Craftsman 71/4 in sliding miter

Collapse
X
Collapse
  •  

  • Craftsman 71/4 in sliding miter

    I often make furniture for my home and family. I have a larger miter saw but it is too big and heavy to easily move around and I have a small shop space to deal with. I had an old 8-1/4 Delta miter saw that died after 20 years of faithful service that I would often pull out to use, instead of the 12 incher. I missed that little guy and saw the Craftsman 7-1/4 sliding miter on sale for 99.00. It is usually about 169.00. The small blade is fine for one inch material that I usually use and it will cut 2 inch masterial as will a circular saws blade. It tracks very smoothly, and holds its settings well. The small blade is relatively stiff due to its smaller diameter and cheap to replace. It came well packed and all settings were dead on out of the box. I find myself using this saw more and more, due to its decent cutting action and light weight and small size. It is much quieter than the larger saw as well, so nice to use when family is around and I am in the shop working. They have been getting good reviews as well. Seems like Sears has moved to better tools for a reasonable price, as until recently I found them overpriced and lacking in quality/features even at thier sale prices. I purchased thier new router line and they have been getting great reviews, are priced very well and I have grown to really appreciate them. I am not made of money and cant pay high dollars for top end tools for everything I buy. There is a need for a good tool at a middle price for many of us. I see some people just swoon over the top end stuff out there but not everyone has that luxury . Sears seems to be working to bring the Craftsman name back to a level of respectability. As most people know the bigger table saws are put out by a division of Steel City, and when on sale are a good value. I own one and love it. If you need a handy saw that is easy to tote and doesnt take a large foot print, check this little saw out as it is not just a toy. The 12 inch Dewalt is gathering a lot of dust now but still glad I have it. This new saw is pretty sturdy as well, it came out of the box in good shape, needing no adjustments. A child in my shop one day was "helping me" and when walked by it, his arm brushed it and knocked off of my work bench to a concrete floor. Nothing broke, knocked out of alignment or let me know it fell other than his look of horror followed by the typical adult question 'what did you do" and he fessed up.
    Attached Files

    • tellittojake
      #5
      tellittojake commented
      Editing a comment
      Update and response

      While any person purchasing a new tool should take into account various opinions, I wanted to update my experience with this saw. The whole purpase of this purchase was to have a lighter weight, portable saw. For people like me who do not have much space, lugging around 10 and 12 inch sliders is a real pain. I think most would agree, in general 10 and 12 sliders are large and heavy tools. It is not a Makita or Bosch and shouldn't be expected to match their tolerances, but that does not mean it isn't a decent tool. There is play in the head of any slider, so less movement is certainly a consideration but I have not found this to be excessive. My 90 cuts on oak for many cabinet doors that I have made with it, have been true enough that after routing with stile and rail bits, the mating pieces fit nicely without any gap. Not everyone can afford the high end of tools these days, especially when setting up a shop, so medium line of tools is appreciated. Certainly a cut above HF but not prohibitive like Bosch. I put in the reference to the fall, to show its durability. It was not plugged in, it was on the end of the workbench and any saw that was caught on the front screw lock of a slider by a shoulder of a person could rotate the average saw. For blades I have been using Makita- their General Contractor and Framing 7.25 blades have 15 degrees. Their 7.25 and 8.25 inch, 40 tooth fine crosscutting blades have 20 degrees. I have found their general line of 24 tooth 7.25's to work great on it and they are all less than 20 dollars. With many months of use on this saw, it still performs like a champ.

