04-05-2020, 06:51 PM
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.
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.
