Which Mitre Saw?

[ntb]

Let us know what you think of it. Others will no doubt find the feedback useful.

 

[RipGroove99]

Let us know what you think of it. Others will no doubt find the feedback useful.

Will do.

 

[RipGroove99]

So far quite impressed, but:

The saw arrived with sawdust on it and grubby marks around the blade housing, FFX assure me it was new so offered to either replace if or refund me £15. I took the £15.

The preset mitre locks are a little sloppy, not a lot but still not quite bang on so you can lock it anywhere in the sloppy part so you never know what angle you are locking it to and also you can never repeat the same angle. I am a precision engineer by trade so not sure what passes for acceptable in the wood working trade. I will have a closer look at it though to see if there is anything I can do improve this.

Also the laser doesn't really line up with where the blade cuts, not just laterally but also the angle is different, again I need to have a look at this.

Anyone know if there is fine adjustments that can be done to the laser or this saw in general? Admittedly I've not yet had a good look at it as I put it to use right away and built my workbench at the weekend.

 

[Belboz]

Surpised at FFX - Have used them quite a bit and always found them to be top notch.

I haven't got your particular saw but, whilst researching a new saw, I read hundreds of reviews of all makes and models and it seems that your saw does suffer from excessive play as you describe. If you read a few reviews online you will see the same moans as you have. Also see the 2 clips below (albeit these refer to the PLUS model, I think they are the same problems as the M model you have)

AFAIK, you can adjust the laser - see the last section of the IM



http://youtu.be/sMMzvOsZqas

http://youtu.be/x24b_qa1JX4

 

[RipGroove99]

Thanks I did check the reviews and those videos actually but figured I'd just mend and slack I found. Mine doesn't have as much as in those videos but it's still enough to annoy me. Will have a close look and also have a look at adjusting the laser.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

The preset mitre locks are a little sloppy, not a lot but still not quite bang on so you can lock it anywhere in the sloppy part so you never know what angle you are locking it to and also you can never repeat the same angle. I am a precision engineer by trade so not sure what passes for acceptable in the wood working trade. I will have a closer look at it though to see if there is anything I can do improve this.

There is a tendency to set it and creep towards a fit with multiple trim cuts and judicious use of a block plane for the final adjustments. It's all very well having angles exact, but when buildings are, in general, anything but square, level or plumb, then dead on doesn't necessarily produce the right angle in any case! Hence the need to be able to adjust by hand, however much that may offend your sensibilities as an engineer. To get exactness out of the box the only way forward is the likes of a Festool mitre saw - and they cost!

Lasers are really a bit of a gimmick IMHO. In use I've found that they get knocked out very easily by being trasnported around in a van, so I gave up on them a long time back. For most tradies probably only useful as a general guide rather than someting to work to (because the lines are much thicker than a pencil mark)

Pretty much every saw can be tuned to some extent - I'd start by getting your 90 degree settings correct before doing the bevels and mitres, but I can't be more specific about your saw as I'm not familiar with it

 

[ntb]

You can certainly do much better if you spend more. My Hitachi cuts a reliable 90 degrees every time straight out of the box with no adjustment and I'd expect the same for a Bosch, DeWalt or Makita.

 

[RipGroove99]

Just had a good look around my saw and have seemingly fixed everything.

Slack in the detents - there is a large nut and bolt in the middle of the saws table, this was loose causing "up and down" slack which was not allowing the mitre angle preset mechanism to seat properly causing slack there also, now that its tight there is no slack in the preset mitre angles at all.

Laser - this is indeed adjustable, its fiddly as the housing is plastic so tends to move when you try to lock it all in place but I've got it pretty damn close now. I may make an aluminium housing for it which will not flex when adjusting.

Angles - Checked all the angles on the saw with my engineers square and 30/60° - 90/45° set squares and found the blade bevel angles at 90° & 45° were both out but this was easily corrected by adjusting the "stops" and locking them in place again. The fence angle also needed adjusting but again this was easily fixed.

So it seems the saw is quite capable of accuracy but it just wasn't set up right out of the box, I'm quite happy with it's accuracy now I've set it up though

 

[ads1]

Just seen this, it was me in the linked thread.

To be honest I found the same as you. I'm a tool maker by trade so from the same background.

I don't know many mitre saws that come set up out of the box, especially at that price range. My presets were sloppy too.

I looked around at quite a few before buying mine, and compared to the other tat I looked at the Metabo seemed the best for the money IMO.

Still happy with mine.