( 5 reviews )
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( 0 of 1 found this review helpful ) Posted: Jun 12 2007
I could not be more pleased. Very accurate and smooth cuts. I especially like the soft start. Plus it is also quiet.
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( 5 of 9 found this review helpful ) Posted: Nov 21 2006
I am a home woodworker and purchased this saw to replace a radial arm saw. The laser was one of the main features that caught my eye. The saw was purchased from Amazon and even though the packaging integrity was minimal, the saw arrived in good shape. The first thing I checked out was how square to the fence a cut was, no problem, right on. Checking the laser next I was amazed to find out the laser was not parallel to the blade but at an angle. On a 3" wide board it was off by 1/16" and on a 7" wide board the laser was off by 3/16". In other words if you drew a square line across the board, lined up the laser on one end, it would be off on the other end of the line. Where do you line the laser up to cut??? I took the saw up to a factory service center and explained the problem very clearly using diagrams. They said they would check it out. Two weeks later I went to pick up the saw, I checked it out at the service center and the laser was still off. They said the adjustments met all of the specs. Then I called the factory technical support on the west coast. I was told I was being way to fussy and wood working didn't require any more accuracy than that. Poor Laser, Poor Support from Makita. Never again.
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( 6 of 9 found this review helpful ) Posted: Nov 10 2006
First of all, let me start by saying I have used a lot of different brands of miter saws and this Makita is, by far, the most substandard of them all. I am a trim carpenter by trade and have unfortunately been saddled with this saw by the company that I work for over the last two months. The list of defects is long. First, the positive stops are bad to say the least. The zero stop has about 1 degree of play on both sides of zero, forcing the operator to BEND OVER THE SAW to look at the HORRIBLY placed miter gauge on the table top. This is a horrendous design. If you have more than one carpenter using the saw, you need to always be on guard to verify if the saw is in the zero position or has been moved slightly to one or the other side of zero. If you have already laid your stock on the table you HAVE TO MOVE IT TO SEE WHAT THE MITER ANGLE IS. I have never seen a worse design. Secondly, the blade guard cam that retracts when you pull the blade down to cut is constantly stuck, again due to a bad design. There is no roller, just a blunt ended push arm that binds on the guard every time you go to make a cut. This is a $500 production saw, right? Wrong. You'd be better off buying some crappy Craftsman or Delta than this hunk of junk. Thirdly, the laser worked for about a week and has since (two months) been AWOL. None of us can get it to work, and we have guys with years of experience using different models of saws. The other reviewers also complained about the so called "dust collection"... Makita might as well have looped the discharge port to spray the dust back in your face for as well as this thing handles dust disposal. Also, the tiny fences are a joke if you want to cut stock over 3" high. All in all, this is a poorly designed, expensive mistake that you would be better off avoiding. One last thing, the "quiet" blade that comes with the saw is amazing, it really is quiet. It is the only redeeming factor in this fiasco of a saw.
