Should I return this mitre saw?

I've just bought a Metabo KGS 305M, a 12" compound sliding mitre saw. It's a beast of a machine, but will handle sleepers with ease, which is one significant reason for purchase.

I've adjusted the fence; no problem. But the vertical is off by about 1.5-2º. Since it's a compound saw I can make up for that that by adjusting the angle, but there's no proper way to adjust the actual vertical alignment. Also if I go to say 45º mitre, that angle is slightly off. I can't adjust the detents.

I hate returning things but I don't think this is good enough. But it cost £310, so for a saw of this size and versatility it's not top-end. Maybe perfect alignment comes at a price; a compound slider with a 12" blade leaves quite a bit of leeway for cumulative errors to creep in, but you'd think the range of user-adjustments would be more than just the fence.

For those who have experience of new mitre saws what are your thoughts please? Live with it, exchange or refund? It was not bought locally, so to return it involves shipping the 20kg beast 300 miles.

If it claims a 45° mitre, that’s what I’d want. If not, back it.

If it's not adjustable, which is a bit odd, then there is no alternative to return it, it's is not fit for purpose. 1.5-2 reg off is a lot.

Doesn't sound right - would have expected machine to have end user adjustments and guides to set up correctly.

Contact the importers for their advice.they give guidance, tell you to return to suppliers or they may want it back direct.

United Kingdom
Metabo (UK) Ltd.

25 Majestic Road
Nursling Industrial Estate
SO16 OYT Southampton

(+44) 2380 732 000
(+44) 2380-74 75 00

[email protected]
www.metabo.com/uk/en/

Had similar problem with a Hitachi , slide was about 1 1/2 degrees off so could never get a true 90 cut from it .Return it .

Thanks for the advice people. Seems pretty unanimous.

Even my cheap 10 year old parkside cuts true at 90 and 45 degrees.
Return it.

Guy at work has one of these and have always thought it a bit flimsy.

Update. I've learnt some, which is always good.

After the replies here I had been resigned to returning the machine.

But, having double-checked the blade-to-vertical with a digital angle gauge, it was definitely giving me 90º which didn't tie in with the results I'd been getting from the cuts. So I decided to start over again. I got some fresh 4x1 and started with the fence alignment.

Long story short but it seems that the fence was the root of most of my issues. It was not close enough to 90º, and when cutting at 45º and flipping the cut piece over and placing the edges together to test for 90º it was of course doubling any error in the fence angle. So after a few more tweaks I got that sorted.

Believing the blade was out of vertical was probably the quality of the timber I was testing with initially, in terms of the squareness of the faces etc ... so my fault there. I'm now happy with the results I'm getting.

So I won't be making those mistakes again. Many thanks for the replies; if it wasn't for the strength of opinion here I may not have re-examined my own processes again.

Out of all of this, the one thing that I do find surprising and a bit disappointing on a Metabo tool is that there's no proper adjustment available to either blade vertical or the mitre detent stops. But otherwise it feels like a decent machine. Time will tell.