In response to my post about building a chest, Pauly asked, “I am considering making an investment in more power tools. What tools did you need to make it?” I thought that would be a good topic for a post.
Although the cordless drill and the circular saw are the bread-and-butter of my workshop, my miter saw and table saw are the flashy stars. Anything these tools do can be accomplished with cheaper hand tools, but there’s no denying that they dramatically add to speed, convenience, and precision when woodworking.
My miter saw is a DEWALT DW716 12-Inch Double-Bevel Compound Miter Saw. Now, there are those who say that a table saw is the first “big” power tool a woodworker should buy, but I get far more use out of my miter saw than my table saw. The reason is simple: my construction uses a lot of dimensional lumber, and so I end up doing a lot more cross-cutting than rip-cutting. And cross-cutting is what miter saws do best.
The bigger a miter saw, the larger the piece of lumber it can cut through. I bought a 12-inch saw because it could cut a 4×4 post at a 45-degree angle, and I figured a 4×4 would be the biggest thing I would reasonably need to cut. It can also cut a 2×10 board.
Miter saws really shine for applications like crown molding, where precise angles are important. Honestly, I never do stuff like that, and so this saw is really a little overkill. A bit of money could be saved by going down from a 12″ to a 10″ blade, and by going from double-bevel to single-bevel. This means that the saw would only tilt over sideways one direction, and you’d have to flip the lumber if you needed the bevel to go the other way.
Another variation is the sliding miter saw. This means that there is a set of rails, and after you drop the blade, you can slide it straight backwards about twelve inches. This dramatically increases your ability to cut through wide, flat boards, even with a 10″ blade, and means that a 12″ blade can cut pretty much anything you can imagine. The primary down-side of the sliding miter saw is cost: the sliding version of my saw costs $600 instead of $400 for the non-sliding version. A second down-side is that sliding saws need more clearance behind them, to make room for the sliding mechanism. This may be an issue if your workshop already has a built-in station for a non-sliding miter saw.
The major accessory I would recommend for a miter saw is a stand. Because miter saws are used primarily for cross-cuts, you’ve usually got a few feet of lumber hanging off the ends of the saw. That can make it damn near impossible to hold down against the fence. A miter saw stand has movable stops that support the ends of the lumber that hang off the saw’s work surface. You can buy one
#1 by pauly at January 4th, 2010
That is beautiful. I just have trouble justifying the expense when I can have lowes or home depot cut the wood to my specifications for free. I still have to think about it more. Thank you for the information.
#2 by Joshua Bardwell at January 4th, 2010
It’s true, they’ll do the cuts for you, but I never build a project by cutting all the lumber and then assembling it. It’s usually, “cut out these six pieces and assemble them, then cut out four more pieces and put them on,” etc… Each time, I’m measuring where the new piece will go and making sure the cut-list is accurate. I guess I just don’t have that much faith in the cut-list, to find out that I’d accidentally cut a bunch of wood to the wrong length. This is especially true when I’m building a project without a detailed plan–just winging it. In that case, I have literally no idea what lengths of lumber I need until I start building.
That being said, the total cost of a miter saw and stand is considerable. I certainly understand the frugal perspective of having the store do the cuts for you.