Mac Allister or Erbauer Slide Saw?

[rizla01]

Hi,

Does anyone have an opinion on these saws?

Mac (about £150) is from B&Q and the Erbauer (About £135) is Screwfix. (The newer one, not the clearance one.)

just wondered if any of you fine guys have any experience of either or if you have checked 'em out, what is your opinion?

The Mac is very tempting as it has a 305 cm blade and is guaranteed for 3 Years (Whatever that may cover)

ANY help/sugestions gratefully received.

Thanks

 

[Newbie_Neil]

Hi Rizla

Welcome to the forum.

Perceived wisdom, on the Screwfix site, is to avoid the Erbauer. Do you have a link?

Cheers,
Neil

 

[DaveL]

Hi Rizla,

Welcome to the forum.

I cannot comment on the saws you have listed, but I do have an old B&Q Performance Power sliding mitre saw, it was their own brand before MAC.
Its a budget saw, quite a lot of grunt for the money but not that accurate, repeatability it not its selling point.
But if you are looking for a work horse to quickly cut stuff into manageable sizes for machining in the shop its a good buy.

Links:-
Erbauer
MAC

 

[Scrit]

Either buy a lower spec and similarly priced machine by a reputable maker like Makita or Ryobi, increase your budget, or buy a Nobex hand mitre saw. Mitres are something where accuracy and repeatability are paramount - and with cheap miotre saws they're cheap because they're not accurate. Not that I'm biased or anything......

Scrit

 

[rizla01]

Thanks for the comments, so far chaps.

Just what I was suspecting, I guess.

Why can they NOT get a saw to be accurate without paying large amounts of hard-earned?

Ryobi seem good VFM but I heard that they weren't too accurate either, I was also told that only the Dewalt 712 is worth considering.

 

[Scrit]

Why can they NOT get a saw to be accurate without paying large amounts of hard-earned?

Why can the not get a car to be fast without paying large amounts of hard-earned?

Quality engineering requires more investment in machinery and better quality staff - which costs more money. When the Chinese finally get their act together on this the prices will be on a par with the Japanese - who's stuff was remarkably cheap 40 years ago, but the quality was naff, now look at their prices

Scrit

 

[Green]

I have the MacAllister and its been alright for my purposes. I have used it to re-floor my cottage and build my workshop and it has coped well with the heavy usage. I do think your money would be better spent elsewhere though, there are too many annoying things about it to recommend it really.

I think they could make an accurate cheap saw if they stopped adding as much crap as they do. Things like lasers and fancy moulded plastic surely add to manufacturing costs and corners will have to be cut elsewhere to make up for these.
Maybe if they concentrated on making a simple robust machine without all the frills they would be onto a winner?

 

[George_N]

Another question is, do you need the cross-cut capacity of a SCMS or would a better quality CMS, like the Makita LS1040fit the bill. It would certainly be more accurate and the cuts more reproducible than a similarly priced SCMS.

 

[Scrit]

I think they could make an accurate cheap saw if they stopped adding as much crap as they do. Things like lasers and fancy moulded plastic surely add to manufacturing costs and corners will have to be cut elsewhere to make up for these.
Maybe if they concentrated on making a simple robust machine without all the frills they would be onto a winner?

Is this the same argument which says that you can make a good, cheap handplane, perhaps? :shock:

Scrit

 

[rizla01]

O.k. would have bought a cheapie if not for the advice given here so gone middle road and bought the Ryobi.

Thanks you lot, you just cost me another nifty.