Question about the Craftsman SCMS

[Powercat80]

I have a chance to buy an almost new but used Craftsman 12" Sliding Compound Miter Saw. Anybody on the board have any experience with this saw compared to the Dewalt, Ridgid, etc.? Any comments would be helpful. Thanks

[sweensdv]

Well, the Ridgid 12" slider is made by OWT which is the parent company of Ryobi so basically I suppose you could say it's made at a Ryobi factory. I know that Ryobi makes at least some of the miter saws for Sears Craftsman line. There have been some issues with the accuracy of the Ridgid slider. Now I'm not saying that the Craftsman also has accuracy issues but it's an area that you may well want to check out before you buy this saw.

I happen to own a 10" Craftsman regular CMS and IMO it's the worst tool buy I ever made. Definitely didn't do my homework on this purchase. The accuracy when making bevel cuts with it is so suspect that I no longer use it for that purpose. My confidence level with Sears miter saws is not very high so you can take these comments with a grain of salt. Actually I have no confidence in miter saws that are badged Craftsman, Ridgid or Ryobi. All three can cut angles but don't ask them to do more than that and be accurate but that's just my .02¢ worth.

Save up you money and buy either the 10" or 12" Makita, you won't be sorry. The DeWalt's aren't bad either.

[bthere]

I had the 12" SCMS for quite a while and never had serious problems with it. It took a bit of time to get it set up to my satisfaction, but it seemed to hold the setup pretty well. I very rarely used it for anything but crosscuts and miter cuts. Like the Dewalt that I'm using, it could be made to flex if you put lateral pressure on it. With a little care in how you moved the head, you can get very accurate cuts.

I have several frames of various sizes with mitered corners that came out perfectly with no tweaking needed to get them to fit and have the frame come out square.

Overall, I thought the Craftsman 12" SCMS that I had was a good tool. I guess it's possible that my experience was the exception rather than the rule. If you can test it, you may be able to see how well that particular one will perform. I would look for straight fence, no excessive play in any of the mechanism, etc.