a beutiful job of cutting. Clean, burr free, and quick. The bad news is that the blades are terribly expensive and not nearly as long lived as advertised. I would estimate that I get about 3-4 abrasive blades worth of cutting out if it before it is time to think about sharpening it. In my neck of the woods it costs nearly 50 cents a tooth ($36.00) to sharpen, so I can't say that it is cost effective. The material holding vice doesn't seem to be strong enough for the amount of vibrations you can sometimes get with this saw. (Mine is held on with a snap ring that sometimes falls off without warning). Push it a little too fast through some small diameter rod (5/16" in my case) and it will rip it right out of the holder, total the blade, and scare the heck out of anyone misfortunate enough to be standing where the material got tossed. (Only happened once, very light down pressure is essential, but they don't tell you that in manual that came with mine.)

I tried using Freud blades but was told by their factory tech support that they do not allow re-sharpening of their blades, and that the 14" Speed Demon was not sold in the U.S. but boot legged in through a third party.

Regardless, the theory is great. If they could just come up with longer lasting blades (yes even with very light pressure, they wear out quick) and possibly a better vice arangement (The one that came with my Dewalt abrasive blade chop saw is better designed and more durable), I could recommend them whole heartedly. Right now I could only say that it depends on what you are using it for. If you have a lot of cutting to do and your time is expensive, you might be able to justify the expense by the time savings and prep savings (No grinding to remove burrs, at least until it gets dull). For the rest of us that just wanted a good cost effective way to cut lots of steel, the abrasive blade seems to be the better way to go for now.

I got tired of burning through band saw blades so I figured I'd give this saw a try. The cuts are very nice with little blade deflection. The speed is better than any other type of saw I've used. I've made about 50 cuts on medium to heavy gauge tube, pipe, bar, and angle, and the blade is shot. Completely my own fault, as I became more confident with the saw I was putting too much pressure on the blade, material got hot, started throwing sparks, and stopped cutting. I don't like the fact that it only takes one minor mistake to waste a very expensive blade. I have a new blade on the way and I'll get the original one sharpened as a spare, but I'm not getting rid of the old band saw yet. Overall I'm happy with the saw, but I don't think it's worth the extra cost. There is no reason this saw should cost 4X the price of an abrasive chop saw. For the price of the saw it should have a cast base and a better clamping system. The material clamp works OK, but the backrest has a lot of deflection when the material is clamped down tight. I think they should also reduce the blade speed and ship with a 90 tooth blade.

I've had this tool now for about 1 month. I've cut channel, angle,flat, and pipe with it and it's been a tool I wish I had 3 years ago, I would have saved hours of cutting time. This is one of my better tools in the garage. I've cut 9" flat bar(just barely fit), 1/2"x3"x3" angle, and 11ga tube all with ease compared to anything else I have. The only time I've seen any problem is cutting say the long edge of a 6"x1/2" bar, if you can't stand it vertically in the clamp, the cutting teeth will have to work a little harder and create a few more sparks, otherwise cutting it standing vertically it will cut through it like butter with very few sparks and little heat.
I've made purhaps 60-70 cuts to date and the blade has held up pretty well and appears still sharp.
If your into cutting a lot of channel, angle, flat or pipe and time is important to you, spend the extra [money] and get this saw, you won't be sorry.
gary

I own a muffler shop and the reason i bought this saw was the number of cuts you could get on a blade before it had to be resharped. You cannot get 1200 cuts from 1 blade. All we cut at the shop is 14 gauge aluminize exhaust tubing. The saw comes with a 70 tooth blade and i have bought 1 90 tooth blade and dewalt sent me a 90 tooth blade. I get a averge of 125 cuts per blade. So to say the least i'am not happy at all with this saw. I own several dewalt tools and have no problems with any of them JUST THIS ONE

I had made two attempts to purchase the Porter Cable 14" "Dry Cut" Metal Cutting Saw, model 1410, but had to return both due to problems. I decided to go with a DeWalt.

I find the DW872 to be better than the PC1410P in a couple aspects. First, the vise and miter angle setups are quick and easy. Second, the pivot locking pin is far more impressive than a cheap chain and hook. I wish the DW872 would be better in a couple of areas. First, the noise from the tool is incredibly loud (far more than the PC). Second, the blade guard is not well designed. It is flimsy plastic and tends to bounce a lot, whereas the PC blade guard is a smooth operating work of art.

There are currently two flaws that have forced DeWalt to taketheir metal chopsaw off of the market until June. 1. There hyped uppositive drive arbor system is destroying the gears when the bladebinds. The blade has know where to go when this happens. This information is from a DeWalt salesmen alert. 2. The vise to hold the material to be cut is failing miserably. This vise does not hold it in place and sucks the material up into the blade guard and causes #1 to happen by binding and destroying the gears. Call 1-800-4 DeWalt to verify. It is still for sale on this site and I wouldn't buy it. Period. Also, Tools of the Trade Ranked this Model first in the March April issue even though it is under recall. When I purchased my saw from Amazon.com and I installed the blade it, would hit the base of the tool and not make it into the bottom of the cut. I had to return it and have bought another model altogether.

I have been using this saw for approx 2 years in a farm shop. I cut everything from alluminum to hard steel. I have even cut 3 inch heavy wall tubing with this saw and still on the original blade and that is after making all the cuts for 280 foot of pipe fence just recently built. There is no burrs and the cuts are cool enough to handle after you make them. The best part is you don't loose any of your cutting diameter after several cuts like with the abrasive blades. I normally went thru 6-8 abrasive blades a year and at 10.00 a pop it more than covers the cost of replacement of the carbide.

I couldn't be more pleased with the saw and would buy another whenever required.