in the market for a miter saw…had a 10″ Delta, cast iron base, vertical handle…solid saw…lent it out…never returned. Like the DeWalt DW703…thinking of the Hitachi C10FCE. I hear DeWalt has an new line of saws…haven’t seen them. Hitachi C10FCE at 140.00….I don’t know. Any advice on these two saws…going to Lowe’s soon. Thanks for any feedback.
rustbucket
Replies
I know there will be debate on this, LOL, but Dewalt has often let me down. I would choose the Hitachi, all other things being equal.
Or I would look a bit up the line at a Bosch, the 10" sliding compound saw is nice. I think the extra dollars spent on a better tool pays of every day for as much as 5 or 10 years.
Jake Gulick
[email protected]
CarriageHouse Design
Black Rock, CT
Would you care to elaborate on the "DeWalt letting you down" part? I have a 10" Hitachi and DW 705. Lowes has a 10" Hitachi with a cordless drill for $169 now. I think the Hitachi is a great machine. Mine is older but they seem to just get better.
Well, I know guys love their Dewalt SCMSs, but I got one and it was sloppy. I returned it the same day, and got the Bosch.
I have their 13" planer. it was so heads and shoulders over the others in features and capacity, I had to, LOL. It has been very good in some respects, but it has a consistant feed issue. It "slips" on driving the wood thru. I can understand it, to some degree, on 5/4" mahogony, but 4 x 4 Cedar should fly thru it. It slipped constantly on the mahogony..I couldn't take my hand off it...the cedar was better, but still not right. of course, the phone calls to resolve it were met with a bunch of field use issue" BS...
I got a dewalt compressor, formerly an Emglow (sp?)....and it will NOT start uless it has a HUGE ext cord, AND it's 70 degrees and sunny, LOL. It stalls on restart on certain outlets, even without an ext cord! I spoke to the Dewalt reps at the home Building show in Las Vegas, who denied there could be such a problem, and suggested I use it...in warmer conditions and with better cords. Thanks guys......
My biscuit joiner is cool, but it seems like sometimes the slot is too big. it's weird, i think it must be me, as it is inconsistant.
Their chop saw stand is cool.
hitachi invented the whole sliding chop saw thing...and every Hitachi tool I have had has been great.
Jake Gulick
[email protected]
CarriageHouse Design
Black Rock, CT
Re: ..."and suggested I use it...in warmer conditions and with better cords. Thanks guys......"Likely a different brand but don't give up on your compressor yet. A carpenter tells a story about getting a compressor essentially for free because of similar behavior. He was starting out, broke, and a local carpenter was complaining about his compressor not starting and having poor performance in cold weather. He gave it to his help, the guy starting out.He was happy to have anything so he made it work for him. He babied it, tweaked it and put up with its bad behavior. And then, after a month of this, he noticed that it was running more easily and running more dependably. Weather got a bit warmer too so he figured it would go back to its old, difficult, self when things cooled off. Thing was it never did. It got good and stayed good. Later he talked to a guy who maintained his nail gun and compressors on the side. He said it wasn't uncommon for some brands to need to break-in. When first manufactured they are stiff and tight. Given some running time, and an oil change to get rid of the crud produced by the break-in, they can be very good products that last a long time.He said it had been several years since he got it and it is entirely reliable and very good compressor. It was so good the guy who gave it to him a year earlier even tried to buy it back.Who knows? Perhaps in time yours too will prove to be a diamond in the rough. Or, if it doesn't improve with age, a nice anchor for the boat.I don't remember the brand. I kind or remember it being green.
I love my hitachi tools, very proud of all of them.
Im embarrassed to show up at a job with a Dewalt. They were such a fad, and the glory days are over... now that the technical craftsmen are onto them. In addition, they are riding their old technology and arent keeping up with innovation.
-zen
if were talking about dewalt miter saws... how are they riding old technology? have you tried out the new line? i havent actually used one yet bit if the cut is as good as my old 708 then this new one should be way better, i would love to cut 6 1/2'' base upright on a slider. btw hitachi makes several good things aswell but the new digital miter readout seems a little gimicky
I would agree with the digital, unless your eyes are failing. I havent taken a close look at those, I dont know what the sensitivity is, but if it does fractions of a degree I might actually be talking myself into one. When I miter I usually end up with 42.3 or 26.8 and it can be tricky.
I would assume that 6 1/2 is on a new 12, I havent tested a new DW slider. I do finish carpentry and paint, I would never use a 12 due to blade wabble out on the edge, but 6 1/2 would be nice for framing.
-zen
yea its the new model that cuts 6 1/2 up right. with a nice heavy blade on my dw708, wobble, runout, and deflection are virtually non existant... but thats just mine, it seems everyone has a different story. i actually even dropped my 708 off of the back of my dewalt stand, apperantly it wasnt clipped on right. anyway it screwed up the rotating base and broke the mount for the motor. i ordered new parts for it and took the whole saw apart just to be sure nothing else was broken. after putting everything back together exactly to factory specs it cut even better than before i dropped it. (one thing i noticed after playing around with the belt tension between the blade and the motor is that the saw cuts better with the belt pulled tighter than spec.) something to try out if you own this saw.
