A full review post use, and swapping blade to a proper blade are going to be in the works, but I figured I would post this up now to give you guys a heads up. I may just edit this review when I am ready, who knows?
This is NOT a usage, or long term review, this is just a fit and finish sort of thing. So if that is what you are interested in, read on…
I picked up a Chicago Electric #98194 on Friday with a coupon I have been sitting on for a few months that expired on Sunday, so it was a use it or lose it sort of thing. The coupon brought the price for this 12” sliding compound miter saw down to $109.99, and then throw the 2 year warranty on top of that, and taxes and I walked out the door for just a few cents over $140.00. If you are familiar with Miter Saw pricing these days, a B&D or Skil 10” non slider runs around $125.00 to $135.00 pre-tax, so for the price of of a cheap 10” non slider, you can get a cheap 12” slider, but is it worth it?
As you may, or may not know, the Chicago Electric Tools line, just like almost everything else at Harbor Freight, is just another Asian import line of tools, typically they are identical in all aspects save for coloration of plastics, stickers and / or paint / powder coatings as other brands on the market. Without giving up the who / where / why / when I can say that this miter saw, appears in all aspects aside from what I mentioned above to be identical to at least 3 other brands that I see in LJs shops… So I know this one gets around quite a bit. The 10” version gets a LOT of bad press, especially with the blade guard, but so far reviews on the 12” are favorable. The guard on mine, well it’s pretty basic, and seems functional enough. Time will tell when I go to replace the blade!
A few things worthy of note here. The packaging that Harbor Freight is using these days, especially the foam blocking material, is FAR superior and protective than the packaging I am used to from them. This thing was very secure in its box. Now with that said and out of the way, let’s get down to the nitty gritty.
Out of the box, it took me a minute to figure out how all the knobs, levers, buttons and other various controls worked. Checking with various squares, and drafting triangles finds that the fence / blade etc… are all dialed dead in from the factory, and that the stops at 22.5, 30, and 45 degrees are exactly where they are supposed to be, and that he blade tilt measurements are where they are supposed to be. No adjustments to the fence, or anything of that nature was needed.
The pointers for both rotate, and bevel adjustments were misadjusted, but easily brought into line with nothing more than a #2 Phillips screwdriver.
The throat plate on this saw is adjustable, which in this price range was a stunning find. I did not expect this, and am very happy that it is adjustable. I may still make a ZCTP for it, but at least this way, I am in no huge hurry…
There was no play in either the head assembly, or the arbor bearing, so the blade stays true throughout the lift / lowering cycle. And while not perfectly smooth, the slide action is on par with the much more expensive Ridgid and DeWalt sliders that were on display at Home Depot. (The only slider I have laid hands on that is perfectly smooth sliding is the Makita…)
Overall the saw looks solid, and well thought out. and the fit and finish where it matters is top notch. The castings fairly clean and well made, and finished reasonably well applied (looks like gray powder coating) However there are areas on this saw, that were obviously neglected in manufacturing, as there are some rough spots on the table, and the frame that are in non functional areas, that it looks like instead of cleanly machining the casting excess off, they must have just whacked it off with an angle grinder and called it good. Now whoever did this job does nice enough work, but you can tell there is a slightly irregular surface that looks very odd… I guess that is part of the trade off for the lowball price tag.
The routing for the power for the saw, as well as the battery compartment for the laser are both, well in the way of the lockout device for raising / lowering the head. A touch of fiddling with it and you can get them in a workable position, but it’s annoying that you have to do it.
The lock down mechanism for the table is simply a thread in rod, no quick release here. It is an obnoxiously crude design, but it functions so well it is hard to complain about it… Just twist the know counter clockwise to loosen, set your position, then turn clockwise to tighten. Very intuitive.
All of the control surfaces and plastics are well machined, and solidly cast. The handle feels good in the hand.
The included blade is a 60T General purpose blade. The carbide teeth appear well brazed, and everything looks solid enough, but the overall look and feel of the build quality, sharpening of the teeth etc… of this blade make me want to exchange it for a Freud 80T before I even fire the saw up…
The dust bag is completely pointless, the loose weave of this thing offers no filtration whatsoever. But that is not a concern for me. I either use the CMS outdoors, or hooked up with a hood to the dust collector…
Overall, I believe that swapping in a quality blade and just ignoring the funky machining in cosmetic areas, all the while just remembering that this saw cost me less than a non sliding 10” Ryobi, or B&D CMS, and I will be happy as a clam. All the function I want is there, and it all appears smooth. The moment of truth will come when I plug it in, and send it sailing on its maiden voyage across some 2×10s that I need to crosscut at a compound angle (odd piece of support decking for the hot water heater needs to be replaced…). I will most likely update my review then, and again in a few months to a year to at least give a reasonable term usage review of this tool.
*UPDATED 12/14/2010*
I got an opportunity this evening to fire it up, and double, then triple check the saw. There is some good, and some really bad to report…
The good.
- The bevel stop at 0 is dead on perfect. No problem.
- The laser is dead on, with waste to the left of the blade, and is VERY bright contrary to most reviews. I seem to have gotten a bright laser…. I need to adjust this though. I like the waste on the right side of the blade…
- Something I didn’t mention in my initial review. It comes with a spare set of brushes. Something my more expensive machines make you pay extra for…
- The saw is no noisier than my B&D. That is until… Well we will get to that in a few lines…
The not so good but not terrible.
- The bevel stop at 45 degrees was off. It took a little bit of fiddling, and about 10 test cuts to get it dead on, but now, it’s dead on…
The absolutely awful.
- That blade. Now a low quality blade is NO surprise on any saw under $1,000.00. But just HOW bad this blade is will make your skin crawl. This thing relieves me permanently of ANY desire to EVER buy any bits or blades from Harbor Freight. I will have to grab a Freud Diablo D12980X and swap it over before I can write even a basic how this thing cuts. I think I would have been happier had Harbor Freight just left the blade out of the whole package…. This blade is every bit as bad as the Drill Master hole saws I got from them. ICK!
- Dust collection. We don’t need no stinking dust collection! Oh boy is DC on this thing rotten. Now I can’t compare it to other 12” sliders, but I CAN compare it to a couple of 10” non sliders. I think part of the problem is the slider design itself, so there is no feasable way to have some sort of ramp to direct dust and chunks (did I mention the lousy blade?) to the dust bag. The dust bag is EXTREMELY coarse, and for the most part useless. It filled up almost completely on the first cut, and the saw simply proceeded to spew dust from there. A shop vac hooked up to the port helps, but not enough. This thing REALLY needs to be used outside, or with a good dust hood and a full on dust collector… Now as most of us know, miter saws are lousy for dust collection, and this one is no exception. The only other 12” slider I have been around in action is the DeWalt at Woodcraft, and this seems no better, and aside from the lousy bag, not really worse. It’s pretty much middle of the road here.
All in all, so far anyway, I have bee pleasantly surprised by this saw. It has some areas that scream of excellent quality, and other areas that are oh so obvious that they took shortcuts making this thing. I think for the money paid, it will serve me admirably for a long time to come, and given a decent quality blade, I can learn to be happy with this machine, However, if I were wanting a buttery smooth no fuss miter saw out of the box, this would not have been on my short list. It’s not bad, but it’s nothing to brag about…
Source: http://lumberjocks.com/reviews/1795
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