Thread: 12 Inch Slide Compound Mitre Saw

Hey mate,
Another saw you may want to consider is the Dewalt 12inch.

I personally have the LS1214 and love it. If you do choose to buy one get it from Bunnings- they'll price match sydney tools. I got mine for $850

Andy

I also have an LS 1214 and love it. I only use it as a home hobbyist though. Very accurate.

Ditto on getting one from Bunnings. In my case, I took a brand new sale catalogue from Glenfords straight into Bunnings on the morning that it arrived by email and they did their price guarantee thing and undercut the Glenfords price by 10% and quite cheerfully so. If you don't go there as soon as the catalog lands in your email, Bunnings will drop their price to be $5 below the competitor's price as a standard procedure so that you will not be able to use the price guarantee to take the price a whole lot lower.

That particular Glenfords sale catalogue was their Father's Day catalogue. Father's Day is only four weeks from now so I suspect that the Father's Day catalogues will start landing within a two or three weeks. If you can wait that long, it might be worthwhile to you to see what prices surface in those catalogues.



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I'm another vote for the LS1214. There are a few posts in this forum in my name and others about it listing both the positives and small number of negatives. I considered the Bosch, DeWalt, Hitachi and Makita side by side at the time and went for the Makita.

I thought the Makita was a bit more robust and durable than the Bosch. There seemed a few too many bits and pieces sticking out of the Bosch that might get snagged on something or broken off. Also the mitre index locator was plastic, something that I didn't like.

There was a review published in Australian Wood Review a few years ago that looked at the Festool, Makita, Bosch, DeWalt, Hitachi, Metabo, GMC and Ryobi 12' SCMSs. This was reprinted in the Australian Power Tool Buyers Guide.

It didn't help me make my actual decision at the time but it did give me some pointers toward the features to investigate. It rated the Festool highest with 4 and a half stars out of five but at about double the price and then listed the Makita, Bosch, Dewalt and Hitachi as roughly equivalent, with four stars but with varying strengths and weaknesses. The Metabo trailed slightly behind the above four with three and half stars and the Ryobi and GMC were cheap and last with two and a half stars. I did a bit of investigating, played with the top rated saws and went for the Makita.

I would also drop into the local Bunnies and checkout the new AEG. At first glance it seems like a robust saw.

Did you end up buying a saw - if so what did you get?

+1 for LS1214. It's legendary. You can't go wrong with a saw this good!!

[QUOTE=dr_philj;1191219] <META name=GENERATOR content="OpenOffice.org 3.1 (Unix)"> <STYLE type=text/css> <!-- @page { margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } --> </STYLE> Hi All

I am about to spend the cash on a 12 inch SCMS and would love to hear some advice. I have been doing the research and I have come up with three candidates (in order of preference).

• Makita LS1214 ($949.00 AUD from Sydney Tools) or LS1216 ($999.00AUD from Total Tools Geelong)
• Bosch 5412L ($999.00 AUD with Stand Total Tools Geelong)
• Milwaukee MS305DB ($999.00 AUD Total Tools Geelong)

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hi fellow geelong member +1 for Makita ive had the makita ls1216 since the start of the year very happy with it. Just dont like moving it around by myself due to size and weight. If buying Makita in geelong Belmont Timber is a must far better dealer than Total Tools. They must have the largest range of makita tools in geelong by far.

The Makita LS1216 is the new 4 rail model which Makita themselves say has better rigidity and will stay in alignment longer than 2 rail models. I think Makita has got the drop on other manufacturers with this model, at least until the others follow suit.

Originally Posted by groeneaj

Did you end up buying a saw - if so what did you get?

Hi All

I will appologies for the late delay in reply to all your brilliant comments. I did eventually purchase a LS1214. Now the intersting thing was Bunnings only have about 3 left in the Victoria. I had it transfered from a store in Mornington to Geelong. Then I went overseas. On return picked up at Bunnings.

Decided to go with the Makita 1214 only because it is a known machine. I have seen very few (if any) bad reports. Have gone to a number of shops all indicated that they would have them as quite a number of people have requested them over the new LS1216. However, I think, it mainly due to what people have used as to the unknown.

congrats on the purchase.
i am sure you will get years and years of great use from the makita.

justin.

Hi Metester, i had a look at that AEG saw..and like you at first glance thought it was great. The size of the base plate alone had me interested. But when i had a fiddle with it i thought there was quite a bit of slack in the bearings and just general flex.
but i did like the saw. At the moment i have the 12" Hitachi and this is my second saw. I just hate the star wars look they gave it. but awhile ago you could get this saw on sale with a single speed 3ph router for around the $800 mark.
My mate wanted the router so we worked a deal sold my old saw and ended up no money out of pocket so i was happy.

Hi All

I though that an update on the saw would be good as so often people get the info and dont share. Having now used in a number of small project I am absolutely impress with the LS1214 Makita saw. Out of the box it is accurate and the cut is almost a polished smooth edge on pine and hardwood. The action is smooth and gives the user great touch when lining up to cut. As Charleville indicated to me the saw is brilliant from the large cuts right down to small. So as you can gather I am convert to the LS1214. Time will tell on how the other Saw will perform and I will keep particular notice of the LS1216, the replacement saw from Makita.

- Phil

Thanks for all that info dr_philj, very timely and useful.

I've noticed that some people comment on how quiet the LS1216 is compared to other saws. Now you've had some practice, how do you rate the noise level of the LS1214? Is it painful to be around (without earplugs) when it's working?

(I wear all the gear myself when it's required, but the dog doesn't nor does the occasional helper/apprentice/neighbour when co-opted. )

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Good choice with the LS1214 - you won't regret it