Cheaper Sliding Compound Mitre Saws

[tergar37]

Has anyone a cheaper version Sliding Compound Mitre Saw than the ones priced at around $800-$1000.

I don't care if it can't drive you to work & do all the house work, just as long as it is Accurate and aroung $200-$400.

Gary

[HappyHammer]

I have a Ryobi, haven't had any problems with it although I don't use the laser cutting guide which helps. Pretty sure it was at the lower end of your range.

HH.

[echnidna]

I've got a GMC 254mm
its not in the class of the high price stuff but it does the job ok.

[pawnhead]

I've got a big Ozito that cost less than $200. There's no slop in the rail and it cuts very nicely with the blade that it came with, although a better blade would produce a finer cut. I've also got a small GMC compound saw that's extremely lightweight and great for cutting quads, and even 4x2s. It cost $49 and I've used it heaps over the past four years. It's so light and easy to throw around that you could lift it with your pinky finger. :2tsup:

A poor tradsman blames his tools, whereas a good tradesman will get out his sharp $5 hand plane (or electric planer if he's got a steady hand) and fix up any joinery, if the job calls for perfection and his saw cut isn't micrometer perfect. IMO only a fanatical perfectionist (edit: There's a lot of those on these forums. :p) could tell the difference between the performance of my $5 (Stanley clone) handplane and a $200 LN.

A selection of tools I'd recommend:

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y266/holgerdanske/th_PB240045.jpg (http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y266/holgerdanske/PB240045.jpg)

The planer, the power saw and the router are good quality Makita items and they've been with me for years doing a lot of hard yards. The cheap $20 drill will last a few years before it blows up, and gets replaced with another cheapy. I haven't had much better luck spending ten times as much on a drill. The hand plane cost $5 and it does a good job.

A good tool does make a difference, but the biggest difference that you'll get is in the hands that are holding it. :wink:

edit: I've only had the Ozito SCMS for a short while so I can't actually testify as to how tough it is in regards to the hard yards that it will be facing, but I could buy five of them for the cost of a better quality saw, and ten of them for one of those fandangled Festool 'kapex' jobbies.

[echnidna]

:repplus:

I've got very much the same tools.

My little gmc dropsaw gets a real hiding,
shoulda died long ago if yer listen to the tool snobs on this forum.

Also worth noting that Pawnhead & I are/were both builders, so we can't have absolute crap tools. But good value for money tools are quite ok.

[Bodgy]

I have a generic 10" SCMS. After a lot of adjustment and tuning it will cut a 300mm wide bit of hardwood with less than 1mm deviation from true lateral and none discernable in the vertical. Problem is that once you move to another setting (not 90 degr) it takes a half hour to get that accurate.

I'm about to buy a 12" CMS, Metabo or Makita with the positive stops and greater accuracy.

In summary the cheapos are great value, and fine for carpentry but not cabinetry.

Mines done fine for 4 years @ around $100.

[woodbe]

So what's the cheapest one that is accurate and relatively easy to set?

woodbe.

[munruben]

Yep GMC sliding compound mitre saw, cheap but does the job for me:2tsup:

[pawnhead]

So what's the cheapest one that is accurate and relatively easy to set?

woodbe.There's nothing wrong with my Ozito. It clicks in place on all of the common angles and you don't need to use the base clamping dial. It cuts very accurately at the moment, but if I was after a deadly precise 90 degree angle, then It wouldn't matter what saw I was using, I'd flip the timber over and if it doesn't perfectly match the blade position, then I'd adjust the table half of the difference and test it again. If it takes Bodgy half an hour to do that, then I'd say he needs some advice or some practice because it would take me less than half a minute. If I want a precision perfect 45 degree cut, then I'd cut a piece of scrap in half, put the two pieces together and check their alignment with my roofing square. Same deal. You could check it in about ten seconds I reckon, give another ten seconds to adjust and re-test.

