Hitachi Miter Saw - Perfect Holiday idea.

It's almost a crime that we're selling the Hitachi C10FSB for $399 when our competitors are at least $50 higher. What's even worse is that Hitachi is picking up ground shipping charges through the holidays, meaning $399.01 can get it delivered to your door. That's a great deal, since a 60 pound saw is pretty expensive to ship. The only thing we can't do is gift wrap it and put it under the tree for you.

This is a great miter saw with all the features you could want in a 10" dual compound sliding miter saw. Ok, so that's a big name for this tool. Basically, that says it has all the bells a whistles that you could possibly want except a laser, and you can always add a laser for $30 by buying the Irwin add-on miter saw laser, and then you'll get a free ($4 shipping) Irwin Marathon blade by mail for the saw to top it off.

Hitachi will even let you try this out risk free. If you don't like it, just send it back and they'll let us issue a full refund for the tool. What better way to do some great bargain shopping this holiday season? I may have to show my mother this saw. Oh, that reminds me, Dad - don't read this post.

Makita Miter Saw with Light AND Laser

For a long time now, Makita has assumed that you'd either want a miter saw with a floodlight or with a laser. Well, that's changed. You can now buy one with both.

Floodlight

When you're cutting pretty much anything, the best way to make sure you cut on the line you draw is to ensure you can see the line. With a flexible floodlight added on to a standard miter saw, you can much easier hit the line every time. I know I usually end up with at least a flashlight pointing towards the material on my 18V miter saw when I'm using it indoors, so the floodlight seems like a great idea.

Laser

By having a laser on the saw, you can see where the blade is going to hit the material. This should lead to more accurate cuts, but if you can't see your mark well it won't help. To me, this has really made the floodlight necessary - maybe even more so than just poor lighting conditions since the laser line stands out so well when compared to the rest of your material.

Best of both

With the new Makita LS1214LF, you get the best of both - the light AND the laser. With the pricetag where it's at, it won't be for the average homeowner. Any serious professional should at least take a look at it, though. It's still got the dual linear ball bearings and other features that make the LS1214 a great saw, but the light and laser make it just that much sweeter.

Cool remodeling product - Saw 'n Sand

The Saw 'n Sand from BH Innovations makes my list today as a cool remodeling product. As you can see from the image to the right, it's got a lot going on for just being a saw blade. But, it's not just a saw blade. It's a saw AND sand blade.

What does Saw 'n Sand really mean?
With a standard blade, you're going to need to do some sanding when you're done cutting. The edge of the board will have a pretty distinct texture, and you'll probably be able to tell what direction the board was cut. By contrast, when the Saw 'n Sand is used you end up with a much smoother finish, and you can't see any distinct cutting direction because it's smoother. Some finishing may still be necessary, but in most cases you won't need to do much if any.

Precision ground premium C4 micro carbide tipped blade
This is a bunch of geek talk to most people, so I'll try to break that down for the rest of the world. Precision ground isn't tough to understand - the carbide is ground under very precise conditions, using premium C4 carbide. C4 micro carbide tipped is more difficult to decipher the meaning and importance, though. C4 is a type of carbide (no, we're not talking plastic explosives here) that can be applied to the tips of the blade to make the teeth stay sharp longer. There are grades from C1 - C4, with hardness ratings of 1400 - 1660. Basically, C4 is the toughest carbide available. The micro part comes in when it's a small carbide particle, which makes it last longer yet. If you envision a bowl of large marshmallows vs a bowl of Rice Crispies, the smaller particle bowl will take much longer to empty when removed one at a time. So they're just saying that this is a long-lasting blade.

10" 60 tooth industrial polished blade
Again, 10 inches isn't difficult to understand. 60 tooth isn't too bad either, but the result is a bit less clear. Table saw blades normally are available in 24, 40, 60, 80, and 120 tooth models. There are also some specialty blades that have other numbers of teeth. The more teeth, the less each cut does and the smoother the result. This also makes the cutting slower, so 60 is a nice medium. But since we're also sanding, we're not as concerned with a high number of teeth to keep the finish smooth so much as having something that cuts reasonably quickly so we can sand it with the sides of the blade and be done.

This is an industrial grade blade, which means it can be sharpened, if necessary, down the road. Better materials are used so it doesn't wear out as quickly and is less likely to break, so the blade itself can last quite some time. Finally, it's polished so there is a nice smooth surface for your sticky back sandpaper to adhere to.

High quality aluminum oxide grit
This is simply saying that we've got a reasonable quality sanding disc on the sides of the blade. But simply sticking a piece of sandpaper on the side of the blade won't make it work very well. First off, that increases the thickness of the blade, and the edge of the sanding disc will be very vulnerable to being peeled off of the blade itself. Instead, this blade has a very specific convex surface (bowed out in the middle) and a recessed area just inside the cutting tooth area. This keeps the disc stuck to the blade while also keeping the thickness of the blade down a bit.

Great, but how well does it work?
Not having had the chance to use it myself, I decided to ask Chris. He had received some feedback from one of our customers on why he didn't think it was a good blade. The customer said he was only on his 3rd house when the sandpaper started to clog. Well, once he thought about it, it was great for two full houses worth of trim, and he didn't realize that there were replacement sanding discs available. His impression of the blade changed drastically once he learned about those, and he now thinks it's a great blade.

There are a couple of words of advice that I can also pass along from customer experience. Make sure your table saw has plenty of horsepower, because the extra friction of sanding can bog down an underpowered unit. If your table saw has any sort of an issue with harder woods, you probably don't want to use this blade. Also, best results occur when you have a slow, even feed of the material. Too fast doesn't allow the sanding to occur nearly well enough. But it is a cool blade that will last you quite a while and a real time saver for anyone doing a lot of trim work during construction or remodeling.

