Which mitre saw?

[rockyroller]

It lives. Relatively sand free and now with some fresh grease in the gearbox. No horrible grinding noises that I can detect as yet. Time to initiate a 'no power tools in the sandpit' rule I think.

I have a noisy corded drill, should look for screws to take it apart I guess

 

[philtalksbx]

I've got an Evolution one - no stand, but fits on the workstand fine. Cost about £100 and I'm still on the original blade. Mainly cutting timber and decking, but have occasionally used it to cut steel.

I also have an Evolution one, works well but I was getting a bit fed up with the consistency of the cuts. It has done a fair bit of work and so went for a new blade. Sucked teeth at £34 from Screwfix but now it is transformed and so much cleaner cuts.

 

[MontyVeda]

Am I the only person left who uses a mitre block and manual saw?

There's a noise threshold for me with power tools and mitre saws are just too bloody noisy, so when i inherited my dad's I let someone else have it and I'll stick with the hand saw. It's not like I'll ever be laying decking or owt so no real need to cut through timber like butter... and i do love the sound of a hand saw

 

[irw]

Alongside my 10 year old Wickes compound mitre saw....

Am I the only person left who uses a mitre block and manual saw?

No, I made a mitre block for small stuff on my model railway, or metalwork. I made it using my one of these:

I use those for plaster coving. Before getting the Dewalt, I used a Nobex frame saw which was extremely good. View attachment 582553

Because the Wickes jobby is pretty awful in terms of angular precision- alright for rough thereabouts jobs, but never seems to work for doorframes/trim etc, so they get done on the manual mitre saw.

 

[rockyroller]

a noise threshold with power tools

I make my racket in the basement, so it's not too bad. but I have a neighbor that sometimes does extended power sanding outside, which is annoying. sometimes I feel bad when I shop-vac the cars, but I'm pretty good about keeping it off, until I'm set moving stuff inside the car

 

[slowmotion]

Whilst I do have a mitre saw, before you spend the dosh, have you considered if a track saw might be more versatile ? A track saw is a hand-held circular saw linked to an aluminium rail to guide it. It can do mitres and angles etc too. Its key advantage is that it can do long cuts. I think Festool (a top quality but brutally expensive make) originated the idea, but Makita, Bosch and so on do them as well now at somewhat closer to a sensible price. Mine's a Festool and I think it's the best bit of kit I've ever bought - ie the track saw idea, rather than Festool wonderfulness.

View: https://youtu.be/xu85MUZwga0


Basically you can do long cuts as well as a lot of the the stuff a mitre saw can do, albeit the mitre saw is quicker and easier for short cross cutting. The track saw isn't really suitable for anything narrower than maybe a skirting board - I can't see it being useful for, saw picture frames.

I built these using the track saw, including the dado grooves on the sticky out side pieces (don't have a router), bearing in mind none of the angles of the alcoves are square.

View attachment 582600


I built a second (simpler) set in another room by which time I had the mitre saw as well which made the cross cuts a lot easier and quicker, but I still needed the track saw for the long cuts.

My mitre saw is a "sliding" type which allows maybe 10" width of cuts. A pure "chop" saw would only do 4 or 5", albeit you can flip it over and cut from the other side.

Whilst I'm a bit of a gear tart having bought Festool kit, even if you don't want to go to that extremem, there's still a lot to be said for buying "trade" or "pro" level quality - Bosch blue, Makita, Hitatchi etc as I'm unconvinced that the various Wickes own brands and the like are going to be up to
much (prejudice not experience admittedly) as I simply don't believe you can make a high precision tool for the money - and a mitre saw needs to be precise or it's only good for cutting firewood

To sum up, I probably do use the mitre saw more than the track saw, because of convenience for some jobs, but if I had to choose only one or the other, I'd take the track saw, as it can do nearly everything the mitre saw can, but also long straight cuts too.

I've got a Festool track saw too. Excellent tool, but completely bonkers pricing, especially for the accessories. It's actually quite fun working out how to make the accessories yourself for a fifth of the price of the official ones.

 

[MontyVeda]

I make my racket in the basement, so it's not too bad. but I have a neighbor that sometimes does extended power sanding outside, which is annoying. sometimes I feel bad when I shop-vac the cars, but I'm pretty good about keeping it off, until I'm set moving stuff inside the car

it's more about offending (rather than damaging) my own ears than disturbing neighbours... some tools (like mitre saws) are so loud I'm just much happier with the quieter option.

 

[Profpointy]

I've got a Festool track saw too. Excellent tool, but completely bonkers pricing, especially for the accessories. It's actually quite fun working out how to make the accessories yourself for a fifth of the price of the official ones.

Agree. You can just about convince yourself the tool is worth it, but they do take the piss on the extras. As an aside I'm not very impressed by their hoover. It just doesn't suck as well as another german made tradesman's hoover I had before. I changed it because I wanted the power-socket-on-the-hoover so it turns in when turn the sander on. Admittedly it's helpful that the hose fitting fits their sanders though, without having to bodge

 

[rockyroller]

rather than damaging my own ears

oh gotcha, yeah my hand held circular saw, an old metal housing unit, which I bought 2nd hand & gave a new cord to, is quite loud. but so nice & fast. I sometimes use ear muffs at the commercial/retail job. but with covid I'm not sharing sweaty ear muffs right now. but spending the day on the saws is so much nicer w/ ear muffs!