Mitre/chop-saw recommendations, under £200

[TheBeeBoyKid]

Over your budget, but for what it's worth and future reference, I've got the Ryobi EMS254L. Retails for about £275. It's a 10"/254mm blade, fairly solid, and I've found it to be accurate enough (to the point where I've built it in to my workshop). It has a laser, but that's not particularly adjustable and so fairly useless. It's big plus is that, although it's not as snug as the Bosch articulated arm, its parallel arm guides run forward rather than back, so it can fit pretty close to the wall. The biggest minus for me is that the dust collection is atrocious. I've not used other mitre saws so I can't compare directly, but (even in a category of machine which is notorious for bad dust) I suspect it's poor in this regard.

So, has it served me well in the 2 years I've had it? Yes, absolutely. Would I buy it again? Maybe if I wasn't likely to increase my budget, but I'd be very tempted to sell one of the kids to a chimney sweep and buy the Bosch beastie.

FYI, there's also a cordless version (their One+ 18V range) at only £236 (w/o battery), although on closer inspection that's only 8".

Ian

In my experience all mitre saw dust collection is atrocious. I see a lot of joiners build them into a kind of funnelled box with a 100mm port on the back.

 

[AJB Temple]

Ha, it's true. Dust collection is difficult. My saw gets moved around a lot so a cabinet is not viable. I do connect it to a shop vac, but you can see the sawdust coming off the blade and missing the collection chute. If you widen the collection chute it would be better, but then it affects the mitre cut and angled mitre cut capacity. So I invested in a dustpan and brush.

 

[Seb Palmer]

Thanks guys. The job prompting the purchase is as yet undone; indeed, heavy rain prevents play! So I'm still as yet undecided. If I could find the Bosch beast under a grand and with payment in instalments, I'd be mighty tempted. ScrewFix have it for a good price, but don't do 'finance'. Spending £200-ish on, say a Makita LS1040 is the next option, or getting something similar used. I'm finding the latter circus £75-100, second-hand. But so far not near enough to me. The search goes on

 

[The Gray Man]

I spent quite a lot of time looking around for good prices on the Bosch (we're talking the GCM12 GDL 240V, yes?) - surprisingly for a tool like this, the lowest price has consistently been Amazon. No, let me be more accurate - the "standard" price on Amazon is not great, but at regular intervals it goes on a special for as little as £640. Best thing to do is put a price alert on CamelCamelCamel.

 

[Seb Palmer]

I spent quite a lot of time looking around for good prices on the Bosch (we're talking the GCM12 GDL 240V, yes?) - surprisingly for a tool like this, the lowest price has consistently been Amazon. No, let me be more accurate - the "standard" price on Amazon is not great, but at regular intervals it goes on a special for as little as £640. Best thing to do is put a price alert on CamelCamelCamel.

Hi, that's great. I'll do that right away. Cheers, Seb