Thread: GMC - Ryobi sliding mitre saw

The old adage 'you get what you pay for" comes to mind here. Ryobi has been established for a long time now and they do have a reputation for reasonable quality gear. I personally prefer the Ryobi but I do have some GMC gear (admittedly all of which was bought at a flea market).

The big difference is that Ryobi make some of their gear themselves and can manage quality controls better, where GMC have most (if not all) of their gear made by someone else.

I just took my second gmc $299 scms laser equipped pos back as it had self destructed again. Bunnings asked if I wanted another and I said"Not really" so I got a refund after 18 months. Lucky. Also never again. At $890 the Makita is a steal by way of comparison. I can't afford one but my $99 Ryobi non sliding saw is as good as the 300 dollar gmc ever was and more accurate.

Hi, OP, not sure what your intended uses are or what kind of budget you've set, but Caliban is spot on. For the longest time i refused to use anything but the Makita LS1013 scms. I think it comes in at around $900, and for your money IMHO, you simply cannot beat that saw. Once youve tweaked the initial adjustments and get it set up spot on, s'long as you dont drop it, it will never let you down. Again, s'far as going with Ryobi or GMC, will depend on your needs. If you want it for casual small works and infrequent usage than Ryobi may suit you. For a tool that lasts you a long time and heavy usage, spend the extra money and get a dearer one.

Not sure what model no. mine is - it's the one with the single slider. Had it for about 2yrs with very little use (did my roof joists etc.) and only for square cuts. The sliding mech is not very smooth even though I have cleaned it up each time it got used.
FWIW

You get what you pay for with the SCMS
If you will be using the saw alot, and moving it around (job to job) get the best you can. I personally like the Makita's.
If You only intend to use it in the workshop, maybe you already have a tool that can do everything and more. If you own a tablesaw, you don't really need a SCMS in the workshop. It's just a luxury item. You could save money by making or buying a sliding crosscut jig and a good miter jig (incra, jessum,kreg). This would give you very accurate, and repeatable cuts in the workshop.
Cheers. Gary.

I got the Ryobi 12" CSMS. As usual I made the purchase complex.
I bought 10" refurb at the Ryobi cclearance centre for $185.00 which I thought was pretty rough cosmetically but seemed to work ok except for the laser. I took it back looking for refund and spied the brand new 12" job with a $345.00 price tag which was way better than I had seen elswhere so grabbed it.

It cut straight and true right out of the box. No adjustments required. It is way bigger than I will ever use but hey I figure it will last a long time with the limited use it will get.

Tanks for the help in this thread.

I have the Ryobi 10" SCMS which shall be upgraded soon to probably a Makita.

The big PITA with the Ryobi is the inaccuracey of the angle chart. It's away off with no possible way to improve it ie at 45 deg to left the accurate position is at the end stop about 3 degrees past the marked position. At the 45 deg to the right the accurate position is about 1.5 further on. All of this is calibrated against a dedicated mitre square (45 deg).

In the end I have marked the correct positions for mitres but am less than impressed with Ryobi quality.

As said previously - you get what you pay for.

I agree, I like the makita as well but can't really justify that kind of expenditure on a tool that isn't earning it's keep. I can live with inaccuracies and if I have to spend extra time setting up for mitre cuts I am ok with that. I believe in this case the ryobi I bought is the best of the entry level scms's.

After all is said and done woodcraft is just a hobby for me. I was a professional artist craftsman for most of my working life and when I bought a tool I only ever bothered with top of the range. If I used cheap crap it would cost production time. My time in the workshop is now leisure and pleasure instead of the blood sweat and tears of trying to make a living from my art. After 25 years of it I am over it.

I enjoy the solitude of the workshop now that I dont have to knock out pieces per hour anymore. I enjoy fiddling around making my cheapies work. I am learning a lot about woodcraft using the cheapies. It teaches me what good tools are. It teaches me how to use my handskills for pleasure and relaxation, not making money and most importantly It teaches me to have patience while learning how to get the best from limited resources.