Harbor Freight $119 12" compound miter saw

[pac man]

Anyone have this? how is it? I picked one up for $119 on their black friday weekend sale. I haven't used it yet, but the slide seems to stick a bit.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=98194

 

[d33pt]

i have the 10" version of that. it works ok for light homeowner use. i use it maybe once or twice a month. the motor really bogs down on hard wood or knots. sometimes it bogs down totally and you can smell it burning. i will try a better blade. can someone recommend a good all purpose blade?

 

[sanddrag]

I've used that. Works well enough for the price, but the slide does indeed stick a little bit. Not quite as precise, rigid, or powerful as more expensive saws, but it's a fraction of the price. I wouldn't use it on a job-site daily but for around the house it's fine. I'll give it a pass.

 

[Kevin54]

i have the 10" version of that. it works ok for light homeowner use. i use it maybe once or twice a month. the motor really bogs down on hard wood or knots. sometimes it bogs down totally and you can smell it burning. i will try a better blade. can someone recommend a good all purpose blade?

DeWalt carbide. Either a general purpose or a plywood blade. But get carbide. I recently had to change mine out after about 5 year. It has cut quite a few board feet of lumber, trim, vinyl siding, and a few pounds of nails.

 

[NotEnough]

I got the 10" slider for $80 plus tax. As with alot of HF stuff....certainly not great, but can't be beat for the money. Just fine for stuff at the house. Wouldn't try to make anything too precise with it tho. I've only used it once, building a deck for my plastic shed, but it did fine on PT 2x6.

 

[pac man]

I'll be framing out a window today so I'm going to try and fix the slider mechanism and then I'll post up my thoughts on it

 

[metal1313]

for good blades look at freud blades, the diablo's are pretty good, i have a few blades i bought from grizzly ranging in price from 40 to 130 for a 10 or 12 in saw. good blades can make a cheap saw perform much much better, and if you get build up on the side of the blade clean it off with a scuff pad, and keep the blades oiled with something like wd40. they wont rust and will cut cleaner