Tools and Tool Buying

[info2002kr]

Hi,

I bought the Makita LS1216 compound mitre saw a few weeks ago and I have a few probs with it, which I thought could be answered here. I like this saw plenty of powe, it's quiet and slows down fast after the cut. But! I have found when changing cutting positions the indicators are not accurate. Actually when I first set it up for a straight cut it was not straight, I had it set to 0 degrees, also the same problem when cutting 45 degrees. Its become a problem. Also its blowing chips out of the back cut. 

So when I need to make accurate cuts I have to use a roofing square to line it up and a 45 degrees triangle which takes up time and I thought should not have to be done with a toll like this.

Am I missing something here? I thought it would have pre-set lock (groove or something) at these points (o and 45 degrees).  Am I doing something wrong?

Cheers,

Nathan

[ynoT]

Yes, most saws have preset spots at 90, 45, 30, and 22.5.

Maybe yours got moved in shipping. It's always good to check everything on new tool before using it. Nothing is given.

Call them and ask questions. They will replace it if found to be defective.

Tony

[mathisonr1]

Your owners manual should tell you everthing that you need to know about tuning up your saw. Makita is a high quality professional tool and you should not have any of those issues Except for the saw dust blowing out the back, that's what power miter saws do. If you can't get it tuned up, call their customer service.

[info2002kr]

Cheers Rick,

I'll go over the manual again. Also I mean to say, when I was fine cutting at 45 degrees, the back of the cut was splintering the wood and ruinning the apperance some what. Perhaps I could buy a finer blade, as most of my work is for furniture. Or place a wooden block against the fence to try and stop the splintering.

[mathisonr1]

A finer blade will help. Attatching a backer board will all but cure the problem. Until the blade that came with the saw needs replacing, I'd install a backer board. Also, slow down the speed that your feeding the saw into the wood.

[info2002kr]

It appears the pre-settings are out by a few degrees, defective. So I've set it manually 90 degrees (square cut) with a roofing square and adjusted the plastic indicator to zero degrees and tightened it. Also now when I cut at 45 degrees its perfect. Thanks guys for the feed back, got me thinking.

Nathan

[nlkirchn]

Sorry for the late response I don't look at these very often.

My Makita was the same out of the box.  The solution was to re-set the fence.  There are 4 bolts that hold it in place, loosen the two at the right side just enoungh for the fence to move, the fence will pivot on the far right bolt.  Loosen the two on the left side of the fence, with the saw indexed at the positive 0 degree stop use a drafting square or any other square you know to be accurate and aglign the fence square to the blade and snug the left bolt down first and snug the rest, recheck that it is still square and tighten everthing down.  The 45 degree stop will be accurate now as well.  Adjust the pointer to Zero. Hope this helps, I cut some very expensive crown badly before I realized it wasn't cutting square.