4 ms·

I've seen the Chinese brand TACKLIFE show up on Amazon a lot. Very inexpensive and decent reviews. I'm looking at their 10" miter saw. Then I see the Bosch one

I've seen the Chinese brand TACKLIFE show up on Amazon a lot. Very inexpensive and decent reviews. I'm looking at their 10" miter saw. Then I see the Bosch one for 3x the price. What does that get you?

anon73044 6y ago
$199 ? Same price for the 10" Craftsman and Metabo. Buy once, cry once.
- aurels 6y ago
  Small TACKLIFE stuff are really good indeed : laser level, telemeter, ..
simondelacourt 6y ago
If you don't care about it being square, durable and trustworthy, than something like TACKLIFE might work, but for a miter saw I would pick something just a bit more expensive, or buy something second hand. I've owned a cheap one, it failed, bought a festool one, its still square, doesn't fail and the cut quality is great. You don't need to buy a Kapex (the festool miter saw), but something like the bosch, milwaukee, dewalt or makita will survive way longer. I've bought too many cheap tools to do that ever again.
throwanem 6y ago
A saw with a decent chance of lasting more than half the job. If you want the kind that doesn't, get it from Harbor Freight (Princess Auto in CA), at least as long as they still have the 90-day NQA warranty. It'll be about as good as the Amazon junk, which is not very, but also a lot quicker and easier to replace when the MOSFET blows up after thirty or forty total inches of cut.
- pravda 6y ago
  I have a 10" Harbor Freight table saw. Owned it for almost 20 years. Still works fine. I think it cost $100.
  - starpilot 6y ago
    This always happens with durability testimonials. Everyone justifies their premium purchase (Le Creuset cookware, GoRuck backpack etc.) saying how much it's been through, without ever having tried the much cheaper alternative.
    - throwanem 6y ago
      I mean, okay? Sometimes you get lucky with cheap stuff. More often, you don't. If it works for you and keeps working, great! Congratulations on winning the lottery. Of course, it's a bit silly to say that, because you won the lottery, everyone else will. But that always happens, too.
quickthrowman 6y ago
Just buy the $120-140 12” Hitachi miter saw. It will be UL listed, and you can return it to an actual store.
mturmon 6y ago
I don't think a miter saw is a good place to economize unless you're doing only un-demanding work (e.g. rough framing). You really want it to keep a square adjustment and to have zero play. And it's a tool you might use a lot for a long time.
- starpilot 6y ago
  Do you have any experience with cheap (<$200) miter saws?
  - mturmon 6y ago
    I have a 10" Delta that's about $160. It's not a slider. It advertises as compound, but setup is not repeatable, so I only use it for 90 degree cuts. (Perfect example of a "feature" that turns out to be useless in practice.) I have used it for rough carpentry and it's perfectly OK for that. I also make furniture and do finish carpentry (DIY, not for sale), and that miter saw can only be used for rough cutoffs in such work. I have to do all final cuts on the table saw with a sled or a miter jig. So in truth, the miter saw is 90% useless for that work, because even awkward rough cuts on long stock can be done very quickly with a hand saw - just a basic Japanese-style pull saw that costs about $20. Some of the Tacklife saws that are about $200 are sliders as well as compound miter. I'm skeptical that you can do anything more than rough carpentry on such a machine, because the slide mechanism introduces even more play. Of course, I haven't used the saw. One of the merits of using machines in the shop (as opposed to hand tools) is that a quality machine is repeatable and predictable. You can't allow a 44 degree miter or a cut that's 1/16th too short in finish carpentry, so you can't use a mediocre miter saw. The reason you can't ever be making 44 degree miters is that you may have already milled that piece to final dimensions in width and height, and a mistaken cut will require repeating all that work. In fact, such a mistake might not be recoverable if you were trying to achieve a grain match in un-painted work. Many of the above factors are not relevant if you really just want to do basic framing!
    - starpilot 6y ago
      What really is "basic framing"? I'm thinking of build a rectangular desk with a rectangular "apron" of 2x4's for stiffness. Would this be along those lines?

anon73044 6y ago

$199 ? Same price for the 10" Craftsman and Metabo. Buy once, cry once.

aurels 6y ago
Small TACKLIFE stuff are really good indeed : laser level, telemeter, ..

simondelacourt 6y ago

If you don't care about it being square, durable and trustworthy, than something like TACKLIFE might work, but for a miter saw I would pick something just a bit more expensive, or buy something second hand. I've owned a cheap one, it failed, bought a festool one, its still square, doesn't fail and the cut quality is great. You don't need to buy a Kapex (the festool miter saw), but something like the bosch, milwaukee, dewalt or makita will survive way longer. I've bought too many cheap tools to do that ever again.

throwanem 6y ago

A saw with a decent chance of lasting more than half the job. If you want the kind that doesn't, get it from Harbor Freight (Princess Auto in CA), at least as long as they still have the 90-day NQA warranty. It'll be about as good as the Amazon junk, which is not very, but also a lot quicker and easier to replace when the MOSFET blows up after thirty or forty total inches of cut.

pravda 6y ago
I have a 10" Harbor Freight table saw. Owned it for almost 20 years. Still works fine. I think it cost $100.
- starpilot 6y ago
  This always happens with durability testimonials. Everyone justifies their premium purchase (Le Creuset cookware, GoRuck backpack etc.) saying how much it's been through, without ever having tried the much cheaper alternative.
  - throwanem 6y ago
    I mean, okay? Sometimes you get lucky with cheap stuff. More often, you don't. If it works for you and keeps working, great! Congratulations on winning the lottery. Of course, it's a bit silly to say that, because you won the lottery, everyone else will. But that always happens, too.

quickthrowman 6y ago

Just buy the $120-140 12” Hitachi miter saw. It will be UL listed, and you can return it to an actual store.

mturmon 6y ago

I don't think a miter saw is a good place to economize unless you're doing only un-demanding work (e.g. rough framing). You really want it to keep a square adjustment and to have zero play. And it's a tool you might use a lot for a long time.

starpilot 6y ago
Do you have any experience with cheap (<$200) miter saws?
- mturmon 6y ago
  I have a 10" Delta that's about $160. It's not a slider. It advertises as compound, but setup is not repeatable, so I only use it for 90 degree cuts. (Perfect example of a "feature" that turns out to be useless in practice.) I have used it for rough carpentry and it's perfectly OK for that. I also make furniture and do finish carpentry (DIY, not for sale), and that miter saw can only be used for rough cutoffs in such work. I have to do all final cuts on the table saw with a sled or a miter jig. So in truth, the miter saw is 90% useless for that work, because even awkward rough cuts on long stock can be done very quickly with a hand saw - just a basic Japanese-style pull saw that costs about $20. Some of the Tacklife saws that are about $200 are sliders as well as compound miter. I'm skeptical that you can do anything more than rough carpentry on such a machine, because the slide mechanism introduces even more play. Of course, I haven't used the saw. One of the merits of using machines in the shop (as opposed to hand tools) is that a quality machine is repeatable and predictable. You can't allow a 44 degree miter or a cut that's 1/16th too short in finish carpentry, so you can't use a mediocre miter saw. The reason you can't ever be making 44 degree miters is that you may have already milled that piece to final dimensions in width and height, and a mistaken cut will require repeating all that work. In fact, such a mistake might not be recoverable if you were trying to achieve a grain match in un-painted work. Many of the above factors are not relevant if you really just want to do basic framing!
  - starpilot 6y ago
    What really is "basic framing"? I'm thinking of build a rectangular desk with a rectangular "apron" of 2x4's for stiffness. Would this be along those lines?