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7 1/4 SCMS or 10 non-slider

20K views 29 replies 11 participants last post by  epicfail48 
#1 ·
Randomly popped into my head, but im wondering, between a 7.25 inch sliding miter saw and a 10 inch non-slider, which would you rather have?

Now, im not planning a purchase, and im not trying to compare any one tool to another, im just wondering given 2 accurate, well made tools, differing only in the blade size and movement style, which would you choose? Personally, i think id go for the 7.25 slider. Sure, it cant chop down a 4x4, and a 7.25 saw is likely to be less powerful than a 10 inch miter. My reasoning would be that the majority of the stock i work with is less than 2 inches thick, well inside a 7.25 blades cutting capacity, and id rather have the wider crosscut capabilities over the cutting height. Plus, a good 7.25" blade is a lot cheaper than a good 10" blade, and a 7.25 slider is also usually cheaper than any 10 inch saw

So, keeping to either a 10 inch non-slide or 7.25 slider, which of those 2 would you want? Pretend 10 inch sliders and 12 inch saws dont exitst here
 
#2 · (Edited)
#3 ·
Craftsman made one about that size many years ago. It may have been 8 inch. Actually was a different design than the standard sliding miter saw. It had no "compound" capabilities.

That said it was far too small. I got rid of it and went to my current 10".

George
 
#5 ·
A 1/4" wrench is too small for 3/8" nut, but it works perfectly on a 1/4" nut.

A 7 1/4" saw works just fine to cut material thin enough for the capacity it will handle. If you are doing a lot of trim on a job site they are lighter to handle than most 10" models and have a greater cutting width than a 10" chop saw.

They are not general a general purpose shop saw but certainly have their advantages in situations they are designed to handle, particularly if you prefer to size the tool to the job.

As far as accuracy goes you get what you pay for.
 
#10 ·
I primarily use the miter saw for moldings. A 10" blade would be the absolute minimum for me because I've had times where I wished I had a 12". 7 1/4" would be too small to meet my needs. So I would opt for the non-sliding 10".
 
#16 ·
test your saws's accuracy

Start with a parallel edged board. Mark a 90 degree line on the face and make a cut across as close to the line as possible. Take the cut off and flip it over and mate it to the previous cut. If the edges aren't parallel, the saw is "off".

The correction must be made to 1/2 the difference in the angle, so go slowly with any adjustments.

I had to make "off 90" degree cuts on my RAS, so instead of moving the arm, which I never do, I wedged the work on the farthest side. This creates an angle on the cut path, I just needed to know how much. It was a matter of experimenting with thinner, then thicker wedges to get the angle just right:



 
#18 ·
I'd pick the 10" non slider. I have had the same Craftsman 10" CMS for years and it does everything I have needed from framing to trimwork.

Since I'm a hobbyist, and I like to keep it simple, I try to only change the table setting, not the head.

I think doing things like cutting crown molding upside down (like you do when you only want to use one angle instead of a compound angle) or mitering 4" tall baseboards would be harder with the smaller blade.
 
#19 ·
This all makes for great discussion, but if there was the ultimate saw for everybody all the other manufactures would be out of business, like any tool it depends on what "you" are going to do with it, what "I" do with mine means nothing to you. This is why some people have several flavors of a particular tool, they can pick the best one for the job at hand, while others are happy with one that does everything okay.
 
#21 ·
The accuracy to within thousands of an inch of a SCMS is really not that important to the customers that buy the saws 10 at a time, only to the guy that buys one every 10 years.

The guy that pays for one in a days work doesn't really care about dead nuts accuracy, because he will lay a carpenters pencil across one end of the bede, lay the trim on top of it and make the cut resulting in a less than 90 degree vertical cut with a sharp point at the top. By pushing the two top points of a butt joint together with such little surface area they are basically force fit and there is no gap and a rub with sandpaper smooths it all out.
 
#22 · (Edited)
name your "poison"

When purchasing any tool the major concerns are:
Cost
Weight
Size
Accuracy
Capacity*
Dependability
Safety
Repairs/warranty

Accuracy means different things to different ways of working. A deck builder/framer won't need the same accuracy as someone building a Grandfather Clock or a scale model of an Excavator. Furniture may also demand a high level of accuracy for perfect joinery.

You can make a less than perfectly accurate saw work well using jigs and stops that provide "consistency" rather than great accuracy, which is similar, just slightly different. Consistency may be more important than hair-line accuracy for most woodworking operations. Once you learn your saws' quirks, you can do pretty much all you want using the same feed pressures, sharp blades and other techniques.

The original question was about capacity*, if I recall. If you pick and choose as in this case, you can have two completely different saws with about the same capacity, except depth of cut. A 7 1/4" blade won't have the same depth of cut as a 10" near the fence, and there's my answer. How much depth of cut do you need?
 
