If you’re a DIY’er, you’ve probably had occasions where you needed a miter saw, mainly if you’ve replaced trim around the house. It’s a must-have tool for anyone looking to improve their cutting technique and speed everything up. Many handymen and professional contractors swear it.
Generally speaking, these saws are excellent for making angled cuts or crosscuts in your piece of work. There are many different styles and features you can choose from. It would help if you weighed all the options before you made your purchase.
Today, we’ll help you find the best miter saw by looking at a few different kinds. There’s the compound miter saw and the sliding compound saw. In addition, we’ll get into some great choices for cordless saws as well as the best option for beginners. If you’re eager to learn the differences between these, don’t worry; we’ll explain everything in detail throughout the reviews!
Table of Contents
The Research
When reviewing the best Miter saws of 2023, we looked at all the products on the market. We needed to whittle things down to the product we believe is the best all-around miter saw for you to buy. So, here are a few of the main things we looked out for:
Cutting Ability/Blade Quality
First and foremost, it needs to get the job done and function correctly. So, we paid great attention to the cutting ability of the saws we looked at. Ideally, a good miter saw is one that you can adjust to various positions. You should be able to switch from one angle to another, which allows you to transition between different cuts with more fluidity and accuracy.
Another thing that impacts the cutting quality is the bevel adjustment. This is what allows your miter saw to tilt and rotate. The best saws offer responsive rotation and tilting that can be done in more than one direction.
The blade also needs to feel locked into place, so it doesn’t move, resulting in a poor cut. The blade sharpness and teeth count are also crucial things to consider. The more teeth a blade has, the finer the cuts will be and the smoother the finish.
Dust Features
We all know that using any saw will result in excess sawdust in the air. This can be dangerous if inhaled, and it can also just be exceedingly messy. So, if you’re looking for the best overall miter saw, you want one with good dust collection features.
Some of the better miter saws out there have dust bags and ports for hooking up to your dust collection system or shop vac. It keeps your workspace clean and means you don’t have pesky sawdust filling the air.
Safety Features
It’s vital that your miter saw is safe to use. As a result, we paid close attention to the safety features included in all the products we reviewed. Things like saw guards and super-fast brakes help reduce the risk of accidents when using these saws.
Because all power tools have some risk, it’s always important to respect the machine and never become complacent. You’re not scared of your saw, but you understand the risk and always pay attention to where your hands are in relation to the blade. Appropriate safety features will allow you to feel more confident making cuts with your miter saw.
Bonus Features
The top miter saws will often tick the right boxes for cutting ability, blade quality, dust collection, and safety. So, what tips the scales in favor of one over another is the range of bonus features it can boast. Miter saws can have laser attachments that guide you when using them, vastly improving your accuracy and speed. Clear-cutting guards are a popular feature as they let you see what you’re doing and can further enhance your skill.
Price
Of course, we have to consider the cost or value for money. It’s common to assume that the most expensive miter saw must be the best. However, it could be costly purely because of the brand name or have features that aren’t necessary for your specific needs. Likewise, you want to ensure that you get a saw that performs well and has essential safety features. Instead, we look at the price to see if the saw is worth every penny and provide you with excellent value for money.
After weighing all these things up, it lets us narrow the search and find the best options on the market.
Compound Miter Saws
A compound miter saw is one of the two main varieties of miter saws. With a compound miter saw, you can pivot the blade. This means it can move from left to right, letting you get some accurate angled cuts. As such, a compound Miter saw is essential for anyone that works on projects where angled cuts are necessary, such as cutting molding or picture frames.
You get an improved range of motion with a compound miter saw, and making two different cuts in the same piece of wood on multiple planes is very easy.
When looking for the best compound miter saw, we narrowed the options by looking at the same things discussed in the research section above. But, there’s particular emphasis on the pivoting ability as this is the critical feature of this type of miter saw.
If you want to see our top picks, then check out the reviews below:
Best 12 Inch Compound Miter Saw
DIY
PRO
Best 10 Inch Compound Miter Saw
DIY / PRO
Sliding Compound Miter Saws
Lastly, there’s the sliding compound miter saw. With this version, you have a product that can pivot to different miter angles, but it also has a sliding feature. The good news is that this is easy to understand once you know what a compound miter saw is.
With a sliding compound miter saw, you can extend the saw blade further and cut along wider pieces of wood. This makes it ideal for people who are likely to make wide crosscuts consistently without turning the lumber over to meet the cut on the other side. You would need to work with wider pieces of wood, such as 2×12″+, to see the benefits of this sliding feature.
If you are looking for a sliding compound miter saw, then these are our top picks:
Best 12 Inch Sliding Compound Miter Saw
DIY
* Check out our article on other Wen tools we’ve tested and reviewed.
PRO
TIGHT SPACES
Best 10 Inch Sliding Compound Miter Saw
DIY
PRO
Cordless Miter Saws
Cordless miter saws have become extremely popular in recent years, mainly because of their ease of setup and mobility. Contractors and handypersons alike have found that moving the miter saw from room to room without relying on a power source is a huge bonus.
Most cordless miter saws range from 7-1/4″ to 10″ blades. You’re not going to cut 4×4″ posts in one pass with either of these blade sizes. However, this is only a limitation if you plan to make large crosscuts or chop very thick lumber.
Let’s dig into a couple of the best cordless miter saws on the market.
Best 10 Inch Cordless Miter Saw
DIY / PRO
Best 7-1/4 Inch Cordless Miter Saw
DIY / PRO
Miter Saws For Beginners
When looking at the best miter saw for beginners, you’ll want to consider a couple of things, ease of use and safety features.
Ease of Use
It’s important to note that, as a beginner, you’re not necessarily looking for a stripped-down, featureless miter saw. You want something you can learn from, and having some extra features can help develop your skills. That being said, you also want to find a saw that is easy to operate and make miter and bevel adjustments for your cuts.
Safety Features
If you’re in the market for a beginner miter saw, there are some essential safety features that you’ll want to look for. You’ll find the most critical safety features in newer miter saws, but if you’re looking at used saws, you’ll want to ensure they have the basics, mainly if the saw is old. These safety features include a blade guard, electric brake, trigger safety, and clamps to hold your workpiece securely.
BEST FOR BEGINNERS
Conclusion
Finding the perfect miter saw for your specific needs can be challenging with so many options available. We hope that you found this article informative and helpful in your search. The key is to determine what projects you plan to take on and find a saw that will meet or exceed them. You don’t always have to spend top dollar to get a great saw. There are many budget-friendly options that will help take your projects to the next level.
If you’ve had a great experience with another miter saw not mentioned in our review, we’d love to hear about it! Please comment below and let us know.
Last update on 2023-12-06 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
