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62 of 62 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Nice saw for cabinet/furniture makers, June 12, 2004
I've had this for about 6 months and it's never let me down. It takes a little getting used to if you've never used a sliding miter saw before, as the technique is somewhere between a radial arm saw and a normal fixed miter saw. As a couple of other reviewers pointed out, you have to make sure you slide the saw all the way home or you'll leave a little bit uncut. One thing I've found is when I'm cutting narrow planks (4" or 6") I've gotten into the habit of pulling the blade toward me past the front edge of the piece, dropping it down, and then sliding it back through the piece - instead of just plunging the blade straight in, as you'd do with a fixed chop saw. This seems to significantly reduce bottom tearout. It's undeniably a very pleasant tool to use; if you've only used saws that have a vertical handle you won't believe the difference the horizontal handle makes. The switch is well designed, it's not easy to trigger by accident but not fatiguing to hold. The action of the slides is smooth as silk, and setting the miter angles is quick, easy, and very positive. The motor has plenty of power for any kind of wood I've ever sent its way. The 8 1/2 inch size has some advantages - the blade seems to be more stable, even without a stabilizer, than most 10" blades. Also in my experience 8 1/2" blades are a little cheaper than the equivalent 10" blade. But, it won't cut a 4x4 (or a 2x4 on edge) in one pass - a 10 incher will. Whether or not that matters depends on the kind of work you do. You'll want to replace the blade that the saw comes with, it's fine for chopping up 2x4s (but if that's all you want to do you don't need this saw) but not good enough for finish work. There aren't a million blades available for this size of saw, but there's a decent selection - although not all the catalogs carry them. My favorite is a 60 tooth DeWalt finish blade that you can find most anywhere for about 50 bucks and does great work for me in all types of hardwood. Freud makes one that's pretty good as well. Forrest makes one of their chopmaster blades in this size, I'm sure it's great but it's $100+ and since I'm happy with my current blade I've never tried it. Overall fit and finish is very nice - as you generally expect from contemporary Italian manufacture. After taking it out of the box, I went over it completely with my machinist square and couldn't find anything out of alignment. The only quality complaint I have is the crummy screws holding the blade guard on - blade changing is not exactly a snap with this saw and they really don't help. There's no clamp included, unlike some other manufacturers - since I prefer to keep all 10 of my fingers I bought one - but they soak you on this item - $35!! Actually I bought two but you only need one - you hardly ever use both at once and it takes a second or two to swap it from one side of the saw to the other. Also, while it holds well, it's a screw type and I would prefer some type of cam action - I think that would be faster and easier to use. But overall if you want a really sweet, pleasant to use saw and you don't normally need to cut large timber, I'd recommend this saw - I'm certainly very happy with it.
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