Makita's Mysterious Dual Linear Ball Bearings

After a couple of posts already about the Makita LS1013L and LS1214L and the dual linear ball bearings, and about the shortcomings of other manufacturers, I started researching the Makita saws even deeper. What I found was that I could easily locate one of them on one of the rails, but the other seemed to be hiding very well. I could also easily locate one on the schematic of the LS1013 as well. However, the other has been a mystery.

The mystery continues
I pointed this out to some of our front counter people, and they saw the same thing I did. This led to questioning of our Makita rep, which ended up with the answer of it's there, you just missed it. One is easily found, the other is buried in the saw.

Searching for answers
Not one to take the easy answer, I went ahead and emailed one of the Makita training personnel that we had at our location a few weeks ago. I asked him where it was in the saw, and let him know we couldn't locate it. I got a response from him that explained why we were missing it, and I'll show you why I missed it here.

The first one
As you probably can't tell (clicking the image lets you see it a bit clearer), part #149 is a linear ball bearing assembly. The full description is shown to the right (as seen on the schematic.) But, that only shows one. There isn't another one listed anywhere as a part.

The second one
But wait! We have a second, it was just impossible to see on the diagram. Part #140, which is the base, includes a linear ball bearing. I didn't quite understand why at first, but it was explained to me by Chris from our front counter. One is fixed, the other is adjustable. By having one in a fixed position, you have something to adjust against when aligning the slides.

Mystery solved!

Belt Driven and Direct Drive Miter Saw Scorecard

After my post on direct drive miter saws with electronic speed control, Matt and I decided to take a look at the different miter saws we had on display and make up a "Scorecard" of who had what technology in place on their current lineup of saws. This ended up being a pretty interesting exercise in tool analysis. Unfortunately, we don't have quite a few on display as we prepare to move to a new building, so here's the abbreviated version of what I'll be expanding on later.


The Bosch 3912 and 3924B-24 are both direct drive models. The newer 4410L is belt drive, but adds in the laser. Of course, you've already read my other post to know why lasers are great for geeks but not for carpenters, right?


The DeWALT DW718, DW716, and DW708 were all belt driven. The older DW705 (and DW705S) as well as the DW712 were found to be direct drive.


The Hitachi C10FSH and C12LSH were belt driven. The C15FB and C12LCH were both direct drive.


The Makita LS1013, LS1214, LS1013F, LS1214F, LS1013L, and LS1214L were all angled direct drive. I'll have to explain the benefit of angled in a future post as well. The older LS1030N was a straight direct drive model, as is the LS1040. The models with F add in a flexible light, while the L models have the laser. Both are pretty cool for geeks.


The Milwaukee 6490-6, 6494-6, and 6497-6 were all direct drive models.


We didn't currently have any Porter cable models on display. Again, we're getting ready to move so we're trying to cut down on the number of open box products to relocate.

Final Tally
Direct Drive
Bosch 3912 and 3924B-24.
DeWalt DW705 and DW712.
Hitachi C15FB and C12LCH.
Makita LS1013 (base, F and L), LS1214 (base, F and L), LS1030N, LS1040.
Milwaukee 6490-6, 6494-6 and 6497-6.

Belt Driven
Bosch 4410L.
DeWALT DW718, DW716 and DW708.
Hitachi C10FSH and C12LSH.

I find it interesting that there are several manufacturers that have saws available either way. I have a strong personal preference for direct drive, but the belts aren't too bad to change out.

It gets even more interesting when you look at consumer grade. I may have to wander down to my local [insert big box store name here] here sometime and jot down some additional notes.

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.

Dual Linear Ball Bearings

Warning: Buzzwords debuzzed in this post.

If you've looked at miter saws at all, you've probably seen some mention of linear ball bearings. If you've looked at the Makita miters at all, you've probably seen dual linear ball bearings mentioned. But that brings the question, what the heck is that?

Picture: Dual Linear Ball Bearings

As you can see in the above diagram included on a Makita marketing piece, the linear ball bearings are exactly like they sound - ball bearings in a line. When you're using a sliding miter (the only place you'll see these), the linear bearings are used around the rails of the slide mechanism. The alternative is to use a sleeve.

Using a sleeve means two bad things happen.
1) More friction.
2) Less accuracy.

The basis of a sleeve is that you have a rail and a sleeve. The sleeve needs to be just loose enough to slide over the rail. However, since a sleeve has no rolling parts, there is more friction. This leads to a less smooth motion of the slide, creating the possibility of irregular cuts. It also isn't held together as tight - there has to be some play to allow the rails to slide - so there will be some loss of accuracy. Add in age and the cuts become less accurate. Sliding miters aren't for your average homeowner ($500 saws are a bit pricier than what most people want for the home), so accuracy should be a huge consideration when buying a sliding miter.

But why dual? Well, that's quite simple. Dual means you have one linear ball bearing on each rail. This makes for the most accurate cuts, smoothest motion and best performance. So then, why not dual? Well, Makita loves this part. If you save $20 per miter saw by leaving off a linear ball bearing and sell 1 million saws, you have saved enough money to sponsor a racecar.

I didn't really know what I was doing when I bought my miter saw. I purchased a Makita LS0711Z some time back, just as they were being discontinued. I consider myself fortunate. I got a decent saw, and the cordless is incredibly handy. I certainly hope they make another cordless at some point. Until then, my father will be incredibly envious.

If you're in the market for a very good sliding compound miter saw with dual linear ball baearings, I highly recommend the LS1013 (10") or LS1014 (12"). They are available with or without the laser, and are very well built. They also have a few other features that I'll be discussing in later posts.