Aggrajag
Established Member
Hi all,
As discussed on here previously I recently bought the Metabo KGS216M on Amazon Prime Day but I've only had chance to try it out for an hour as I've been on holiday.
Some discussion was also made here bought-a-sliding-compound-mitre-saw-t99007.html regarding blades but as it was someone else's thread I didn't want to continue there.
Mini-review
I've never used a saw like this before, or anything mitre-like, so as a complete amateur to this sort of device I had a nightmare following the woeful instruction manual and it took me an age to discover there was a transport lock which was preventing me from lifting the saw. It's obvious when you know what it's for, not so easy when you've never seen one before. Attaching the side plates and the clamp were pretty simple with a bit of common sense.
So on Sunday I dug out a few planks of pallet wood and set to testing blade alignment out in the garden, using the small dust bag for collection, along with face mask, goggles and ear defenders.
I accept that I should probably have been conducting my tests on wood that had been planed and thicknessed, as minor variances in the wood straightness will have altered my tests somewhat, but I did choose the best pieces I had to hand from a selection of dozens.
I was initially cutting a standard 0 degree cross cut then turning the offcut upside down and holding them together and checking the resultant product was still perfectly level, and then doing the same with joining 2 x 45 degree bevel cuts together to check it's perfectly 90 degrees using a proper carpenters square.
Both bevels were off using the built in gauge and it seems that I have to use 1 degree for 0 degrees and 47 degrees for 45 degrees, I don't know how to adjust this without just using the "wrong" readings but it's not a great problem, just inconvenient.
However on the cross cut I noticed that the mitre was about half a degree off and I can't fix this. The whole saw swivels left and right, as you'd expect, and clicks into place on significant numbers such as 0 and 45 but this makes it impossible to lock at half a degree as it slips and clicks back into 0 everytime. I'm not sure how much of a problem this will end up being but of course it's not perfect.
The dust collection bag did collect a lot of sawdust but the garden and mitre saw collected more, not a problem as typically I'll be using it indoors with my proper extractor.
I couldn't see the laser mark as I was outdoors and it was completely invisible. I can see it when indoors but I've not used the machine there so I can't tell it's accuracy.
The machine feels well made and the controls and slide are smooth and simple to use and it cut through the wood like butter, scarily so.
If anyone has any setup tips then I'll be happy to do a better review after the fact.
As discussed on here previously I recently bought the Metabo KGS216M on Amazon Prime Day but I've only had chance to try it out for an hour as I've been on holiday.
Some discussion was also made here bought-a-sliding-compound-mitre-saw-t99007.html regarding blades but as it was someone else's thread I didn't want to continue there.
Mini-review
I've never used a saw like this before, or anything mitre-like, so as a complete amateur to this sort of device I had a nightmare following the woeful instruction manual and it took me an age to discover there was a transport lock which was preventing me from lifting the saw. It's obvious when you know what it's for, not so easy when you've never seen one before. Attaching the side plates and the clamp were pretty simple with a bit of common sense.
So on Sunday I dug out a few planks of pallet wood and set to testing blade alignment out in the garden, using the small dust bag for collection, along with face mask, goggles and ear defenders.
I accept that I should probably have been conducting my tests on wood that had been planed and thicknessed, as minor variances in the wood straightness will have altered my tests somewhat, but I did choose the best pieces I had to hand from a selection of dozens.
I was initially cutting a standard 0 degree cross cut then turning the offcut upside down and holding them together and checking the resultant product was still perfectly level, and then doing the same with joining 2 x 45 degree bevel cuts together to check it's perfectly 90 degrees using a proper carpenters square.
Both bevels were off using the built in gauge and it seems that I have to use 1 degree for 0 degrees and 47 degrees for 45 degrees, I don't know how to adjust this without just using the "wrong" readings but it's not a great problem, just inconvenient.
However on the cross cut I noticed that the mitre was about half a degree off and I can't fix this. The whole saw swivels left and right, as you'd expect, and clicks into place on significant numbers such as 0 and 45 but this makes it impossible to lock at half a degree as it slips and clicks back into 0 everytime. I'm not sure how much of a problem this will end up being but of course it's not perfect.
The dust collection bag did collect a lot of sawdust but the garden and mitre saw collected more, not a problem as typically I'll be using it indoors with my proper extractor.
I couldn't see the laser mark as I was outdoors and it was completely invisible. I can see it when indoors but I've not used the machine there so I can't tell it's accuracy.
The machine feels well made and the controls and slide are smooth and simple to use and it cut through the wood like butter, scarily so.
If anyone has any setup tips then I'll be happy to do a better review after the fact.
