Compound Mitre Saw Recommendation?
 

Anyone have a recommendation for a compound Mitre Saw? I'm thinking of doing some finish carpentry like baseboard, crown mouldings, and stuff like that.

I have a Delta that was relatively inexpensive and has been a workhorse in my house. Mine is a 10" non-sliding unit and requires a little work to cut big crown mouldings. My Dad has a Porrter-Cable 12" slding unit with laser-cut-line that is really nice to use, but costs about 3x what mine did.

I found mine at Costco for about $200CDN.

Delta used to sell a laser line miter (Norm has one), but you can't find one now. Mine is the same as John's, a Delta 10" non sliding. A workhorse, but has limits on the size of the stock as John pointed out. No problem working with "normal" or average sized crown moulding. If you are going for the Victorian look of giant sized crown, you can use normal 6" moulding and build it up with some 3" baseboard, which gives the same impression that the giant crown will.

You can get the Delta at HomeDepot or Lowes for under $200 US.

I buy most of my tools at Harbor Freight. They have some very good deals on their house brand compound miters, sliding and non-sliding. I believe I recently saw a 10" non-sliding for about $60. I know a lot of people think the quality is not that great but I have had no problems with them. If I worked with the tool everyday I might look for another brand but for the amount I use those kind of tools, they work quite well. I bought one of their cordless Chicago Electric drills about 7 years ago for $30 and it is still working fine.

My father in law has this compound saw from Harbor Freight and really likes it. He has used my Ryobi sliding compound saw, so he has used something different. And he still likes it.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=41168

go to the store if you can

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/retail_stores.taf?f=detail&Retail_Store_ID=137

Look at the saw and see if you like it.

If you want to spend money, Get the slide compound saw. Makita is rated as one of the best and Dewalt and Delta make great tools. Its just a matter of how much you want to spend.

I do like my Ryobi, It has provided great service. I did improve the saw by putting a Forrest blade on it. The cuts improve tremendously with this blade. I also have the Forrest blade on my Table saw. A Powermatic model 63

Dave

Question about slide?
 

If you're working with standard 2" to 4" base and/or crown, is a sliding saw necessary or useful? What's the benefit?

Thanks!

A sliding compound allows you to do all the cuts that you can do with a normal compound saw. But it allows you to do it with up to a 12 inch board. Now that 12 inch cut is at 90 degrees only and usually at the depth that the blade can cut. That depth is dependent on weather you have a 7 1/4 diameter blade, 8 1/4 inch blade or a 12 inch blade.
I used to have a table saw, a radial arm saw and a 71/4 inch compund saw. I used the table saw 65% of the time. The compound saw 30% of the time and the radial arm saw 5% of the time. Buying the sliding compound saw. I got rid of the radial arm saw, and have not missed it. The radial arm saw has the most lawsuits of any woodworking tool.

Dave

Dave,
Thanks for the overview! :)
Typically, are the slides lockable? (to defeat the sliding action)

If you want to do good precise cutting with all the flexability you'll ever need next to a radial arm saw, get what I got:
http://www.dewalt.com/us/products/tool_detail.asp?productID=4741
This thing will spoil you rotten. You'll never want anything less!:) I borrowed one from a friend whan I put down my flooring a couple years ago, and then bought one. My brother has a Delta, and is a pretty good carpenter. I let him use mine, and now he wants one.
They're spendy, about $600. But if you plan on doing a lot of work, it'll be worth it.
Oh yes, you can lock the slide too.

I have the DeWalt that Rick referenced and it is fabulous. You'll really love it for crown moulding. I used it to build shelves for a library in my home. I Bought all the materials including the saw for $1100, versus the $2000 or more that a carpenter would have charged for a lesser quality job. And I got to keep the saw! The cost is easily justified that way.

My only complaint is that it takes up a lot of space in the garage.

Glen
The slide does not lock. At least not on the Ryobi.
You use a sliding compound miter saw differently than you woudl think.
A typical chop saw you positioin the wood and lower the saw. A radial arm saw you positon the wood and pull the assembly. A sliding compund miter you position the wood pull the saw assembly out and down so that its in front of the wood, positioned closer to you , and you push the saw through the wood. Its a little different, But it is a great tool.

Rick
I agree a sliding compound saw doea take up a lot of room.

Dave

The DeWalt does have a locking feature for the slide.

Storage is an issue for me. I would only be using 3" to 4" base and similar sized crown...would a non-sliding 10" model be sufficient? Or is the sliding feature really beneficial?

[Kuan, sorry for hijacking your thread :)]

Check the specs of the saw you are considering. They'll tell you the capacity. DeWalt has a 10" miter saw that looks like would work for you.
http://www.dewalt.com/us/products/tool_detail.asp?productID=2921
Not sure how much less storage space it'd take. The one I have isn't too bad because you can rotate it around and lock the slide in place to take up the least space. I'd suggest you take a few measurements of where you'll store it, and take a trip down to your local hardware store and see what'll fit.

One thing my dad always taught me, when you buy tools, buy the best. That may be a bit fanatic to some, but I very rarely have to buy a tool a second time.
Personally, I'd stick with DeWalt, Makita, or Delta. But others may have had good results with others. I've never been impressed with Ryobi stuff. IMHO