This is a question for the woodworkers out there. I’ve been doing amateur woodworking for over 30 years. I’ve never had a miter saw but am considering getting one. I have a Delta cabinet saw with a 6 foot extension table, and I made a very nice large crosscut sled which I use for cutting boards to length. It’s perfectly fine for boards up to about 3 feet long. Longer boards are a little more trouble, but my sled has some built-in hold downs that help with that. I mostly make furniture-sized projects: tables, cabinets, bookshelves, etc. I think there was only one project in my life that required cutting a compound miter.
So I’ve been thinking about adding a miter saw to my shop, but the more I think about it, the less convinced I am that I really need one. I’m not sure it will justify the amount of space it will take up in my shop. Any opinions?
Why not just buy a good manual mitre box and saw? Especially if you don’t use it often.
I have a very small woodworking shop, so I bought a power miter saw with this stand (which has a nearly universal mount). This allows me to set it up on end and wheel it into a niche where it’s out of my way. I can also wheel it out into the driveway, if necessary. I have the same sort of setup for my table saw. Wish I had a good sled for it, though.
Since you haven’t needed or really missed one up to now, I think it depends on what kind of things you’re planning to build in the future.
I have both a big floor model DeWalt table saw with a sliding mitre table in my shop and a 12" sliding mitre. For some projects a mitre saw is a massive time saver. For example, I did an exterior fence, making multiple crosscuts of 8ft boards to 7ft lengths. I could do that on my table saw, but it was way easier to bring the mitre saw outside and and bang them out rather than lug a couple hundred boards down to my shop.
Similarly, last year I made a new workbench for my garage. The top was scrap 2x4’s I saved from other projects. I used the mitre saw to cut them to various lengths and laminated them in a butcher-block style. For those types of repetitive crosscuts the mitre saw is way more efficient than the table saw.
However, now I mostly do projects like furniture, boxes etc. I rarely use it for those things. Usually only if I need to make repetitive crosscuts, really accurate angles or crosscuts on long boards like 8 ft 2x4’s. Long boards are awkward with my table saw.
If you don’t see yourself doing things like that in the future, save the money. Also, if you do need to make a fence or something like that buy one then.
I get an awful lot of use out of my miter saw. It’s one of the most heavily used tools in my shop.
The thing about woodworking though is that there are a lot of different ways of accomplishing the same thing. If you’ve managed to get by for 30 years without a miter saw then it’s obviously not an essential tool for the way you do things.
I’m honestly not sure what to tell you, because using a crosscut sled just seems clunky to me. But then I am used to making those types of cuts on a miter saw. You could try a miter saw and find that for some things it makes your life a lot easier, or you could be so used to doing it your way that the miter saw seems clunky. I guess the big thing would be how open you are to trying new ways of doing things.
I’m kinda curious how you cut trim pieces for furniture if you aren’t using a miter saw.
Do you need a miter saw? Probably not, but you may want to get one if your shop has the space for one… I have both a table and miter saw and cannot think of any cut a miter saw makes that a table saw cannot and as you probably know, a table saw is more versatile. For me, the main advantage of a miter saw is greatly reduced setup time for the cut, quick precision and the ability to easily make quick cross cuts on long stock. I’ve used both for about 20 years and always select the saw to make the safest and quickest cut. I’ve grown accustomed to it and would not want to give it up.
Thanks for the thoughts everyone. I should add that my garage shop has a sloping floor; the back of the garage is about 12 inches higher than the front. So anything on wheels is out of the question. If I did get a miter saw I would build a permanent stand for it, with extension tables on both sides.
I’m kinda curious about this question. As I said, I use my table saw with a crosscut sled. My sled has a built in stop block that can be adjusted to any length up to about 27". So repetitive cuts don’t seem that difficult to me. Hold the board back against the fence and right against the stop block, then push the sled through. For longer boards or angled cuts I sometimes have to clamp the board down to the sled, which definitely slows down the process some. But I suspect I might be misunderstanding this question. I definitely want to hear about operations where the miter saw is easier/faster.
Miter saws are great. Just get one. It’s just the fastest and easiest way to make any crosscut or miter cut on a piece of wood that the blade will cover. No clamping, lots of them have the laser guide, even without it you can lay the blade right down on the board to check it. Just mark it and cut it. Set a stop and you can cut multiple pieces to the same length very fast.
You cannot make crosscuts and miter cuts that fast on the table saw. And you won’t have to set up your sled or change your blade height or do anything else to your table saw just to make these cuts. And you can mount a saw on the wall without using up all the floor space. I don’t have a stand for mine, I put it on a work bench to use.
OTOH, you’ve been fine without one up until now. I’m don’t really know what kind of improvement you’ll find. A sled is way better than a miter gauge, a miter saw is mainly convenience on top of that.
The standard blades might not be the quality you want for fine woodworking, they’re mostly used in construction for cutting 2X lumber, so you may want a different blade that will make a cleaner cut in hardwoods, but I’ve found when the blade is sharp mine does fine.
I have one of these. I don’t do a lot of sawing, but it’s paid for itself several times over since I bought it a decade or so ago.
I think I’d want a double bevel saw. I’m looking at this one: Makita 10" Dual-Bevel Sliding Compound Miter Saw with Laser LS1019L | The Tool Nut
I don’t care that much about the laser though. In most cases where I’m cutting to length I’m aiming for 1/64" or sometimes better, so the laser isn’t going to help me avoid carefully setting up a stop block.
That’s the same one I bought!