To cut larger boards it took several minutes and since the blade had become dull it wasn't making as good of cuts. I tried on 2 different occasions to sharpen the teeth on the blade but it didn't seem to make a difference. And with hundreds of teeth it was a long process.
I was originally going to buy one of the cheaper $130 saw available. My original options were between the Hitachi 10" miter saw:
And this Kobalt 7" sliding miter saw:
Both of those saws would've been okay for the price. I like the Kobalt saw because I could set it to a certain depth and use it like a radial arm saw. With the sliding action I could take small notches out of boards. The problem with the two is they aren't very heavy duty and the Kobalt has only a 7 inch blade. All of the reviews said they were fine if you only used them at home occasionally.
Then about a week ago Karrie saw an add from Lowe's that had this DeWalt 12 inch 15 amp compound miter saw for $70 off. I had the same dilemma when I purchased my air compressor and nail guns. Should i get the cheap tool or spend a little more and get the better quality one.
I ended up buying the Dewalt saw, going with slightly better model than I originally considered. I came to the same conclusion that i did with the other tools. Spend a little more and get something that will be enjoyable to use and something that i will have for many years. Rather then to save $40 and live with something that i don't like.
So I went to Lowe's and checked it out. The price marked was just as it was listed, $229 down from $279. So with tax it would've ended up costing around $245.
One thing i always know is that there's always a 10% off coupon you can get for Lowe's. So I went home to find the coupon and buy it online. I eventually found the link but it didn't seem to work. They had me fill out this form and they were supposed to e-mail me the coupon, but I never got. So a day later I went on SlickDeals and found an even better deal. They also had the 10% off coupon but below it I noticed that I could get $30 off any item that cost over $150 from Lowe's. Here's what the SlickDeals page looked like.
I added the miter saw to the basket and then entered the coupon code. It worked.
I ended up getting the saw for $199, with tax it came out to be $210, which is not too bad. Basically i got it for $90 less then the original price.
I had it set to be picked up at the store, that way it I didn't have to pay for shipping. It immediately sent me e-mail saying my item was ready so I got back to my car and drove up there. I went to the desk and they had already set it aside to be picked up.
Here is the comparison between the new and old miter saws.
I tried it out when I was making the rustic wood cooler stand and needed to cut pallet boards. It worked great. It wasn't too loud and the motor wasn't overpowering. Also when you're done cutting, the blade stopped within about a second or two.
I'm definitely happy I went with the better Dewalt saw. Once again i have a tool that i can't imagine building without. The next thing i have to do is build a table with extendable arms for the saw.
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