Chop saw recommendation?

[johnnyb]

Bosch gcm xxsd with the rails. Xx to suit your needs capacity. Mine is 10 years old I brought it used 7 years ago. Incredible machine very very durable and accurate. Double bevel to. My red bits have faded in the sun though. On the saw not my body!

 

[Farmer Giles]

It arrived in one piece with no obvious signs of being dropped which was a good start. Assembly of the stand took about an hour with a break for a brew, very well made. A neighbour gave me hand mounting the saw on the stand, probably doable with one but why make it hard. I made it very clear to the neighbour that if he wants to borrow a saw then he gets my scabby old mitre saw

First impressions was that there was no slop in the glide mechanism that some users have mentioned. You can make it flex if you push it sideways but any saw not made out of unobtanium will, under normal use and pulling or pushing in the direction of cut then I can't see any issue.

Laser works, may need a tad of adjustment. The saw is not bang on square out of the box, but very close, I shall tweak it when I have more time. The main thing is that it was repeatably off by the same amount I cut some douglas fir first, the cut was glass smooth, then some ash, again glass smooth.

Most of the sawdust seemed to exit the pipe that goes to the bag or extraction, I haven't connected it up yet, so although not 90%+ extraction, I think it promises to be reasonable once hooked up to extraction, not my main selection criteria so not critical to me.

I've had a quick look at the controls. All seems to be good so far, easy to use.

So I think we have a winner, and I shall be cleaning off the Elu RAS ready for sale, pity I just bought a brand new Atkinson Walker blade for it and got the Mr Sawdust table and extraction finished but I don't need two saws.

Cheers
Andy

 

[MattRoberts]

Nice one, I'm very jelly of you!

If I get the contract I'm after in Jan, think I'll be pulling the trigger on one myself!

Reckon HMRC will be happy with an IT consultant expensing a mitre saw?

 

[Farmer Giles]

Nice one, I'm very jelly of you!

If I get the contract I'm after in Jan, think I'll be pulling the trigger on one myself!

Reckon HMRC will be happy with an IT consultant expensing a mitre saw?

I reckon that there will be a suitable IT acronym that should obscure it a little, MITRE stands for Missile Test and Readiness Equipment, I'm sure there are others

 

[Farmer Giles]

Here's the new acquisition in place

and the first cut (and this isn't the deepest )

I shall true it up then give it a real test tomorrow.

Cheers
Andy

 

[MikeJhn]

Interesting that your gravity stand has a single square section for the extensions on the end, whereas my older version has a double tubular rail.

Mike

 

[AJB Temple]

Yes, they changed the stand design. I don't think it is optimal for pro use as the tubular section is not rigid enough and there is too much plastic and pressed steel in the end supports. If you are putting long heavy material on it (in my case lots of long 4 by 4 oak rafters) then it struggles. That said, I've used it a lot and nothing has broken.

Mine arrived dead square on delivery (Axminster) and has stayed that way. What I find is that when you start to use the saw a lot, the rudimentary on board dust extraction is rapidly overwhelmed. That said, mine is mainly used as a sit saw around my premises, rather than hooked up to my cyclone.

 

[MikeJhn]

I bought mine when the stand first came out, about six years ago if memory serves me correctly, used extensively during that time, as you nothing has broken, bent of given up the ghost, as a mitre saw stand its one of the best IMO.

I think all mitre saws on board dust bags would eventually be overwhelmed by sawdust, they do tend to be on the small side, if they are attached to some kind of extractor they would work much better, I have increased the size of the plastic shroud behind the blade on my Makita and it has transformed the amount of dust now taken into the vacuum extractor and not spread around the workshop.

Mike

 

[Farmer Giles]

I only just got chance to square the saw up today, took about half an hour and most of that was finding a suitable bit of ply as a test piece. Now spot on.

 

[TFrench]

Be interested to hear how you get on with the saw Andy, its occured to me that selling my radial arm saw for one of these would give me a lot more room, and a more practical saw. I can put it through the books and with selling my RAS its a bit more sensibly priced....

 

[Farmer Giles]

Be interested to hear how you get on with the saw Andy, its occured to me that selling my radial arm saw for one of these would give me a lot more room, and a more practical saw. I can put it through the books and with selling my RAS its a bit more sensibly priced....

