Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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57 of 57 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
review, August 29, 2005
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!
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45 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Burly, but look out. Good cust. service from TracRac, February 16, 2006
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.
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24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
good ideas...flawed execution, November 6, 2005
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!
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