Direct Drive Miter Saws with Electronic Speed Control

According to our recent training with Makita, Miter Saws make up 12% of the power tool industry. That may not seem like that huge of a percentage, but this is the largest chunk for a single category. By comparison, electric drills, grinders, and reciprocating saws are all tied at 4%. The only category they could point to as being larger was cordless tools, but that's broken down into drills, saws, etc. and isn't a fair comparison. By the way, cordless is now 44% of the market.

With that big of a chunk of the market being miter saws, Makita has focused on creating a better miter saw. Some of their changes aren't something you'd notice, such as dual linear ball bearings and the machined aluminum base. These both lead to accuracy of the cuts, but aren't really visible.

Direct Drive
Another non-visible change is the patented method in which direct drive is implemented in the LS1214L and LS1013L (12" and 10" models). Typically, you have a belt attaching the miter saw blade's driveshaft to the motor. One thing I know from my days working at an auto parts store is that belts stretch and eventually break. Personally, I'd rather not have a belt in my miter saw if I can avoid it. The figure to the right shows a belt as part #71. This is from a competitor's tool.

Electronic Speed Control
By using gears in the saw (I'll talk about different gear technologies at some point later), it is possible to add in an electronic speed control as well. Not only does that sound fancy, but it really is a good thing to have. It means that regardless of the load, the blade will attempt to stay at the same RPM. This helps avoid scorching as a cut is made. Of course, a speed control adds $40 - $50 to the cost of the unit, but the Makita saws with these included are still fairly price competitive with the similar models from our other manufacturers.

More Marketing and R&D Dollars
Knowing that miter saws are in the largest category for tool manufacturers sure explains why Makita and others tend to put the most marketing hype around them. Makita also seems to have placed more R&D dollars into the miter saw. I still like my LS0711Z (18V cordless, but not built for many moons now), and the newer electric models look even nicer. Currently, only Bosch is making cordless miter saws of the manufacturers that we carry. It's cool, but not necessarily all that useful (also known as a geek's dream tool). Then again, 44% cordless, 12% miter saws - I'd expect to see a few more get into this market (again for some) as Lithium Ion becomes more mainstream.

Education is Essential
With all the buzzwords surrounding miter saws these days (dual linear ball bearings, machined base, direct drive motor and electronic speed control to name a few), it's no wonder many people just buy whatever is on sale. Then again, how would any of our manufacturers be able to put 40 pages worth of information, or a 3 hour educational course, onto a single brochure? I guess that's why we have salespeople - we can do the education of the customer for the manufacturers. Vendor training is just extremely important for us to be able to do that. I wouldn't have known why direct drive and electronic speed control were important when buying a miter saw until our vendor training, but hopefully I was able to convey the reasons these are important features to look for to you as well.