With my Ozito you'd only need to do that if the pieces that you were fitting were wider than 100mm I reckon. I fitted a 90mm wide mitred architrave around my front door yesterday, and it fitted perfectly first time. No saw adjustment and no planing required. :2tsup:

edit: If your door jamb is out of square a little, then take the head piece back to the saw and adjust the saw a whisker before re-cutting it. Works the same with any saw no matter how much it costs. Of course, as I've said, you can always blame a sloppy joint on your tools, but you won't convince me that that's the case.

edit 2 :Tommorrow (http://www.woodworkforums.com/showthread.php?p=647005&highlight=japanese#post647005) I'll find out how good it is with micrometer precision trenching work. I don't expect it to be perfect, but my brother's $1,200 DeWalt isn't perfect in that department either. I've yet to see an SCMS that doesn't deflect when trenching, depending on how much downward pressure you apply. I'm sure the Festool would as well. You need a light touch to get your trench cuts a consistent depth.

[Pusser]

You guys will all be in trouble when the festoolies find out what youve been saying:oo:

For what its worth I agree with you.:D

[Bodgy]

There's nothing wrong with my Ozito. It clicks in place on all of the common angles and you don't need to use the base clamping dial. It cuts very accurately at the moment, but if I was after a deadly precise 90 degree angle, then It wouldn't matter what saw I was using, I'd flip the timber over and if it doesn't perfectly match the blade position, then I'd adjust the table half of the difference and test it again.

If it takes Bodgy half an hour to do that, then I'd say he needs some advice or some practice because it would take me less than half a minute. .

Pawnhead, I might have exaggerated a bit, but you have oversimplified a bit. Not only do you need to adjust the angle of the cut but the 'verticality' too. Mines perfectly good for carpentry, but not for fine cabinetry stuff. I agree they're good value too.

I just don't want to spend what is certainly 15 minutes, to get an accurate setting every time I change an angle.

If the $800 De Walt or whatever I end up buying isn't accurate to a fraction of a degree, I won't bother. My understanding is that these circa $1000 saws (not sliding just cms) will repeatedly cut to less than 1 degree accuracy at all the stops once tuned.

[pawnhead]

Well so far I've found that it is just as accurate as my brother's DeWalt, and just as accurate as my old (stolen)Makita LS1013. I did quite a bit of trenching today and I'm very pleased with the results:

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y266/holgerdanske/th_puzzles3.jpg (http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y266/holgerdanske/puzzles3.jpg) http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y266/holgerdanske/th_puzzles2.jpg (http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y266/holgerdanske/puzzles2.jpg) http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y266/holgerdanske/th_puzzles.jpg (http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y266/holgerdanske/puzzles.jpg)

About eight hours work so far, and I've prepared enough blanks for about 50 burrs all up. With another hour they'll all be assembled ready to have the corners sanded and a coat of oil applied. :D Some of them are a little bit sloppy, but that's because my stock varied up to half a millimetre or more. I just ripped it out of an old stick of 4x2 oregon with my power saw and rip fence, before planing. A thicknesser would have gotten better results. The trenching was micrometer perfect if I maintained consistent and light downward pressure, and if you don't go pushing the saw sideways then it will cut dead straight. I'm sure I could produce a very sloppy cut from any saw if you pushed it in the wrong direction or applied too much pressure when trenching though.

Obviously if I used a good quality joinery blade, then I'd get much finer cuts with minimal tear out. That's just the results of the cheap framing blade that it came with.

But I'll test it tomorrow with the widest stock it can handle, both vertically and horizontally. I'm certain that it will be well within a degree of accuracy. It wasn't even a poofteenth out with my 90mm architraves. They were razor tight. Then I'll try to cut the same stock 1/4 of a degree out of square. I'm sure that it won't take me half an hour, or even fifteen minutes to set that up. Closer to fifteen seconds I'd say. :wink:

[manoftalent]

tergar, I would buy the ryobi, bunnies has it for around $298...and it has a 2000w motor ....more than enough

[bpj1968]

My previous one was a no-name brand, ($200) before GMC Ozito etc, when Bunnings first opened. It looks identical to the Ozito. I had it for years and was used to build numerous decks etc. Only died last year when the gears ground out. Not sure but it might have been my fault, when I was in a rush. I didn't notice that the power cord was still partly wrapped around the body and think it was pressing the blade lock part way in.

I now have a GMC and can't complain about either.

I do avoid angling it to the side, but it doesn't take too long to reset. It has a stop at 90 degrees and a small square lines it up near enough and a quick test cut for the last bit. For normal left/right angles I don't have a problem. The laser helps to check with a square.