Dewalt’s newish DWS780 12″ double bevel sliding compound miter saw is a very nice machine. I gushed about its XPS work light, and mentioned the saw as part of my top-5 woodworking tools of 2011 list. It may be overkill for less demanding crosscutting tasks, but there’s not much that the saw can’t do.
Pros:
The DWS780 saw is priced at $600, which is on-par with other 12″ sliding miter saws in its class.
Pros:
- huge cutting capacity, up to 16″ width boards with use of back-fence
- XPS work light is amazingly precise and effective
- dust collection, while not perfect, is better than for other saws in this class
- starter blade is quite good for general purpose cuts
- saw was perfectly aligned right out of the box
- rails glide smoothly
- knobs and controls are all easy to access and comfortable to toggle
- saw is a bit too heavy to carry from top handle [the black carry handle, not the yellow operating handle], side handles are slightly uncomfortable
- dust collection still isn’t that good without an attached vac
- small dust bag
- requires more rear clearance than the Bosch Axial Glide saw
The DWS780 saw is priced at $600, which is on-par with other 12″ sliding miter saws in its class.