In article ,
(Joshua) wrote:

Thanks for your insight, everyone. I have actually had occassion to
use the Dewalt 708 a few times for some rough framing. It worked
really well for that, but I had some reservations about its ability
for precision cuts. The saw seemed to have a bit of lateral play in
the head such that the blade could wiggle a bit. Indeed, at the local
Borg I jiggled the head of the dewalts (they had two) on display, and
both of those were easily persuaded to move back and forth a bit. The
saws I tried jiggling that had horizontal rails seemed a bit firmer.



Interesting. I bought my Dewalt (the 12-inch SCMS) because it had *less*
lateral play than the Makita or Delta or whatever else it was I looked
at. I can't claim that my method of testing was especially scientific
(wiggling the handle with the saw fully up, halfway down, and fully
down, in/out, et al.), but it seems to have worked for me in that the
cuts I get are glass smooth and precisely on the money in terms of
accuracy.

div ="low-level rant"
I'm surprised we haven't heard from the
don't-buy-Dewalt-because-they-make-toasters people in this thread. Well,
Bosch makes toasters and a lot of other small kitchen appliances too,
and I don't think it's hurt their woodworking tools one bit. (Hey! Was
that a pun?!) Low-end Black & Decker is low end Black & Decker, and
Dewalt is Dewalt. If you don't like the color yellow, buy something
else--but like my ancestors say, "There's no such thing as a bad color
on a good horse." But then, Finnish horses do tend to come in some ugly
shades.
/div