Jane seems to think I’ve got a lot of power tools but I certainly don’t have all of them (or room for all of them!). One that is missing from my collection is a mitre saw (also known as a chop saw). The blade mechanism is similar to a circular saw but held in a housing that constrains where it will go, making it both safer and easier to make repeated identical cuts.
I was able to borrow one from a friend recently for a job I was doing but I decided to take it back today even through I’ve still got another couple of rounds to do. I had three main problems with the device in practise:
- It is very bulky – with the space needed for movement along the arm, it was too large to use inside the shed and blocked up the space in there while being stored
- The wood I was using was quite small and tended to splinter badly – I wonder if the unit would be better for two by fours and similar sized lumber (which is what my friend had made good use of it for)
- I wasn’t doing lots of repeated cuts but lots of measuring and fitting, so I wasn’t gaining a lot from the repeatability benefits.
It was good to be able to use the tool but I think I’ll stick to the ones I’ve got for the job in hand and strike a mitre saw off my inner wishlist unless I start on some quite different woodworking tasks.