Dewalt, Makita and Bosch are all good brands I would recommend. Generally they will all give you adequate ability to dial in the miter and bevel angles and with a good blade, will do a great job. Decide if you need a 12” or 10”. Personally I prefer a 10, but I move my saw in and out of a basement and a 12” proved to be a bit much. Once I got used to cutting trim on the flat, the 10” has been enough. For precise trim work it feels like a scalpel in a way my 12 never did.
The thing I don’t like about the cheaper brands is you don’t always have the ability to dial them in. A friend of mine had a cheap Ryobi. He had the bevel and miter set up pretty well. We had to cut some 5” base flat on the table and found horrible gaps on our mitered corners. Turns out the miter wanders off 0 when you bevel. I couldn’t figure out a way to fix that.
Things to look for? Look for signs it’s been dropped. Check the table to make sure it’s flat and not twisted or warped. Check the fences to make sure they are flat, coplaner and at a right angle to the base. Make sure miter and bevel move freely throughout their range. Plow through a 2x8 and listen/feel for signs of strain in the motor. If it doesn’t cut well, check the blade. If it’s dull (cutting prefinished flooring will kill a blade) or loaded with pitch, that could explain it. Put a good blade on it and try again. Check the slides to make sure they operate freely and don’t deflect excessively. A saw that’s been dropped may have some points where the slides bind up along their travel. Avoid any saw that has missing pieces of metal from the base, fence or other castings.
When I was buying my first miter saw, I looked at a porter cable unit offered on CL. I came armed with a combination square and some scrap plywood. I tried a test cut first and something didn’t feel right. The saw had trouble cutting. Thankfully I didn’t push it. I checked the fences and they were straight, but they weren’t coplaner? I looked closer and saw a piece of the fence was missing. Best that I could guess, the ****** had a kickback, bent the fence casting and cracked one fence. That test cut would have pinched the blade if I had pushed harder and I would have had a kick back and possibly an injury. I gave him an earful and told him his greed is going to get someone hurt. Either fix it or throw it out. Turns out he did price out the replacement casting...it was more than the saw was worth. Not having much experience with miter saws at that stage, I went home thankful I had all my fingers and ordered a new saw. I wouldn’t have an issue buying a used saw today, but back then I should have found someone that knew more than me.
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