What is a Miter Saw Used For?

One of the things we do a lot of here, at Woodworkers Guild of America, is provide buying advice on tools. One of the tools I want to talk about today, is a miter saw, and we've had some questions come in, about the benefit. What do I do with a miter saw, why do I need one? So, that's what I want to walk you through, today. So, miter saw, can get it's name from the fact, that we can use it to cut miters. So, we might miter picture frames, we might miter frames that are going on other items. Miter being the operation, where we using this part of the saw, and setting the blade to an angle. So, when we do this, depending on your saw, we could cut anywhere from zero as high as maybe 60 degrees. Again, that varies a little bit from model to model, how much we can change here on the angle of the saw. Back here, at that zero position, what happened right there, is the positive step engaged, locked me in at zero. At that zero position, the saw is set to cut a perfect 90, to anything that's up against this fence. So, this is probably, for me, one of my most common application of a miter saw, is squaring an end to make sure it's perfectly perpendicular to an edge. You can never trust that the stuff you get, from a hardwood supplier, or a lumber yard, is perfect when you buy it. You want to make it perfect, in your own shop. So when I make this cut, that's one of the things that's going to happen for me. Really important aspect to remember, while we're looking at this configuration, is that, miter saws are all about cross-cutting, not about ripping. So, you're never going to make a cut in the same direction as the grain on a piece of wood, on a miter saw, that would be a table saw operation. We're only going to use miter saws, strictly for cross-cutting. Now, one of the things we talked about, just a second ago, is our ability to angle the blade. We also have the ability to bevel the blade, and this will change a little bit, from saw to saw, as far as how you make that happen, but in this case, what we're looking at, is a saw that would be considered a compound miter saw. What that means is, we can angle the blade, and we can bevel the blade, that gives us a compound cut. Not every saw will do that, but when you need to make those cuts, it's sure handy, if you have one that is capable of that. Now, when we bring it back to zero, on the bevel, and zero on the angle, let's talk about the style of saw that we have here. If you have a saw that simply goes straight down, toward the bed, like this, you have a miter saw, what some people would refer to as chop saw. If we have a saw that slides out on tracks, and then enters the work, and makes a cut, you have a sliding miter saw. Benefit to the sliding miter saws, is increased capacity. If we have a saw that simply comes straight down, in broad brush strokes there, we have a cross-cut capacity of somewhere around six, maybe eight inches, but somewhere around six inches is probably about as big as you'll be able to cross-cut. When we have a saw that slides and cuts, somewhere around 12, even as much as 13 inches, could be your cross-cut capacity. One thing that's nice about that, kitchen cupboard uppers, typically eleven and a half inches deep, we could cut those case components here, for our cross-cutting on the miter saw, if it's a slider. So, to be real precise, with the particular saw we're looking at here, we have a sliding compound miter saw. Very heavily used for cross-cutting parts perfectly square, on an end. Also, very useful for mitering, like I might do for picture frames or beveling, such as if I wanted to cut a 45 degree end, on this chunk of wood that I have right here. So, a very useful tool to have in the shop, very versatile, it can really add a lot of accuracy to your woodworking.