I don't know what you mean by "better" but I would certainly not
include Dewalt (or Black & Decker and since B&D bought them, Porter
Cable) in a "better" category. I had 12" Dewalt, hated it, gave it
to my son-in-law and then bought a Makita LS1013. I think it is
definitely worth the extra money.

Don't buy cheap and then have to buy again.

G.S.

On Mon, 27 Apr 2009 12:48:11 -0700, mick mick@work... wrote:

Thanks for the responses. I actually picked one up, got it home and
tried it out and was completely unimpressed. Couldn't get set up
square, the dust bag collected virtually no dust, was a bad experience
that has actually got me reconsidering the slider completely. I
returned it.

It could be I am spoiled by the Makita as it really is a great little
saw- are the "better" sliders comparable, like the Bosch, Dewalt,
Makita, Hitachi? Do they make straight, consistent cuts, do the saws
stay in tune? Or is there a large trade-off in quality for the
convenience of the larger capacity of cut?

I guess I'm wondering if the better sliders are "really" good or if
there is a trade-off on cut quality. I'm not doing brain surgery or
anything but if I'm going to drop $500.00 on a saw i would like to be
confident that I am getting at least as good a saw as I have
already...

cheers!
Mick