Fixed rail mitre saw

[Deleted member 174758]

I quite like the laser for the sole purpose of it telling me if the saw's hooked up to the mains or not.

Not a reliable way to tell, though - not all lasers run off the mains (some are battery), all the saws I have used with lasers have an on-off switch (I still have two mitre saws which came with lasers) and it is not unknown for lasers to go phut.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Well I suppose, the one I have certainly goes on/off with the mains and pretty sure I'd notice pretty quick if the silly thing didn't light up.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

Generally a useless piece of kit, though, because you can only line up the laser line with one side of the blade (the one exception I'm aware of is the Festool Kapex which has two lasers, one either side of the blade), and as cutting is often done on both sides of the blade...

 

[opps]

Generally a useless piece of kit, though, because you can only line up the laser line with one side of the blade (the one exception I'm aware of is the Festool Kapex which has two lasers, one either side of the blade), and as cutting is often done on both sides of the blade...

The "builders" that I recently mentioned that I was working for, surprisingly, had a Kapex. First time I had seen one in the flesh. Lovely bit of kit. I had a look at the PDF instructions and discovered that it includes things like crown stops.

Until reading your post, it had never occurred to me that the laser on most saws are either calibrated to show the middle of the cut or a cut to one side of the bade.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

Until reading your post, it had never occurred to me that the laser on most saws are either calibrated to show the middle of the cut or a cut to one side of the bade.

It's one reason I bought a Kapex about 6 years back - there are a few things like pre-finished cornices, profiled handrails and the like where a dual laser comes in handy (but for most cuts I still don't need one). The other reasons for getting it were the mobility "cart", the visibility of the bevel scale, the controls all being up front and the dust extraction (the price, however, nearly cost me a divorce!). The fact that it seems to flex less than equivalent sized deWalt and Makita saws I've used (and a lot less than any 12in mitre saw I have ever used) is a bonus. I still reserve it for kitchens and high end jobs, though, because my little 216mm DW can do most of what I need a mitre saw to do

 

[big-all]

Yeah I saw that one 330 quid 216 mm blade a bit too small for me and too expensive. I just went with the lumberjack one should be sufficient enough for my diy projects. i don’t usually use lasers too, they never seem to match the blade and are out by 2-3 mm. So definitely not a selling feature to me.
thank you

all depends on what the laser is telling you as in this laser is blade width and the path the blade will take if not you have to work out what it tells you
my little ryobi is exactly lined up with the blade edge on the lhs
as for 2-3mm out easy to explain how that can happen even with every thing accurately set up
you need to do it constantly the same as in mark position and cut work hand holding on the lhs the wrong way round and you risk loosing 3mm as the blade cuts the bit you want
and the action that seems to fox many if you put an extremely accurate mark at say 2440 the actual pencil line may be from 2439-2441 so the only way to get accurate cuts is cut half the line out on the waste side or you have random 0.5-.75 + or minus errors

 

[opps]

It's one reason I bought a Kapex about 6 years back - there are a few things like pre-finished cornices, profiled handrails and the like where a dual laser comes in handy (but for most cuts I still don't need one). The other reasons for getting it were the mobility "cart", the visibility of the bevel scale, the controls all being up front and the dust extraction (the price, however, nearly cost me a divorce!). The fact that it seems to flex less than equivalent sized deWalt and Makita saws I've used (and a lot less than any 12in mitre saw I have ever used) is a bonus. I still reserve it for kitchens and high end jobs, though, because my little 216mm DW can do most of what I need a mitre saw to do

Your missus took umbrage at you spending £2.5K on a saw (plus parts)?

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I wonder how much I would get for she what scowls at me if I put her on ebay. Unfortunately, not only would that be illegal, but I suspect that that the buyer may issue a chargeback, and even if not, wouldn't be enough to buy a Kapex...

I need to see how much one of my kidneys may be worth on the dark web...

 

[opps]

9
and the action that seems to fox many if you put an extremely accurate mark at say 2440 the actual pencil line may be from 2439-2441 so the only way to get accurate cuts is cut half the line out on the waste side or you have random 0.5-.75 + or minus errors

I was taught to markout with mechanical 0.5-0.7mm pencils.

I once went to selco and gave the wall saw guy my required dimensions. He used a chisel marker pen 4-6mm wide) , marking the lengths along the sheet of MDF. Ignoring the loss from the blade width, it goes without saying that none of the cuts were what I asked for. I was happy to deal with nominal cuts but I hadn't previous stated that.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

Your missus took umbrage at you spending £2.5K on a saw (plus parts)?

Actually, having just purchased a Domino I had a couple of discount vouchers in my sweaty little hand, so it was more like £1350 after discounts (and prices have gone up quite a bit since then). My justification is that I do this for a living. Her justification for sending me to Coventry for a fortnight was the Kapex. Maybe it was the Domino that really upset her. Who knows?

I was taught to markout with mechanical 0.5-0.7mm pencils.

