Sliding Miter Saw - Make Accurate Cuts

A miter saw (also called as mitre saw and less commonly miter box) is a mechanical tool used for making accurate crosscuts and miters in a workpiece. There are two types of miter saws commonly found. These are manual miter saw and a motorized miter saw. The first miter saw ever made in the world was a manual miter saw.

It is a saw having replaceable blades suspended on rollers in a metal guide which allows making of accurate crosscuts and miter cuts. These are more commonly used in picture framing, but have now been replaced by its power operated counterpart. The manual miter saw is also the sliding miter saw.

The motorized miter saw which is operated on power is also called as chop saw or drop saw. It is a power operated tool that is used to make quick, accurate, crosscuts in a work piece. This power tool is commonly used in framing operations and cutting of molding. Most of these miter saws are portable with blade sizes ranging from eight to twelve inches. This saw works by pulling a circular saw blade down onto a work piece in a short controlled motion, the work

piece being held against a fence. This fence provides an accurate cutting angle between the blade and the longest work piece edge. In a standard position this angle is fixed at 90 degrees. The primary feature that distinguishes this saw from others is its miter index that allows the angle of the blade to be altered relative to the fence.

Whereas most miter saws provide a facility to make a one degree incremental change to the miter index, many also provide stops that allow the miter index to be properly set to common angles of repose like 15 degrees, 30 degrees or 45 degrees. Some salient features of the sliding miter saws are as under:

- A compound feature allows the angle of the cutting blade to be altered relative to the cutting plane. This also allows the saw to be used for bevel cutting. A saw with a compound feature is called as compound miter saw or CMS.

- A slide allows the cutting blade to be moved several inches along the cutting plane, which in turn allows the cutting blade to make cuts which are longer than the diameter of the blade. A slide which combines the features of slide and compound miter saw is called as sliding compound miter saw or SCMS.

- A laser guide gives the exact indication of where the cut will be made in the work piece in the arrangement.

- A blade guard is a cover for the sharp teeth of the cutting blade. Most modern saws have a self retracting blade guard, which automatically retract when the blade is lowered onto a work piece and re-cover the blade when it is raised.

- A dust bag is directly connected to the saw, which helps to collect the sawdust directly away from the work piece when cutting.

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