    • Larry Strawson
      #6
      Larry Strawson commented
      Editing a comment
      I have the Craftsman professional 8 1/4, and I really like it. Would not trade it for anything, cept maybe a cold beer :-)

    • Kavoom
      #7
      Kavoom commented
      Editing a comment
      Sears dual bevel 12 miter saw

      http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_00921235000P

      I like the Sears stuff. Good value if you do your research first. I"ve been intrigued by that small unit. I've had my saw for about four years now and have done two houses with crown molding and one kitchen remodel and a couple of simple landscape jobs. I put it on a HD clearanced 99 buck Rigid portable stand and it works great. You can get it as low as 269 upon occasion and doubled up discounts. I believe Wood workers magazine gave it a best bet a few years ago. It's a versatile beast but on that stand when put it up the footprint is only a couple of feet square and it will set up in five minutes, good to go. The dual bevel is nice. It led me here ultimately when I saw the limitations of a miter saw and here led me back to the Sears Bt3 clone 21829.
    Posting comments is disabled.

Latest Articles

Collapse

  • A review of the Kreg Precision Trak & Stop Kit
    by twistsol

    Summary
    I built my miter station last summer and used the Kreg Precision Trak & Stop Kit. The kit was just the starting point. 8 feet of track and a single flip stop didn’t meet my needs since I was building a miter station the width of my shop, nearly 24 feet. I added four 48” pieces of top track and three additional swing stops so I could have two left and two right. Finally, I added metric rules to the top. Total cost breakdown is as follows
    ...
    03-23-2022, 02:59 PM
  • Review of VIX-type Self Centering drill bits
    by LCHIEN
    I have always had trouble mounting small hardware on small wood boxes, with the hasps and hinges always looking slightly off perfectly square - particularly a problem with flat head screws and countersunk hardware which aligns the hardware to the hole location and centers on the hole.

    I'm talking small wood screws. I place and mark the hardware carefully and mark the center of the hole with a sharp awl.
    The problem comes about with small bits like 1/16 and 5/64 and 3/32"...
    08-30-2021, 12:18 AM
  • Grizzly Overarm Blade Guard review.
    by twistsol
    Since my new shop is in the basement, dust collection is a bit more important than when I had my own building and could do as I pleased in the shop. With that in mind, I upgraded the dust collection on my table saw. I purchased the Grizzly Overarm Blade Guard to use with the saw.

    First impressions were that this is an extremely solid and well built unit. It's made mostly of steel and connects to a 4" DC hose. There were a number of issues getting it set up and installed, and a...
    07-26-2021, 03:47 PM
  • Kreg KMA 3220 5mm Shelf Pin Jig
    by twistsol



    I decided to look for the rock bottom cheapest 32mm drilling system available that would let let me create real 5mm holes spaced 32mm apart, that was easy to use, and didn’t require a bunch of setup time. I’m really surprised at how much I like this little Keg jig especially when you consider the price of $34.99, and it has everything included. There were a couple of jigs cheaper but you needed to buy a self-centering 5mm bit to go along with them so they would...
    03-19-2021, 05:57 PM
  • Knife marking pencil Accutrax
    by LCHIEN
    Here's a tool I found useful for marking. Accutrax pencil blade marking knife.



    I have one I've been using on and off for a while. Its a fine pencil lead in the shape of a utility blade that can be installed in any utility knife handle and used with a straight edge, combination square, saddle square etc. to mark easily seen, fine lines on wood..

    Here's mine. I have not broken it, it seems to be quite sturdy. The sharp edge lasts a long time. I'm still on the...
    01-14-2021, 03:25 AM
  • Saddle squares
    by LCHIEN
    Hey, I'm sharing one of my favorite tools. A Veritas Saddle Square. Actually I have two in different sizes. This is the large size for marking 2x4 and 4x4 (shown on 4x4 here). One of those tools that makes woodworking a pleasure.



    They're great for continuing lines from side to side. And even side to opposite side.
    Works really well when the board has a rounded edge or some wane where the edge is not really sharp and square but the two adjacent faces are square to...
    01-13-2021, 02:20 AM

The SawdustZone Statistics

Collapse

Topics: 61,301   Posts: 558,646   Members: 20,641   Active Members: 68
Welcome to our newest member, bocagaragedoorrepair.

What's Going On

Collapse

There are currently 3805 users online. 4 members and 3801 guests.

Most users ever online was 15,771 at 02:28 PM on 04-26-2024.

Working...