best saw choice

ken lutes

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98
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Winchester Ky.
I am wanting to set up a dedicated saw and fence system to cut wide high profile molding at a 45 degrees. I want precise clean accuracy. My question is what style saw do you all feel is the best as far as blade deflection, arm movement and bearing tolerance. A radial arm saw, miter saw or sliding miter saw. Any brands stand out??
 
I am wanting to set up a dedicated saw and fence system to cut wide high profile molding at a 45 degrees. I want precise clean accuracy. My question is what style saw do you all feel is the best as far as blade deflection, arm movement and bearing tolerance. A radial arm saw, miter saw or sliding miter saw. Any brands stand out??

IMHO none of the above. The radial arm saw can have deflection to to the cantiliver of the saw the the miter saw has a problem due to the angle of the arc as you drop it down the slider stands a better chance then the other two but my first choice would be a dedicated TS. Once set up and tuned I think it would give the most consistant cuts.
 
The down side to a table saw will be keeping a 16 foot piece of trim on a sled.
But if your cutting shorts It would work fine.
If you ask the guys that have one of these http://www.festoolusa.com/products/sliding-compound-miter-saws They will tell you there is nothing better.:dunno: I don't know about them and I am still trying to figure out why it is twice the money as all the rest.
I should add that I have cut one or two crown moldings over the years and have yet to cut them on any thing but a miter saw.
 
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Chuck I kinda had the same thoughts. It just seems that if the trim stayed stationary it would be better. But then you are at the mercy of how accurate the saw is. Also one advantage of the table saw would be that it would have more horse and torque so to speak to keep the blade from flexing. In my opinion that is one fault of the compound saws They are a little weak for the blade size. You have to exercise good technique to keep the blade up to max rpm. Watch the blade flex when powering up or down. Slight but it does tend to flex. Have you noticed this or am I seeing things?
 
While I've cut my share of trim with my CMS and suffered through the deflection of the RAS I have not used a slider. I base my opinion on the sucess I've had cutting miters on my Table saw. I think with an adaquate infeed you could get good results with the table saw.
 
Ken on some of the cheaper blades I have seen flex. Or when the blade starts to dull. I have also seen this with a table saw. It seems to be more common with the 10" blades than the 12s. I would say that it is more the technique than the tool. No matter which tool you use for the job find the thickest blade you can compound cuts will put some side load on the blade.
I have not found any of the 12" miter saws I have used to be under powered.
8" and 10" ones yes but not 12"
 
Why not get a saw that get's it close, and use one of those trimmer thingys to fine tune the cut to perfection?

Something like this maybee... http://grizzly.com/products/G1690

If precision is what you are looking for, I'd guess thats why they use this type of thing for picture frames. The only problem is if it doesn't work with the height of the molding you are looking for...
 
Ken If your seeing flex on start up I would say you ether have an inexpensive thin kerf blade or bearing issues with the saw.
 
Don I don't think I would even try a RAS for cutting crown:thumb:
Ok so that might be a bit rough :rofl: Let me rephrase that I wouldn't use a RAS for trim work.
 
It sounds like you want to cut crown molding with the molding "standing up". I prefer to cut crown molding with the molding laying down on the table, and I use miter saw. A 45* cut for standard crown molding is easy and if you have molding with other spring angles, you can get a spreadsheet that will give you the angles to cut it. The spreadsheet will give you angles for any effective angle, so if you have an angle of 22.5* (for example) you can enter that and it'll tell you how to set up the CMS to get that effective angle.

I got my spreadsheet from Wayne Drake but I think there are others out there, also.

I did my whole house with a fairly cheap CMS and never had a problem with fit of the angles. Getting the proper length was more of a problem than the angles.

Mike
 
Saw flex and blade deflection are unrelated issues. Blade flex is more likely to occur with a cheaper thinner blade....at a given thickness, the larger the diameter, the weaker it will be, and the more likely to flex. IE: if all else is equal, a 10" blade should be less likely to deflect than an identical blade that's 12". To avoid deflection, the kerf thickness should increase proportionately with the diameter. Better blades have better metallurgy and better design to help avoid flexing. Since crosscut operations are typically less stressful to the motor than ripping, there's less reason to use thin kerf blades on a SCMS or CMS unless the saw is very weak. With either kerf and any saw, letting the blade the do work without forcing it will help avoid deflection.

I find that my TS gives more accurate results than my CMS. It could just be a matter of having a sloppy CMS. Like anything else, there are good and poor examples of each type of saw, so I'm not sure you can really narrow it down to just saw type while excluding the design quality of the particular saw.
 
Keep in mind that no room is perfectly square so cutting miters is a sneak -up-on process. I bought a cheap HF 10" slider miter saw for trim work because a friend recommended it claimed that it was more accurate than his expensive Dewalt. My brother has it now and has done some beautiful trim work on his house. My friend who reccommended the saw said " if it falls off the back of the truck you're only out 100 bucks":D I will square up the blade with a square.
 
How about the Hitachi Dual SLide Compound

The down side to a table saw will be keeping a 16 foot piece of trim on a sled.
But if your cutting shorts It would work fine.
If you ask the guys that have one of these http://www.festoolusa.com/products/sliding-compound-miter-saws They will tell you there is nothing better.:dunno: I don't know about them and I am still trying to figure out why it is twice the money as all the rest.
I should add that I have cut one or two crown moldings over the years and have yet to cut them on any thing but a miter saw.

Just curious what you guys think about the 15" hitachi? I use it for just about everything including vinyl and it works fantastic. I found a place that sells the thin kerf 15" blades for that saw at http://toolguy.com and I won't use anything else. That festtool looks almost like the Hitachi
 
I don't know about the 15 but one of my 12s is a Hitachi slider. It's a good saw but the fence needs work and same as most other saws of the type. There is no dust collection. All though it collects nicely on the floor. :thumb:
 
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