Makita - LS1016L (Rating: 5)
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I bought this saw a few months back because I needed better accuracy than my old RAS could deliver consistently.
I did a bit of research comparing models, prices, sizes, and I liked the feel and action of this saw the best, as I didn't really want or need a 12 inch miter saw if I could get one in the 10 inch range that could cut a dimensional 4×4 if need be.
After using it for crosscuts, bevels and miters over the past few months I can say that I am really happy with my purchase and in all areas it has delivered and is just a joy to use.
This saw is a double bevel sliding miter saw with a crosscutting capablity to 12 inches at 90 degrees and a vertical capacity to 4 3/4 inches. It has a direct drive motor that is angled upward so that it can deliver more of a vertical cut both left and right of the blade than many other of the 10 inch miter saws.
It comes with a good stock blade, a soft start feature which is great and a darn quiet direct drive motor with great power and a blade brake. The blade wrench stores on the tool in a snap in holder and the other end of it is a hex wrench to adjust the bevel bolts.
It has an independent laser switch on the handle that is easily left or right blade side adjustable and puts out a thin line like a mechanical pencil line, so that it is very easy to use and hit your cut line on the money.
Out of the box the saw was set up pretty close and just needed a little tweaking on the left bevel at 45, right bevel was dead on, and a minor adjustment to the vertical 90. I used a Wixey digital angle gauge for these adjustments, which took about 2 minutes.
The fences were square to the blade, and though I had bought a Freud thin kerf 60 tooth 5 degree negative hook for the saw, it is still in its package as the stock thin kerf Makita of the same specs is really quite a good blade.
I had read on Amazon reviews of many people complaining of the sliding action being rough on the top set of slide rails, this has not been the case on mine, and both sets of rails slide smoothly and can be independently locked out if need be.
Also having read that there was a soft stop on the 90 vertical bevel gauge, that some contractors complained about I wasn't concerned about that as I knew I would put the Wixey on it anyway when returning to zero from a bevel.
The surprise is that once I did the simple bolt adjustment for the vertical 90, I have checked it every time after returning from a bevel cut and it now clicks in place and registers dead on 90 every time. So it was only a soft return that had some play until the intial set up was completed.
Dust collection is never great with miter saws as we all know and I have this one hooked up to both a 4 inch dust hood and a 1.5 inch connector from the saws dust port to my DC. This working okay for now but I am going to have to build a little more enclosed back and side surrounding the dust hood to capture any escaping dust.
So, after this lengthy review I'll close it out and say, to me this is a saw seriously worth considering if you are shopping for a versatile miter saw.
I bought this saw a few months back because I needed better accuracy than my old RAS could deliver consistently.
I did a bit of research comparing models, prices, sizes, and I liked the feel and action of this saw the best, as I didn't really want or need a 12 inch miter saw if I could get one in the 10 inch range that could cut a dimensional 4×4 if need be.
After using it for crosscuts, bevels and miters over the past few months I can say that I am really happy with my purchase and in all areas it has delivered and is just a joy to use.
This saw is a double bevel sliding miter saw with a crosscutting capablity to 12 inches at 90 degrees and a vertical capacity to 4 3/4 inches. It has a direct drive motor that is angled upward so that it can deliver more of a vertical cut both left and right of the blade than many other of the 10 inch miter saws.
It comes with a good stock blade, a soft start feature which is great and a darn quiet direct drive motor with great power and a blade brake. The blade wrench stores on the tool in a snap in holder and the other end of it is a hex wrench to adjust the bevel bolts.
It has an independent laser switch on the handle that is easily left or right blade side adjustable and puts out a thin line like a mechanical pencil line, so that it is very easy to use and hit your cut line on the money.
Out of the box the saw was set up pretty close and just needed a little tweaking on the left bevel at 45, right bevel was dead on, and a minor adjustment to the vertical 90. I used a Wixey digital angle gauge for these adjustments, which took about 2 minutes.
The fences were square to the blade, and though I had bought a Freud thin kerf 60 tooth 5 degree negative hook for the saw, it is still in its package as the stock thin kerf Makita of the same specs is really quite a good blade.
I had read on Amazon reviews of many people complaining of the sliding action being rough on the top set of slide rails, this has not been the case on mine, and both sets of rails slide smoothly and can be independently locked out if need be.
Also having read that there was a soft stop on the 90 vertical bevel gauge, that some contractors complained about I wasn't concerned about that as I knew I would put the Wixey on it anyway when returning to zero from a bevel.
The surprise is that once I did the simple bolt adjustment for the vertical 90, I have checked it every time after returning from a bevel cut and it now clicks in place and registers dead on 90 every time. So it was only a soft return that had some play until the intial set up was completed.
Dust collection is never great with miter saws as we all know and I have this one hooked up to both a 4 inch dust hood and a 1.5 inch connector from the saws dust port to my DC. This working okay for now but I am going to have to build a little more enclosed back and side surrounding the dust hood to capture any escaping dust.
So, after this lengthy review I'll close it out and say, to me this is a saw seriously worth considering if you are shopping for a versatile miter saw.