I was taught to mark out with 2H and HB pencils (I believe they were Lakelands in those days, I might be wrong). Nowadays I use Stadtler Noris red and blacks and a pencil sharpener (a Kum double sharpener - no sniggering at the back! It actually means "godfather" in Serbi-Croat, apparently...) Those Noris pencils will actually withstand being dropped onto concrete multiple times before the leads finally break; I've tried mechanical pencils a few times - the leads break too easily for my liking, they won't withstand being dropped off a scaffolding, they fall out from behind my ear or hook themselves on the arm of my specs but worst of all they don't work after being used to stir my tea!

Almost every apprentice I've dealt with for years has had to have one of those fat, useless lumps of wood (or "carpenter's pencil") pried out from behind his ear and replaced with a proper Noris pencil. Those fat things work well enough if you are putting a cut roof on, where accuracy is measured in 1/4 inches (6.35mm in new money), but can't hack it if you are fitting a door, or a kitchen or a doing a scribe. As your anecdote perfectly illustrates

 

[opps]

Actually, having just purchased a Domino I had a couple of discount vouchers in my sweaty little hand, so it was more like £1350 after discounts (and prices have gone up quite a bit since then). My justification is that I do this for a living. Her justification for sending me to Coventry for a fortnight was the Kapex. Maybe it was the Domino that really upset her. Who knows?


I was taught to mark out with 2H and HB pencils (I believe they were Lakelands in those days, I might be wrong). Nowadays I use Stadtler Noris red and blacks and a pencil sharpener (a Kum double sharpener - no sniggering at the back!). Those Noris pencils will actually withstand being dropped onto concrete multiple times before the leads finally break; I've tried mechanical pencils a few times - the leads break too easily for my liking, they won't withstand being dropped off a scaffolding, they fall out from behind my ear or hook themselves on the arm of my specs but worst of all they don't work too well after being used to stir my tea.

Almost every apprentice I've dealt with for years has had to have one of those fat, useless lumps of wood (or "carpenter's pencil") pried out from behind his ear and replaced with a proper Noris pencil. Those fat things work well enough if you are putting a cut roof on, where accuracy is measured in 1/4 inches (6.35mm in new money), but can't hack it if you are fitting a door, or a kitchen or a doing a scribe. As your anecdote perfectly illustrates

Granted the mechanical pencils are useless for sawn timber. I normally use them for MDF and planed timber.

Admittedly, sometimes my attention to detail is far in excess of my capabilities. I once purchased a Japanese "framing" square because I wanted to minimise any potential parallax when marking out. I was concerned that using the scale on my thicker roofing square might result in my pencil mark being out by up to 1mm.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

Granted the mechanical pencils are useless for sawn timber. I normally use them for MDF and planed timber.

The biggest problem I found was that the leads break too easily if they are dropped...

That and the tea issue...

 

[johnny2007]

they fall out from behind my ear or hook themselves on the arm of my specs but worst of all they don't work too well after being used to stir my tea.

I found that my ears must've changed shape because pencils won't stay behind them anymore.
I got used to put them in my shirt pocket.
However in summer, working topless, I need an assistant passing me the pencil that I inevitably put somewhere and immediately forgot about it.
Our record one day was to use 7 pencils, brand new from the box.
We found 5 of them when we cleared everything.
The other two are probably living in pencil paradise island with a bunch of offsprings.
Norris for me as well, even my dad had a stash of them we found when he passed and of course that became my inheritance.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

Our record one day was to use 7 pencils, brand new from the box.
We found 5 of them when we cleared everything.

. I have to admit that I'm getting like that, too! I generally carry a two or three decent pencils with me (they live in a pencil pocket in my keks), together with a clutch of "stubs" which have maybe a couple of sharpenings left in them. The working one often still lives behind my right ear next to my spectacle arm ('er indoors has met me after work a number of times and complained about it still being there an hour after we went to the pub). At one time I had a hard hat which very thoughtfully had a pencil holder at the back. Not seen one of them for a while, though

 

[opps]

I found that my ears must've changed shape because pencils won't stay behind them anymore.

When I still smoked, I once absent mindedly put my lit cigarette behind my ear rather than the pencil. It was at that point, I decided that I wouldn't use my ears as a place to rest things (... other than spectacles).

I normally only work in (heated) domestic properties and as such only wear a t-shirt, I "clip" the (normally) Bic pencil to the collar of the t-shirt. That said, I make sure that I have a whole packet of them for the time that I forget to clip it to my t-shirt and can't find it.

 

[opps]

. I have to admit that I'm getting like that, too! I generally carry a two or three decent pencils with me (they live in a pencil pocket in my keks), together with a clutch of "stubs" which have maybe a couple of sharpenings left in them. The working one often still lives behind my right ear next to my spectacle arm ('er indoors has met me after work a number of times and complained about it still being there an hour after we went to the pub). At one time I had a hard hat which very thoughtfully had a pencil holder at the back. Not seen one of them for a while, though

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Peel off Magtab label backing paper and stick to your chosen place, firmly pressing the edges down. : Strong magnets: Do not put sensitive electronics directly against Magtab. A convenient, easy to locate holder for the tradesmans most important tool. the humble pencil.

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