#25 ·
So I was at Sears yesterday picking up a new dado stack when I came across this:
Http://m.craftsman.com/craftsman-7-1-4inch-compact-sliding-compound-miter-saw/p-00932285000P

Gotta say, I was rather impressed. Most sliding saws I've seen have 2 rods attached to the blade carriage that move in and out with the motion of the blade carriage. This one, though, had the sliding rods rigidly attached to the base, and the carriage slid on the fixed rods. It seemed pretty much like a mini radial arm saw, and stuck me as a pretty solid little tool.

Admittedly, the 10 inch slider craftsman makes shares the same design, just scaled up, but honestly I think I'd rather have the smaller one, even with the minimal price difference. I can pick up a fine finish 7 1/4 blade for $20, whereas a comparable 10 inch blade would run me closer to $80, and as I've stated before the 7 inch saw would cut pretty much everything I need to
 
#26 ·
#27 ·
epicfail48 said:
So I was at Sears yesterday picking up a new dado stack when I came across this: Http://m.craftsman.com/craftsman-7-1-4inch-compact-sliding-compound-miter-saw/p-00932285000P Gotta say, I was rather impressed. Most sliding saws I've seen have 2 rods attached to the blade carriage that move in and out with the motion of the blade carriage. This one, though, had the sliding rods rigidly attached to the base, and the carriage slid on the fixed rods. It seemed pretty much like a mini radial arm saw, and stuck me as a pretty solid little tool. Admittedly, the 10 inch slider craftsman makes shares the same design, just scaled up, but honestly I think I'd rather have the smaller one, even with the minimal price difference. I can pick up a fine finish 7 1/4 blade for $20, whereas a comparable 10 inch blade would run me closer to $80, and as I've stated before the 7 inch saw would cut pretty much everything I need to
I've got the Craftsman Compact 10" Slider. It's attached to my bench and I really like it. I replaced the original blade with the Diablo 80 tooth and it serves we very well.

Mark
 

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#28 ·
I've looked at the 7 1/4" saws. The size and weight would be nice for installs and punch out work.

The problem I see is in the blades. For circular saws the blades are commonplace but with a SCMS you want either a zero or a negative hook to prevent kick back. Based on the way a circular saw cuts you want a positive hook so it pulls itself down to the work piece. On a 7 1/4" saw you are married to either the stock blade or the ones that are designed for the DeWalt saw. You're also stuck with whatever grinds those blades come in. I switch up grinds based on what I'm cutting pretty frequently. TCG for mdf. H-ATB for some of the britte gloss finishes on casework moulding. NF TCG for extruded aluminum kick and accessories on modern work. ATB for everything else.

Look into the 8 1/2" saws. There's a larger selection of available tooling. I'm knocking around adding an 8 1/2" Makita for recuts on taller mouldings. I can get task specific blades from FS Tool, Royce, Popular Tools, or any of the other manufacturers that I run in addition to the more easily available tooling off the shelf.
 
#29 ·
Epicfail, I have that Craftsman 7 1/4 SCMS and recommend it wholeheartedly. Besides having the smallest footprint of any miter saw I've ever owned (about the same size as the non slider Ryobi I used to own), it is surprisingly versatile -- at 90 degrees it can crosscut 2x8's with ease, and compounds, 2x6's. My primary usage probably varies from yours as I'm mostly a finish guy. But even with the framing work I do here and there, I'll reach for my C-Man before our 12" DW 9 times out of 10 unless I've gotta cut beams.

Build quality isn't half bad either. Craftsman power tools are obviously hit or miss these days but I'd consider this one a winner. After a few quickie adjustments to square the fence and level the throat place, it makes very accurate, clean cuts for a saw this price. Doesn't hurt I got it for a steal. (On sale during the holidays at Orchard for $64.99, they were sold out and I got a raincheck. Due to a lengthy delay, they ended up kicking me down an extra $10 discount, so out the door, I paid like 60 bucks even). Bottom line, however, is that I like it enough I'd have paid full price.

Now, at work we have two of the older corded 7 1/2 Makita sliders. Because they're on two sets of sliders, cutting capacity is remarkable -- we crosscut 2x12's on those things in a single pass like butter, and I want to say we've even chopped 4x4s. They're hard to find having been discontinued in favor of an 18v version and a corded 8 1/4 (why, I don't have a clue)...and now run upwards of four bills used -- if you can even find one. Now that's far too rich for my blood, but those old Mak 7 1/2's are beasts. If you have the opportunity and $ to swing one, do yourself a favor and go for it.

This has been a long ramble, but I guess what I'm trying to say is, there are 7 1/4 SCMS's out there that I personally would take over most 10" non sliders in a heartbeat.
 
#30 ·
Thanks for typing that out, that's actually fantastic to hear. Its always fun hearing from someone who actually uses the less common tools.

And I don't know about our use being too different. Admittedly at present I o ly use a miter saw for fought sizing of parts, chopping down a 2x4 or whatnot so I can cut to final size on the table saw, but that's only because my current miter saw is a piece of crap. Since bringing this topic up I've actually been severely tempted to pick up the smaller craftsman. It'd be nice to have a tools I could trust to make an accurate crosscut withough having to clear off my table saw and dig out the sled
 
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