My thoughts exactly TF My RAS is in the for sale section now, it was fine until I started wanting larger capacity. I shall leave it on here for a few days then list it on another forum and eventually the bay.

I shall let you know how I go, I ran out of time yesterday but was just hooking it up to my workshop vacuum system.

Cheers
Andy

 

[Peter Sefton]

Be interested to hear how you get on with the saw Andy, its occured to me that selling my radial arm saw for one of these would give me a lot more room, and a more practical saw. I can put it through the books and with selling my RAS its a bit more sensibly priced....

My thoughts exactly TF My RAS is in the for sale section now, it was fine until I started wanting larger capacity. I shall leave it on here for a few days then list it on another forum and eventually the bay.

I shall let you know how I go, I ran out of time yesterday but was just hooking it up to my workshop vacuum system.

Cheers
Andy

I sold my old Wadkin RAS 18 months ago to make way for a drum sander, the RAS did take up a lot of room and we hardly used it.

I bought the Bosch GCM 12 GLD last month and have been very impressed with it, it's capacity is great and gives a clean cut the only down side is the dust extraction and cramp. But overall getting rid of the RAS and replacing it with the Bosch was a great idea.

Cheers Peter

 

[Farmer Giles]

I bought the Bosch GCM 12 GLD last month and have been very impressed with it, it's capacity is great and gives a clean cut the only down side is the dust extraction and cramp. But overall getting rid of the RAS and replacing it with the Bosch was a great idea.

Cheers Peter

I've hooked up the RAS to the workshop extraction and although not perfect, it isn't bad. I've seen a few other mods on YouTube that I may try eventually but it is good enough for now.

Here's a picture of the new and old Bosch cramps, the one on the left is the new one, much easier to use for repetitive work with the quick release.

Cheers
Andy

 

[Peter Sefton]

Hi Andy

I have just ordered a couple of the Bosch cramps from Amazon which will be useful, thanks.

I have used a cable tie to attach my planer dust extraction pipe behind the blade along with the usual port connected to my vacuum, not pretty but it works as a temp fix!

Cheers Peter

 

[MikeJhn]

Andy

As much as I love my Makita the extract from the saw was not up too much, so I changed it, the improvement is beyond what I hopped for, just opening up the collector and reinforcing it on the bottom edge transformed the amount of dust collected.

I noticed that when using the saw occasionally the draft from the blade closed off the opening of the standard collector, not something you look at usually when cutting, hence the modification.

Whoops looks as though I have posted that before, its an age thing you know.

What do you think of the gravity stand?

Mike

 

[Farmer Giles]

Thanks Mike

there are are couple of youtube vids of similar mods to the collection chute on the Bosch glide, here's one of 'em and another

I'll probably get around to doing something similar one day but I have a big list of stuff to do at the moment

Cheers
Andy

 

[MikeJhn]

Many was to skin a feline as they say, mine is a piece of DPC stuck together with hot glue, no reinforcing of any kind and seems to be lasting quite well.

Mike

 

[Perkybob]

Hi Andy,
Did you get round to adjusting your Glide to cut square? If so, what adjustments did you need to make? I had one delivered yesterday and the cut seems to be ever so slightly out of square; was going to start tinkering over the next couple of days.
Cheers
Shaun

 

[Farmer Giles]

Hi Shaun

Use the supplied allen key to loosen the four bolts that are recessed into the protractor strip i.e. the curved bit where the angles for the mitre are on the front edge of the base. They only need loosening not undoing. Then move the saw until you get the correct angle. I just nipped up one, checked it, undid that one until it was spot on then nipped them all up. My angle indicator was bang on once I adjusted it so I assume it moved in transit, but I think that is just a philips screw to get it bang on zero.

I didn't use a try square on the blade to adjust it for square, I cut some timber with a good straight edge and checked that with the square.

Cheers
Andy

 

[MikeJhn]

Good way to check for square is to cut half way through a board, turn it around and check the blade fits into the grove just cut, I am also typing this in bold to see if its easier to read, I find the grey font on the light background is a bit of a strain on my old eyes.

Mike