Edited 10/11/2005 5:20 pm ET by bbm82
I played with the digital read out at JLC, it seemed pretty cool, the real nice feature of the saw was the micro adjustments on bevel and miter, to the 1/2 degree with no fuss.
Well, that's the ONE 'suggestion' the yellow men didn't give me! Sadly though, it got a good summers use before becoming ornery when the cold set in. I even went with a thinner synthetic oil. It's funny, even if I plug it into certain outlets directly, it will stall on start up when cold, yet it's fine on other outlets. Both 15A standard outlets, the one that has the issues is actually closer to the breaker box. I even swapped breakers.
I've learned to "live with it", but I know they screwed the pooch...it should have been caught in prototype testing.
I'll hope for better after even more breakin, but I'd be happy if it just stayed the same! Jake Gulick
[email protected]
CarriageHouse Design
Black Rock, CT
Don't blame dewalt for that compressor's foibles. every emglo I've ever been associated with had the same problem. you had to be right next to the breaker box and on at least a 20 amp circuit, and if the temp was any different from that of a normal afternoon in Jamaica it would fight you every step of the way. Hmmmmm.... Maybe I should have just kept one of those emglos and moved to Jamaica instead.....,.
I'll admit that some of Dewalt's tools are less than tradesman grade, however I think that the concensous here is that the one thing they do well is their miter saws.
Although I am a big Hitachi fan, I always loved my old Hitachi 8" slider. I just wish I still had it." If I were a carpenter"
Bingo!
I only bought the Dewalt because it is really a neat compressor with a good packaging and good features.......and because I knew it wasn't a Dewalt!!! lol
If I had known that Elmglo, which I thought had a good rep, had these issues....
Well, there are options!
Jake Gulick
[email protected]
CarriageHouse Design
Black Rock, CT
Try cleaning the rollers with some denatured alcohol or mineral spirits and wax the bed with paste wax. Should help the feed issues.J.P.http://www.jpkfinefurniture.com
Couple of things on your dewalt planer:
I've had the 12 1/2" (DW733?) for many years now, and have put many BF of soft and hard woods though it. A lot of live oak. I did find that wide boards would 'slip' if the blades were less than razor sharp, and there is a balance between width of cut, depth of cut and blade sharpness. Depending upon these factors, and the wood's characteristics, a greater of lessor cut may address the slipping problem.
After a particularly satisfying job of resurfacing ~500 BF of reclaimed Redwood that had a very high moisture content, the slipping because persistent, and blade changes did not help. Soon the slipping was accompanied with a clunking noise - almost like gear engagement/disengagement. Had it serviced, they replaced the rollers only, very reasonable, and it works like new now.
Thanks. The unit was brand new, so the blades were sharp, the rollers and bed were theoretically perfect.
All other woods seem fine, it's just the plantation grown mahog that trips it up. Hand feeding solved the issue, but......
a note on the planer. Have you seen chip output of that unit? It's like a jet engine!Jake Gulick
[email protected]
CarriageHouse Design
Black Rock, CT
Perhaps the mahogany has a certain amount of oils or extractives that are 'slippery' against the rollers. I've planed some 4/4 and 12/4 African Mahogany on my 733, but this wood was well seasoned - it's been in my shop for many years.
You're right about the chip output. I warn helpers against standing too close to the outboard side. Wish I had a dust collection system.
On your Dewalt /Emglo compressor issue. When I reread the post, I was struck by the similarity to problems I had with a "Speedaire' compressor that I have. Your description of problem was very similar to symptoms I had with this 1.5 HP / 5 Gal unit. Unit worked like a champ for years. This past summer, developed intermittent startup stalling. First with longer 12GA Extension cords, and then even directly on some outlets. This was an intermittent issue, and there did not seem to be a discernable pattern. The cause of the problem smacked me in the face when the unit failed entirely and would not run the motor at all. Diagnostics quickly revealed that the problem was a failed wire connection inside the molded plug. 120 V was not getting to the pressure switch. Replacement plug addressed the startup issue entirely. Problem likely caused by helpers yanking out the plug by the wire. I would surmise that given high startup loads, as an increasing number of the 12 GA strands failed, this created a localized 'voltage drop' bottleneck. Could be a long shot that you have a similar condition, but might be worth checking.
Edited 10/18/2005 8:09 am ET by esanborn
I WISH it was the plug, LOL. Sadly it's perfecto! I'll double check though..thanks for the idea!Jake Gulick
[email protected]
CarriageHouse Design
Black Rock, CT
Wanted to thank you all for your honest opinions...I understand Hitachi makes good tools...it's just that the C10FCE has a very small table and footprint, weighs very little and seems too fragile. Bosch seems to be more focused on the SCMS market...my needs is a 10" CMS but Bosch does make a 20" CMS. Read the CPSC recall on the early DW704 and 705s...did DeWalt have right handed threads on the arbor shaft??? Anyways...mounted the Diablo on my first Taiwanese tool...a DW703 and finished its first job. I've got 30 days on the exchange policy...job #2 next week... the Bosch 3912 looks promising but will be a special order...Thanks all
rustbucket
Might want to try Heavydutytools.net and take a look at the Makita LS1013. I used the hitachi in the cabinet shop that I worked at and just bought the Makita. Both really nice saws, but I went with the Makita for the price.
Jeremy