I totally disagree with all of the negative reviews posted. The saw I received had none of the defects mentioned. The accuracy is excellent and I can make repeated cuts that are accurate enough for fine carpentry. Mechanical actions are all silky smooth. The bevel can be set to precise settings. All of the controls are placed logically and are right where you would expect to find them. The sawdust collector works well. I would buy the item again and I ‘ ve already recommended it to several friends. The item arrived a couple days early.Reviews of DEWALT DW718 Heavy-Duty 15 Amp 12-Inch Dual Bevel Sliding Compound Miter Saw

I ‘ ve owned this saw for about a year and I continue to be impressed with it ‘ s quality, ease of use and accuracy. I own a small cabinet shop and bench – mounted this saw to cut everything from face frames to intricate crowns. The indents were absolutely accurate right out of the box, and I especially appreciate the ease of locking in any angle. My shop space is limited and being able to mount the saw only 17 – 1 / 2 ” from the fence to the back wall is a real bonus. Because of it ‘ s size and weight I ‘ d think twice about using it as a portable saw, but as a bench mounted unit it can ‘ t be beat.Reviews of DEWALT DW718 Heavy-Duty 15 Amp 12-Inch Dual Bevel Sliding Compound Miter Saw

I been a woodworker for 47 + years. Reading some of the reviews of this saw, I must be either very lucky or Dewalt has made improvements. I used a DW 716 for two years and liked it so much that I bought the DW718 three years ago to replace a 20 yr old Delta CMS, even after reading the poor accuracy reviews. I have not had the accuracy or quality problems described by some. I haven ‘ t had any problem with it maintaining accuracy from one cut to the next and it is my most used shop tool. I should note that my saw leads a sheltered existence. I leave it attached to the DW 723 stand in my shop and rarely move it although I have taken it to several job sites to trim out houses.
I also admit that I check and adjust it if needed at the start of each job as I was taught to do with all my tools by a crackerjack cabinet lord 45 years ago. I have to adjust it far less than either my table or radial arm saw.
The only thing I dislike about it the poor dust collection. I ‘ ve found it halfway impossible to coadunate the dust port to my central collection system. When I jury – rigged a connection, it didn ‘ t work well enough to justify the dilemma.
One last thought. I got a really good deal ( under $400 ) on my DW718 so I am not just defending a tool I paid too much for as a few of the less happy reviewers have suggested.Reviews of DEWALT DW718 Heavy-Duty 15 Amp 12-Inch Dual Bevel Sliding Compound Miter Saw

I am a carpenter by day and operate a small furniture building business nights and weekends. This saw has been with me for 2. 5 + years now and gets used daily for all types of woodworking. Sometimes framing or trim, but mostly cutting parts for fine furniture. The blade that came with it is junk for anything but framing. With a good tune up and a Forrest Chopmaster blade, this saw is capable of doing extremely precision work. The following is a review I posted on a woodworking newsgroup shortly after I purchased the saw. It explains what I was looking for and why I bought the DeWalt:
” Well, after 6 weeks of borrowing co – band saws to trim houses out because
I couldn ‘ t make up my wits on which saw to replace my old 12 ” Ridgid MS, I
made the judgment yesterday to buy a new one. The choices narrowed down to
two, Hitachi ‘ s 10 ” slider, which I ‘ ve used positively. The Bosch 10 ”
slider, which I ‘ ve never actually used, but the upfront bevel lock was worth
putting it at the top of the catalogue. The new 12 ” DeWalt slider, which I
happened across browsing the tool section of HD earlier this week, was a
tardy entry in the running, but worth adding to the brochure.
I went out yesterday to get the Bosch. I own many Bosch tools and have
been very pleased with all of them. After playing with the Bosch a while,
sequentially putting the saw through the motions as I would if I were really
cutting with it, I couldn ‘ t avail thinking about that DeWalt. Decisions,
Decisions, Decisions!!!
Anyway, I decided to drive over to the HD to give the Dewalt a second
look. On the way there, I put together the perfect miter saw in my gray matter,
somewhere combining all the things I ‘ ve liked about saws I ‘ ve used over my
18 years as a carpenter into one perfect saw. Expert I ‘ ll never find this
one, I ‘ m gonna settle for the one that is as close as possible. Here ‘ s the
catalogue:

