Sliding Compound mitre saw

[neilricketts]

Hi, i am in need of a new sliding mitre saw that is capable of doing decent trench cutting for around the £200 region. I am going to build me a new log cabin style shed in the new year, so trenching is very important for me. My current mitre has too much play so it cannot do decent trench cuts.
I have seen a Ryobi EMS2026SCL 10" Sliding Mitre Saw - 230v at machinemart and they have a vat free or 10% off this coming weekend. I would like to know if anyone has got, or used this saw and if so have you used it for trenching work.
I would have prefered a proper radial arm saw but unfortunately i cannot get one in my price range at the moment. I know that the new bosch or dewalt saws would probably be better but again they are currently out of my price range.
Any recommendations or if anyone knows of any decent second hand mitre or radial arm saws going i would be interested.

Cheers Neil

 

[trousers]

:shock: :shock:

So are you intending to accurately trench cut round logs with a £200 SCMS?

I'll be interested to see how you get on.

 

[Mcluma]

You are looking at something secondhand

 

[neilricketts]

Hi, the stock will be 6"x2" stock with 2 trenches at each end 1 below the other.

Cheers Neil

 

[neilricketts]

any recommendations would be welcome

 

[trousers]

And there's me thinking that log cabins were made from round logs :roll:

£200 SCMS's are rubbish at trenching accurately, but if you're just going to use it to roughly hog out most of the material, you may as well use your existing saw and spend £5 on a chisel to tidy up.

And by the way, if you're trenching the "logs" with the 6" in the vertical plane, you can forget a SCMS altogether.

 

[Streepips]

What do you cal a "proper" radial arm saw that cannot be had for a £200:00 budget? Plenty of De Walts on the bay less than that.

 

[neilricketts]

Hi, if you look here this is the sort of thing i am going to build in the new year http://dhlogcabins.co.uk/uk/product/85/ ... 4-4-grande
I have looked on ebay but there are not that many radial arm saws available for less than £200 and most are 6 hour round trips for me to fetch.
Looks like the only way i can afford to do it accurately is to make a jig and use my router to do it.

cheers neil

 

[RogerS]

How accurate do you need to be? It's a shed, at the end of the day.

 

[misterfish]

Looking at the 'completed' listings on Ebay at radial arm saws shows quite a lot of decent looking machines that went for way under £200, some for under £100. I got my DW1251 a few years ago with a load of attachments and extras (including a stacked dado set) for about the £200 mark. I had to wait a while for somthing suitable and local to be listed.

Misterfish

 

[Mcluma]

I used my circular saw to do trenching, goes pretty quick,

and that was to do half-lap joints in 150*50

just put two next to each other and off you go,

and actually went faster then using my SCMS

 

[trousers]

So are you trenching with the 6" upright?
I don't know of any SCMS with the capacity to do it. And I think doing them one at a time with even a dado in a RAS will take forever.
Clamp them all together and run a router along a guide? Still tedious.

Are you buying in sawn/par from a timber yard/builders merchant? If so I doubt you'll find (any) enough straight pieces so that when you assemble the shed you get all the "logs" to sit nicely on top of each other. You'll probably have to take a plane to most of them. And then, due to movement, you'll get gaps appearing all over the place. Thats why the ones in your link are machined accurately with a groove down the length (in facory controlled conditions).

As Roger said, it's only a shed. Why not buy the 4" cladding boards that look like logs, and fix them to a stud frame? I bet it will be far cheaper, far more weatherproof, and you can even use your existing SCMS to do it.

 

[Creampuff]

Hi, i am in need of a new sliding mitre saw that is capable of doing decent trench cutting for around the £200 region. I am going to build me a new log cabin style shed in the new year, so trenching is very important for me. My current mitre has too much play so it cannot do decent trench cuts.
I have seen a Ryobi EMS2026SCL 10" Sliding Mitre Saw - 230v at machinemart and they have a vat free or 10% off this coming weekend. I would like to know if anyone has got, or used this saw and if so have you used it for trenching work.
I would have prefered a proper radial arm saw but unfortunately i cannot get one in my price range at the moment. I know that the new bosch or dewalt saws would probably be better but again they are currently out of my price range.
Any recommendations or if anyone knows of any decent second hand mitre or radial arm saws going i would be interested.

Cheers Neil

In my honest opinion I would look into either the Axminster SCMS the one with the induction motor, or the Elektra Beckum (which is almost identicle) cant remember the model number but there are a few on Ebay. Your lookiing at paying around the 250-300 mark though, so a little above your budget but well worth it.

I still have the Ryobi Version you quoted above, and I would highly recommend you stay well away if your after accurate cuts, Its absolutly fine for rough cutting, but for accuracy it requires considarable time to set up as the presets have WaaaaaaaY too much play in them, so plenty of test cuts and fine tuning are needed.

A friend of mine has the Axminster saw I mentioned above, and cannot recomend it enough its a very good saw for the money.

Hope this is of help

Regards

Andy