Milwaukee 7 1/4" Miter Saw Problems

[InjectorService]

Good afternoon,
I just purchased a Milwaukee 7 1/4" miter saw. It seems to be a nice piece of equipment, but the slides are super rough. It feels like the bearings are shot before I've even used it. There is no slop in the bearings, they are just rough when sliding.

I went back to the tool stor I bought it from, and unboxed another one, and they felt the same. What gives? Its a pretty expensive piece to have bearings like that. I've seen lots of low end saws that were much smoother.

Should I try to send it in for warranty? Have you seen this before?

 

[mike93lx]

Is there a lock that needs to be loosened? My hitachi has a thumbs crew to stop it from moving when in transit

I would never send a brand new tool out for warranty service. It would get returned if it was bad

 

[65ranchero]

I would at least contact Milwaukee CS before trying to ship it.
Maybe they hade a bad run and they ended up in the Box stores

 

[InjectorService]

Its got the lock, but I have it loosened, so it shouldn't be a problem. My thoughts were the same as yours but I went back and the only inventory that store had was the same way.

 

[mike93lx]

Does it have one rail or two? If two, maybe loosen the bolts and see if it gets easier to slide? They could be slightly twisted

 

[Viper98912]

I recently bought a Kobalt (on sale), and I also noticed the slides were rougher than I expected, when comparing to other industrial automation slides I've used. I would expect your higher end Milwaukee to be better, but it might just be how many of these are?

 

[csp]

Bearings? It's a friction slide, no bearings are involved. If it's something you want to stick with you could take the slide mechanism apart and see if there's something obvious that's grabbing or if it's out of alignment.

Personally I'd take it back.

 

[Northislander]

I just picked up the 12" milwaukee 18V miter saw two weeks ago and no issues with the slide saw is smooth and accurate.I would contact Milwaukee. And/or post a review on there site. I have had great response from milwaukee going this route. You may even receive some swag or free tools. I posted a poor review on a product and was very happy with Milwaukees response Not only listened to mine and others reviews but redesigned the tool and sent me a second free redesigned unit.

 

[showtime96]

It's probably just tight since its new. I'd spray some silicone lube on it and use it. It will loosen up after a while.

 

[Black300zx]

I would contact Milwaukee. And/or post a review on there site.

2nd this. Customer service exists for a reason. Contact them and see if the behavior is normal or not.

 

[InjectorService]

So I have kept the unit for now. I don't really want to post a review before trying to fix the problem, I don't think that would be fiar to them, things happen, and I think its more about how they handle it than anything.

I have sent a contact request in to them today, we will see what comes of it. If I don't hear back today I'll phone them tomorrow.

Someone above mentioned that these are not bearings, but a friction slide. I was not aware of that, thank you for correcting me.

I did a couple trim cuts with it yesterday as well, and it does make nice cuts, so I am happy with it in that way, just hoping to get the slide a little smoother.

 

[InjectorService]

So I waited a number of days, with no response from Milwaukee. I posted a review now, so we will see what happens......

 

[csp]

Call Milwaukee, don't wait for a response in an email.

I'm not sure how we took customer service communications from a simple telephone call to waiting on emails in this world.

 

[Daniel Dudley]

Did you try a dry lube? I'd blow the dust off of it and shoot some kind of a clean dry lube in there. I do use silicone in my old Makita.