I was very happy with how accurate the fence on my mitre saw was right out of the box. The saw is still fairly new, but feels very sturdy and powerful to me so far. All of my cuts and projects have turned out great, and this saw has been so much better than my old craftsman saw I owned. I mounted my saw on a Ridgid Mitre Saw Utility Vehicle and like the feel of this setup. If you are a contractor and move your saw around alot, try securing it to the Ridgid MSUV, its a very sturdy platform for a portable stand. I recomend this saw to anyone, I am very pleased to finally have one after wanting it for the past six months. I think there must have been some early problems with the saw. Reading all the reviews, it seems the people all had the same problems more in the begining than they do more recently. I am sorry to all of those people who had a bad experience and did not like the saw. So far I love it! Last… If you are a real woodworker, you would know that the 40 tooth blade it comes with is not something that you use on fine finish work. The 40 toother is just a all around construction blade. If you want smooth razor sharp cuts, you need to start with atleast a 60 tooth – at the least. I prefer an 80 tooth for most furniture and trim work.Reviews of DEWALT DW718 Heavy-Duty 15 Amp 12-Inch Dual Bevel Sliding Compound Miter Saw

I have owned my DW718 for a couple of months now and have not experienced any of the problems other reviewers have mentioned. I have found the saw to be strudy, well constructed and capable of repeated accurate cuts. I have used it to cut everything from crown moulding to large tembers. My saw is rather new so maybe many of the problems of earlier production have been corrected. I am quite pleased.Reviews of DEWALT DW718 Heavy-Duty 15 Amp 12-Inch Dual Bevel Sliding Compound Miter Saw

This saw is excellent, everything anyone could want in a miter saw, including a 14 ” out – of – the – box capacity. But if you want it to produce good results, set it up right.
First of all, if you want to make cuts for fine woodworking, don ‘ t put it on a portable contractor ‘ s stand! I got the DeWalt and it ‘ s going back to the store. Mount the saw on a STURDY work table.
Second, get a real woodworker ‘ s blade. I found a top – of – the – line German 90 – tooth blade, distributed by Amana, place name new for about $60 at a local sharpening shop.
Poll, don ‘ t assume everything is uninterrupted properly right out of the box. I was going maniacal operose to make a good sliding cut through 1 ” x12 ” burgundy… until I checked the blade parallel at 0 degrees. It was off quite a bit! The adjustment is so simple all it took was about a minute with 1 / 2 ” gambol ( supplied ) and a square. ( Both 45 stops were dead – on, as was the miter table. )
Fourth, there ‘ s a procedure to creation a sliding cut with this saw. I pull the slide all the way out, start the saw, letting the start – up torque die out while the blade gets up to speed, plunge slowly, push in slowly until the barricade, then quickly lift the blade out of the wood, release the trigger, and charter the spring lift the blade assembly up. Then Rent THE BLADE COME TO A Lull before doing anything heavier.
For the advantage of clarity, I have removed the blade guard, but this is not suggested.
BTW, there is no trigger lock to deter unexpected prime should you bungle and grab the saw in the misconstrued hole. However, there is a hole for a padlock to lock the saw… so I just drop a large nail into the hole when I ‘ m latitude or altering the tool, and that way the trigger cannot be depressed.
Problems? My biggest scorn is that there ‘ s just no zone to affix the work to the table. The material accompany supplied does not provide enough catch power, and you can ‘ t even use it when moulding a 45 degree bevel! For wider boards, I can get a ” C ” wed to grip the saw near the termination of the sliding arm, but this is mickeymouse. And narrower boards… play past it. I think I ‘ m going to have to build a duo of custom support tables.
Surplus to say, the dust collection is non – existent, but since everything is so exposed on this type of saw, what could they do?
I also must point out that the ease of the cuts, even with a top – quality blade, do not come close to those made with a consonant – quality blade on a table saw. Plus, there ‘ s generally a shriveled bit of tearout. HOWEVER, just try and do some of the compound bevels on a table saw that this saw does, and you ‘ ll interpret why you need one. The errors – blade parallel, blade perpendicular, miter gauge true – add up quickly on a table saw, especially since you have to circle the work 180 degrees to do the second bevel. And how can you communicate where it ‘ s going to cut, when you ‘ re cutting the front dimension, and your engross line for the inside dimension is contrapositive the table?! Plus, try location an accurate 7 degree bevel, 44 degree miter ( for a box with sides sloped at 10 degrees ) on a table saw! Then doorknob back to a square cut, then back again, etc. Then spending money blades and do a rip. Then set your 7 degree bevel, 44 degree miter again. You ‘ ll be there for a day and nonentity will come out right. With a double – bevel miter saw, just flip over the head, line up the blade inveigh the second reproduce line, and go. It ‘ s done before the blade on the table saw can be cranked to the 45 degree termination!
If I had the space and the wealth for a really good radial arm saw, I probably would have gotten that. But I couldn ‘ t exactly hurl a radial arm saw into my truck and take it to a job site.
I paid $566 for the saw and got a free pneumatic finish nailer. ( The table and the laser are going back. ) Plus I spent $60 on a good blade. So for $620 ( plus 8 % tribute treasure to the Appalling ) I have a great tool that will enable me to do all sorts of craven stuff without the badger I used to encounter troublesome to do it on a table saw. Plus it seems to be built like the plain cistern. Plus it takes up less space than a router table.Reviews of DEWALT DW718 Heavy-Duty 15 Amp 12-Inch Dual Bevel Sliding Compound Miter Saw

