# Forum Home Renovation Tools & Products  Swarts tools SCMS

## Lovey

Evening all,
after convincing myself that I 'need' a sliding compound mitre saw to help with the completion of my deck project, I bought one from Swarts Tools here: Swarts Tools 305mm 12" Sliding Compound Mitre Saw Belt Driven Double Bevel Drop Saw (SW1045) - Swarts Tools.
I checked this forum out for any information prior to purchase and didn't see any reviews, apart from a mention of one on the woodwork forum which wasn't very glowing.  For my projected usage and that I'm not using it in an professional capacity, I thought it was good value for money. 
I'm certainly not a carpenter, but I'm pretty handy with tools and I'm happy to give some feedback on it if anyone is interested.  The only problem is that I don't know what should I be looking for in one of these tools, and what would be a good series of 'tests' that I can run it through to see if it's up to scratch?
Thanks in advance,
Steve.

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## METRIX

$399 is very cheap for a 12" SCMS with 3 year warranty, interested to see how it stands the test of time, The best "test" you can do is use it, if you don't know much about SCMS they it would be hard to compare the accuracy / useability of it to another unit. 
At 18Kg for a 12" SCMS, theres not a lot of metal in that, unless they have discovered some very light material that nobody else has, belt drive is nice, I have a 12" Hitachi belt drive and it's a nice saw to use.  
I tend to steer requests that want a cheaper SCMS for home use to go for the Bosch Green, at $373 it's a good value saw, it's reliable, cuts accurately, and at 10" will do 99% of any job they could imagine, only down sides are it's noisier than most and heavy, and does not have stops at the common angles, but it is a DIY product apart from that a good unit.  Bosch 1800W 250mm Sliding Mitre Saw I/N 6200251 | Bunnings Warehouse

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## Lovey

Thanks for your reply Metrix, I know the adage of 'you get what you pay for', so I may well get bitten on the butt with this one, but the 3 year warranty gives me plenty of time to check it out.  The specs say that its net weight is 18kg, but in the product description it says that that it has a lightweight body of 23kg, must be some special light weight material indeed  :Biggrin: . 
When I asked about some tests, I thought you might have some special tricks up your sleeve to put it through its paces, like in the following post:   

> In relation to any SCSM, I have attached some pics of outdoor table I am currently building, the cuts were done with a Bosch Blue series, as you can see the results are basically spot on, no change in depth from cut to cut, and you can make the cuts very fine something a cheap saw cannot do accurately, a quick clean with a chisel and the results are all the same. 
> This is the difference between a cheap saw and a good quality one (and blade), you won't achieve the accuracy on a cheap saw, and the results won't be repeatable.
> Repetability is mandatory when making furniture or fitouts with tight tolerences. 
> All this was done on a 10", the 7 1/4 Makitas I have are even better, with a good saw, you should be able to cut the timber, and put the cut back together and almost not see it.

  Very impressive, I'll give that a try to see how it goes.
Thanks again,
Steve.

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## METRIX

> Thanks for your reply Metrix, I know the adage of 'you get what you pay for', so I may well get bitten on the butt with this one, but the 3 year warranty gives me plenty of time to check it out.  The specs say that its net weight is 18kg, but in the product description it says that that it has a lightweight body of 23kg, must be some special light weight material indeed . 
> When I asked about some tests, I thought you might have some special tricks up your sleeve to put it through its paces, like in the following post:   
> Very impressive, I'll give that a try to see how it goes.
> Thanks again,
> Steve.

