Recommendations on a good CMS

[mayerg]

Hello Everyone, I have been learning alot about woodworking and all sorts of things from scanning this board. I think this site is useful and enjoy reading the posts. Many of the people here seem very knowledgable and I respect your opinions.

I am in the market for a good CMS. I am more or less a weekend junky so my usage needs are small but I do like accurate tools. (That's why I bought a BT3100) What insight can you give in a good tool for a respectable price. I am interested in a 12" model (but am open to ideas) and I think that it will give me the best capacity for the money.

What would you recommend?

Thanks in advance for your time.

Gordy

[sacherjj]

I personally went with the Delta 12" Dual Laser. Do a search for SCMS and you will find a few threads with some of the discussion points.

[Roger on the Rock]

I went with the Ridgid 12" non-slider and am very happy with it. I have the stock blade for framing jobs and a Freud 80T for finishing work. I looked at Delta & DeWalt too and they seemed excellent and were in the same ballpark price wise. The Ridgid lifetime service agreement was what pushed me over the edge on this one.

Happy hunting.

Roger

[burrellski]

I picked up the Delta 36-255L 12" Twinlaser for about $225 from amazon on sale a while back. I can't say enough good things about the saw. It needed a little fine tuning, and has been dead-on accurate ever since. Great laser, easy to use, well built, etc....

Whatever you buy, plan on spending some cash on a new blade. The stock delta blade was worthless for anything other than framing, as is the case with most included blades.

[LarryG]

I also have the Delta 36-255L with TwinLasers, and am thoroughly pleased with it. Some will tell you a laser is a useless gimmick, and the ones that are inaccurate surely are; but the Delta system is well engineered and is accurate to an unbelievable degree. Properly adjusted (which is easy to do), you can split a pencil line every time.

Like most people I cannot comment on anything except what I own, but some general points that may help with your decision:

1. At any given price point, you're unlikely to go wrong regardless of brand. That is, one would expect a $300 saw to be better than a $200 saw, but there's likely to be little real difference in quality and accuracy between two $200 saws, or between two $300 saws.

2. The stock blade quality varies. I've read (but again, have no firsthand experience with them) that the stock Bosch and Makita blades are especially nice. The one on my Delta was fairly good, but not great, so I replaced it with a Forrest Chopmaster. If you have to buy a blade for the type of work you want to do, this obviously affects the total price you'll pay.

3. A horizontal handle sure is nice.

4. Play with as many saws as you can in stores. Between them, Lowe's, HD, and Sears will usually have most or all of the most popular models.