Dewalt DW718 Double Bevel Compound Slide Mitre Saw Review

“OK for site work. But, a little disappointed in this...”

Written on: 29/06/2008 by knoba (38 reviews written)

Good Points
Depth of cut - it uses a 305mm blade and for straight cross cuts I can just get a 95mm x 95mm in its throat (4"x4" prepared), before the blade centre fouls on the wood.

Width of cut - I can straight cut a 12"x1.5" p/p no problem, but had to take two hits when doing cross cut mitres on the same wood.

Bad Points
I found the machine flimsy unlike all my other Dewalt tools, which leads me to believe that DeWalt are perhaps over stepping their product range.

General Comments
OK for site work. But, a little disappointed in this offering from DeWalt. My smaller DW707 is very sturdy, which this saw lacks and I find a lot of movement in the saws rigidity when stressed even slightly. It leads to some run-out on cuts decreasing the accuracy of cuts. Not such a problem for site work, but for furniture making; not so hot!

It's heavy and relatively unwieldy.

Without a doubt the messiest saw I have ever used. The dust extraction system is useless (I haven't tried it with an extractor attached) - the saw covers "everything" in saw dust, as there is no easy dust exit path, making the saw very hard to clean after the job because of its complex shapes containing a lot of dust traps. The table bed and slides have to be regularly checked to ensure wood dust is not fowling the accuracy of cuts and slide operations.

Expensive bearing in mind the above points.