I too have just recently purchased the new DW718 double – bevel sliding compound power miter saw. I must say it is totally out standing with it ‘ s real quality, workmanship, and innovations however most of all Accuracy. It would be nice if everything was made in America, but it ‘ s not. My opinion of this saw are based on the product it self and it ‘ s preformance.

The saw that I purchased had no noticeable finish flaws, are measurable head flex. The newly redesigned and located cam – lock work better then the old ones. The newly placed bevel lock handle, no problem for me, I ‘ m 62 years old and I don ‘ t thinker innovations and improvements that makes things better I can still adjust to copper. So far I ‘ ve had no jams are stick with any of the adjustments.

I got a great deal on a DW718 last week at the big orange box store. I bought the saw even after reading the negative reviews on this website and I ‘ m glad I did. I mounted this saw on the Ridgid MSUV stand and bought the laser and crown stops for it.

It took me about an hour or so to set up the saw, constitute the laser an tweak the settings for both. The adjustments are easy and dead on now. The laser is decent and will be great for quickly building decks, pergolas, and the like. You ‘ ll still want to view fine cuts for furniture and the like.

I purchased the new DeWalt DW718 shortly after receiving an introductory DVD of the new 12 ” miter saws sent to me by DeWalt. I was impressed by the presentation on the DVD which exhibited the improvements, compact size, larger capacity, ease of miter and bevel adjustment and the new laser alignment system. I ‘ ve had a 10 ” Makita compound slider saw for years and have used it extensively. The limited capacity and lack of a laser alignment sight were serious drawbacks. I ‘ ve held off buying a new saw until now because none of the newer saws had that much of an improvement to justify replacing my old Makita. After seeing the DVD and personally examining and playing with the saw in a ” Big Box Store, ” I decided the improvements justified the purchase. Another deciding factor was the smaller footprint and table height. My old Makita was mounted to a roll – around workstation with folding wings to support long material. I hated to give up the old workstation and build a new one. To my surprise the new DW718 easily fit my existing workstation, and the table height was exactly the same. All I had to do was remove the Makita, align the fence of the DW718 to the fence on the extension wings of the workstation and bolt it down. I was back in business in no time. I installed the laser alignment sight and took great pains to set the three adjustment Allen screws correctly to insure maximum accuracy.