Thread: Compound Mitre Saw Opinion/Purchase Advice

Originally Posted by Glider

I wouldn't touch either of them. They are at least 15 years out of date in their design. You can spend $400 and then weep if something goes wrong and you want to make a warranty claim. Stay with the brand names properly represented in Oz, not some random seller on EBay. At least you can read the reviews.
I bought a Makita LS1017 recently for about $1200 and it holds its settings consistently for an accurate repeatable cut. But it all depends on what you want it to do.
mick

Interesting that the LS1017 you so solidly endorse seems to have the same 15 year old design elements, dual horizontal linear slides and the same metal extensions that my 15 yr old ozito has ..... guess that makes the Makita an out of date design as well.

Seriously (and this is not at Mick) the forum seems to have real tool snob mentality to someone wanting to get a basic part time use tool, for the OP it seems his mate is really happy with the baby Ozito and maybe we should ask why. Not everyone wants to cut picture framing and it seems in a later post that the OP just wants to do some basic docking construction type tasks.

I don't disagree with "stay with brand names" or even better the bricks and mortar stores that can deal with the lemons that happen with all brands. cheaper no name tools have a risk / reward trade off that may be good for some and crap for others.

Nedshead: for cutting boards to length i'd take the SCMS over a circular saw any day regardless of how cheap it was.... once you tuned it

BobL: that Bosch Glide is super really nice and will be the replacement unit for my aging Ozito when it finally bites the dust..... for one really simply reason, no rear slide space requirements. that slide mechanism looks complex and i wonder how it will last over the years

General comment: all yes all SCMS units that have a dual circular slide system will have some form of twist possible at any extension as it's just the nature of the rail setup. The better designs will have the weight balanced better ie with the motor above the rails but unless they also place your hand centrally they will all twist.
maybe the cheaper units use thinner more flexible tubes to save a few cents.

Originally Posted by Aussiephil

BobL: that Bosch Glide is super really nice and will be the replacement unit for my aging Ozito when it finally bites the dust..... for one really simply reason, no rear slide space requirements. that slide mechanism looks complex and i wonder how it will last over the years

The Bosch Glide Saw been around for a few years now and all reports are that unlike most circular rail base sliders remains rock solid, Chris Parks has one and maybe can shed some light on this. An issue for me is height in the lock down position as the saw has to sit on a scissor trolley under a bench. The Makita 1219 (and 1019) is like the Bosch in that it saves space behind the saw by using forward facing rails and I'm leaning towards it because it locks down lower than the Bosch, and apparently has better dust ejection.

Bob

I have the makita 1019 saw, I bought it because it can be placed close to wall with no rails protruding out the back and it got good reviews.
I haven't been able to use it as much as I planed, but it does do a good job and dust collection seems pretty good.
However if you are thinking of getting one I had an issue with the fence, the fence is in 3 parts, the Botton section is one piece with 2 removable sections to give higher support to the work, the problem was the top sections didn't align correctly. A straight edge across the 2 sections showed they angled in towards the centre (blade) about 3mm, this meant when holding wider pieces against the fence they angled in at the top, not 90* to the base causing out of square cuts and small offcuts to fall back against the blade to be thrown out scaring the **** out of me. This was rectified by the local Makita service agent and the saw now works OK, he put a straight edge across a saw he had in his shop and it was the same I think it was the 1219 model.
Just something to be aware of if you decide to get one.

Cheers Rick

Originally Posted by Rick47

I have the makita 1019 saw, I bought it because it can be placed close to wall with no rails protruding out the back and it got good reviews.
I haven't been able to use it as much as I planed, but it does do a good job and dust collection seems pretty good.
However if you are thinking of getting one I had an issue with the fence, . . . .

Thanks RICK. I read and watched a few reviews about the 1X19 series and this hasn't come up in any of these so thanks for the info.
How did they fix the problem - did they just replace the fence?

Yes the complete fence was replaced plus a bit of fine tuning, now all good. Overall I find it is a good quality saw with good features.

Well it's been a few weeks now and I'm still undecided, I'm going to throw a couple more hundred into the budget and buy something with a name on it, I'm just not sure what it'll be but I'm leaning towards a standard compound mitre for the accuracy,

it's a hard decision, my wife would like to have a go at making some furniture, I'll cut and she will do the fit and finish, I don't particularly wan't to invest in a lot of woodwork gear so maybe one good SCMS will be more versatile in the long run and save me from having to buy another saw in the future for wider cuts that can't be done on a standard compound saw.

Have you purchased anything yet BobL?