Compound mitre saw

[ppppenguin]

I'm thinking of buying a compound mitre saw. Helped by the fact that Screwfix are giving a 10% off everything discount throughout May. (This may only be for Electricfix and Plumbfix customers) Looking to benefit from your experience in choosing the right one. It's for DIY, not tradesman service, so I don't need to spend a huge amount but it's good if it's accurate and easy to use.

This is one of the cheaper ones:
https://www.screwfix.com/p/evolution-r21...230v/2965v

Is that up to the job or should I be looking at this:
https://www.screwfix.com/p/scheppach-hm8...230v/4410j

Or spending even more?

Both of these are single bevel. Double bevel is faster for complicated jobs but gives a more expensive and heavier machine. Any thoughts on whether it's worth having?

[djrm]

Greetings Jeffrey,
I got one of the Evolution saws for my son because it can cut aluminium and steel (just)
Its been ok for the lite use it has seen, he uses it mainly on wood.
I have used it for cutting extruded aluminium from time to time.
I know nothing of the others.
Kind regards, David.

[ppppenguin]

Thanks for the comment on the Evolution saw. If it's good enough then £120 (less 10%) is a price I'm happy to pay. But if it takes more to get something that will last me for many (more) years it may be worth the money. I like the ability to cut metal and wood with nails. Must look at the replacement blades too.

[Mark Hennessy]

The cost of the machine is relatively small compared to what you'll potentially spend on blades, especially if you want to occasionally cut steel.

I bought a Bosch GCM 10S about 10 years ago. It is without a doubt the best machine I own. Very precise. I'm not a tool snob, and have plenty of cheaper other tools, including a fair few own-brand things from B&Q and similar, but in the case of something like this, you do get what you pay for. But then, you've not specified your use-cases. For cutting the odd bit of skirting or architrave that's going to be painted, just about anything will do - just look at how good people did with just hand tools back in the day. But for anything more precise... Whenever I try a cheaper saw, I'm always surprised at how flimsy and imprecise they are.

Just in case anyone thinks I'm being a Bosch fanboy, the worst tool I bought was a GTS 10 table saw. This cost more than the mitre saw, and lasted about 5 years before breaking after hardly any use. When it was working, the results were disappointing, though I suspect the blade was responsible to some extent. The fault is the armature windings breaking down - there's lots of info about that out there. Last time I checked, it will cost me about £300 to get it working again. Still, at least I have that option - Bosch are pretty good about parts. But before spending that much, I wanted some reassurance from Bosch that the design or manufacturing processes have been altered, so the same thing doesn't happen again. Naturally, Bosch wouldn't say - because to answer "yes" is an admission that the original had a defect. They also couldn't say if the fault would be covered by the 6 year warranty - they're only response was "take it to a repair centre", the nearest of which was a fair distance from me, and when I asked, they said they would charge for "diagnosis", whether I'd gone ahead or not. Anyway, that was 6 years ago, and in most of that time, it's been a not terribly convenient extra bit of bench space in the workshop...

This is a contractor table saw, so will never be as good as a "proper" table saw with a cast iron table, but it needed to be light enough to be taken up and down the cellar stairs (which is where my workshop is). This is something that was designed to be lumped from site to site, and live in a van or shed in-between jobs - whereas I've kept it in a temperature/humidity controlled workshop and have never moved it around since getting it - so in effect I've treated it far better than the typical user it was designed for - that's why its very premature failure is so annoying. Still, after all this time, I'm sure the replacement armature will be OK, so perhaps I should just stump up for the required parts. Too much else to do at the moment...

But don't let that put you off - the GCM 10 is an amazing saw if you're doing the sort of work that exploits its abilities. It cuts as much aluminium as it does wood, and does an amazing job with both.

[Nick]

Depends on how accurate you want to be. In trade terms, that's first or second fix.

First fix is stuff like wall studding, second fix is far more accurate and includes fitting kitchen architrave etc.

I bought a DeWalt DW717-XPS from Screwfix. This is not a cheap saw but it is stupidly accurate on repeat cuts and incredibly versatile. When doing mitres, once set up it's accurate to small fractions of a degree. It's also a compound saw, which greatly increases its flexibility.

I've built floors, workbenches and picture frames with it and it's a breeze. The corners of the picture frames are so accurate there's not the tiniest hint of a gap.

Brilliant saw, but you pay for all that.

[ppppenguin]

Mainly 2nd fix, so it needs to be reasonably accurate. I suspect almost any of these tools will be better than a tenon saw and mitre box which is all I have at present. Or an occasional inaccurate bevel with a circular saw.

[Mark Hennessy]

Honestly, I wouldn't necessarily assume that.

You need to go and look at the machine - you really can't buy these blind unless you go for a "proper" brand like Bosch, DeWalt or Makita. Check for play and slop (I've been horrified at what I've seen on display in places like B&Q). Take a couple of measuring tools to see how repeatable the angle stops are and how well set up the presets like 90 degrees are.

With the cheap tools I've looked at, the various preset angles were not repeatable, so you had to measure with something else each time you changed angle. Given that that's something you do all the time, it quickly becomes boring. With the better tools, you're paying for confidence (and the huge amounts of time saved as a result).

I do have some cheap no-name tools, and they're OK for the money, but if I was using them more, I would definitely upgrade. The imprecision of my cheap biscuit cutter is really annoying, and I end up having to do a lot of extra sanding because of it. My cheap circular saw is pretty good if you're just doing simple 90 degree cuts following a straight edge, but as soon as the blade is dull, I'll buy a decent saw. It'll be safer and more accurate and I'll probably use it much more as a result. And that is definitely true with the mitre saw, which nominally I only bought to do some skirting and picture rail - because it's so very good, I use it for far more than I ever could have imagined. It's honestly my most used powertool. The main challenge is keeping enough clear space around it so it's always readily accessible. Which might be a consideration for you, not knowing how much workshop space you have. Obviously it is light enough to take to the job when required, but it's an awkward shape to carry so you won't want to do that all the time, hence it needs a working default home position. Packing it away between jobs would be a waste - you might as well just hire one for whatever jobs you currently have in mind.

Having said all that, decent 2nd fix isn't all that demanding, especially if there's paint going over it. Just look at the quality produced by Georgian and Victorian carpenters, who didn't have power tools on site. I find their work hugely inspirational - it shows what can be done with tenon saws and mitre boxes - and lots of practice.

[ppppenguin]

Confining the Screwfix search to known makes (Bosch, Makita, Dewalt, Festool) with sliding cpability and 240V gives these: https://www.screwfix.com/search?search=c...=cat830692&brand=bosch|dewalt|festool|makita&mitresawbevelslide=sliding&moreItems=brand&powervoltagesupply=240_v&sort_by=price

From £200 to 2nd mortgage (Festool).

[Crackle]

I would go for the best you can afford.
I bought a Titan one and the accuracy is not that good. The blade moves about 1mm or so when it is spinning.

Mike

[ppppenguin]

What do folks think of these.

Bosch. Not sure what makes one more expensive:
https://www.screwfix.com/p/bosch-gcm800s...240v/3728j
https://www.screwfix.com/p/bosch-gcm-8-s...240v/18086

De Walt. 2nd one is getting a bit much for my budget:
https://www.screwfix.com/p/dewalt-dws773...240v/9008j
https://www.screwfix.com/p/dewalt-dws777...240v/2217j

Makita. The only one vaguely in price range isn't sliding so limited cut width:
https://www.screwfix.com/c/tools/saws/ca...=cat830858&brand=makita&powervoltagesupply=240_v