  Yeah the 3 year warranty is good, all you can do is give it a go, most saws will be somewhat accurate (accurate enough for the average DIY'ER project) 
If you were after super accuracy, robustness to take constant transportation and reliablity for trade use you would be looking at a different range of saws,
For your use of a deck or two plus home use it should be fine, any saw will (or should) work accurately straight out of the box, and should have fine adjustments to adjust for any inaccuracies. 
A saw that is adjusted correctly, is then only as good as the blade you put on it, and most blades out of the box won't be as good as an after market blade.
The robustness of the saw comes into play if it keeps it's accuracy after being used for a while, or if readjustment is necessary then this can be a real pain, as you never trust the accuracy of it. 
This is easily checked by cutting the biggest piece of timber (depth) it can handle and putting a square on it to check its cutting accuracy, then cut one the longest width at the zero point and agian check it with a square. 
All sides should be perfect (or close enough for a DIY job), if it's not, then read the manual, it should have tell you how to adjust if anything is not right. 
Funny I should say read the manual, we all know males tend to not read the manual for anything, of all the SCMS I have had over the years, (I think i'm on my ninth or tenth one currently, from either wearing them out or on selling them to buy a newer model), the only one I ever had to read the manual for was a 10" Makita, as it was not accurate out of the box, and always had various problems including keeping it's accuracy, until I eventually got rid of it, with no intention of buying another Makita SCMS again, they just don't build them like they used to. 
Every other saw was perfectly adjusted right out of the box, (even my two other small 7 1/4 Makita SCMS were perfect and still are), one of these in particular has been dragged around for years, in and out of the truck, on saw tables, up ladders, and it's cut enough timber to build a football stadium  :Biggrin:   and it has never required any adjustment to keep it's accuracy, now that's a good quality saw. 
Unfortunately Makita shipped the manufacturing of this 7 1/4 300mm SCMS off to China and the quality has now dropped on this saw, a guy I did work for was so impressed with my one he bought one, (mine Japanese his Chinese version) within a very short time the bearings had given up on the mechanism that raised the blade guard, the bearing simply fell apart, now you could say that's a one off, but I know other builders with the original version of the saw and they have all been 100% happy with them, and no failures of anything, it's a shame how Makita put profits ahead of reliabilty, Note: the Chinese version is no cheaper than the Japanese version was.

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## fredgassit

Lovey, 
You might find this useful: NEW Swarts tools 305mm 12" sliding compound mitre saw drop saw

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## OBBob

> Lovey, 
> You might find this useful: NEW Swarts tools 305mm 12" sliding compound mitre saw drop saw

  
Don't do what I almost did and open that review, read the first few posts, conclude it's cr@p and close it. Do scroll to the bottom and read the update from Swarts that says this is a new version and improved.  
Although aftermarket blades are often better a 100 tooth blade is pretty good starting point.

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## Lovey

> Lovey, 
> You might find this useful: NEW Swarts tools 305mm 12" sliding compound mitre saw drop saw

  I had read that Fred, but that review is for an old model which they no longer sell.  I'm quite impressed with the saw so far, it's done everything I've wanted it to do so far with the limited testing I've done with it.
Steve.

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## pippin88

I was wondering how you are finding the saw after a bit more use? 
I'm looking for a SCMS that doesn't have rails sticking too far out the back. So far the Swarts, Bosch GCM12GDL, and Hitachi C12RSH are possibilities. It will be bench mounted in a small shed.

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## justonething

I bought the Swarts a month ago but am still using my old saw. I will set it up tomorrow though to cut some stuff for my balcony, I can let you know if you want

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## justonething

I haven't used it extensively, but did enough to test and calibrate it. I also used it for building my balcony.
The saw came with a 100 teeth saw blade, which gives a very fine cut.
The saw needed a little bit of adjustment for setting 0 deg bevel, but the procedure was reasonably straight forward. The  0 degree mitre seems OK, as do the 45 deg bevel and 45 mitres.
The saw does have a smallish foot print. without the dust bag, it occupies 600 mm from the back of the slide bar to the front mounting feet. There will be another 200 to the kerf plate mounting foot.
The saw starts and runs smoothly, probably due to the belt drive assembly.
The table appears to be sufficiently flat, there is about 2 sheet of papers' thickness between the mitre turn table and fixed blocks on either side.
The slide support bars are not really level with the table though.
I use the stand that I bought with the saw. it is adequate, but not as steady as I'd like.

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