Popular Woodworking 2008-12 № 173, страница 25

12" Sliding Compound Miter Saws

Bosch 5412L

Bosch has put effort into making this saw user-friendly with all of the controls for setting miter and bevel angles located on the front of the saw. The handle is also adjustable, turning to tour positions. The sleeves on the sliding bars are adjustable and our test saw didn't require any adjustments.

The laser is mounted on the blade and isn't adjustable. The projected beam moves laterally as the saw is lowered. This doesn't affect the accuracy of the cut, but it is disconcerting to watch it move as the blade is lowered. We got used to it, but prefer a saw-mounted laser that doesn't require a spinning blade to use.

This saw has a large footprint, with a distance of 26^,/4" from the fence to the wall. The table is large, and features built-in extensions. This might be an advantage on a jobsite, but placed on a permanent bench in the shop it doesn't add much. Dust collection is average and the noise level was in the middle of the group, at 103dB.

The saw head is well-balanced, making adjustments to the bevel angle simple and painless. The miter detents are solid, but overriding them requires pushing a thin piece of steel above the handle into a notch. If you have small hands, or lack hand strength, this can be difficult.

If space isn't an issue, this is a nice saw, solidly made with some unique features. It wasn't our favorite, but if some of these features are important to you, it could be the ideal choice.

DeWalt DW718

This saw is engineered to make a deep cut, allowing the sliding bars to be kept to a minimal length. Space required from the front of the fence to the back of the saw is only I7V4" without the dust bag, increasing lo 25V2" with the bag in place.

The dust collection is not very effective. A rubber sleeve behind the blade looks as if it is meant to channel debris, but it narrows the opening, and gets in the way if you install an auxiliary wooden fence. The noise level was 105dB, among the louder saws in the group.

The DeWalt does not come with a laser as standard equipment, but a saw-mounted laser is available as an option. Another option is a saw-mounted light that uses the shadow of the blade for alignment. We liked this option, as it provided good light at the cutline in addition to serving as an alignment aid.

The controls are straightforward, and easy to find and use. Changing the bevel angle does require reaching behind the saw, but the mechanism is well-balanced and dampened. The bearing sleeves are adjustable and the saw was accurate out of the box. Construction is solid, and when changing angles the detents are easy to hit.

Should the detents ever need adjusting, they are in plain sight and adjustments are a matter of loosening a couple screws, moving the head, then tightening the screws. This saw has been on the market for several years, and it is a popular and dependable performer.

Hitachi C12LSH

We've picked on Hitachi before about the space-age trade dress 011 its newer tools. Some of these tools weren't as good as previous offerings, so we were pleasantly surprised with the quality of this saw. It arrived without needing adjustment, and has some design elements that we really liked.

The sliding bars can be locked at either end, allowing the saw head to move forward along the bars. In this configuration, on Iv 17⁷/8" was needed from the fence to the wall, the smallest distance of saws in the test with the dust bag in place.

A laser guide is mounted to the saw body, and is easy to adjust to the exact position of the saw kerf. A gooseneck arm at the top of the saw contains a digital readout for the angle of both the miter and bevel settings, in 0.5° increments. There is a tine-adjust knob for tweaking each of the two angle sellings, although some might question if half a degree is fine enough.

The saw is top-heavy, and adjusting the bevel angle can be a strain. This was also the only saw we tested with independent back fences. This makes squaring the fence to the blade more complicated, but it eliminates the possibility of bending a one-piece fence.

The noise level was high, al 106dB, but the feature-to-cost ratio and the overall quality make this a solid c hoice. For the money, we consider it a "Best Value." We still don't like the space-cadet appearance, but this is a nice saw, especially when permanently mounted in a small shop.

BOSCH DEWALT HITACHI

877-267-2499 or boschtools.com 800-433-9258 or dewalt.com 800-706-7337 or hitachipowertools.com

■ Street price: $623 ■ Street price: $560 ■ Street price: $574