In article , Fred
writes
Hi,

I'm probably going to get in trouble for even thinking of buying one
but here goes

I can't afford a branded saw, so I was thinking of buying one from
B&Q. Looking at some old posts some people love them, some people hate
them.

From what I can remember someone said that some saws use blades with a
non-standard bore, which makes replacement difficult or expensive.
IIRC the Macallister red eye (from B&Q) was a standard bore, which was
a plus point.

It also had two lasers one for 90 degree cuts and one for 45 degree
cuts? I don't know what you did if you wanted to cut 60 degrees! but
people seemed to think the laser alignment was not very accurate. Can
it be adjusted?

I've been to B&Q and it looks though they are halfway through
replacing these with a new "Macallister laser precision" range. I'm
not sure if these are actually a step backwards. I think they only
have one laser, not two, now but that may not be a big concern?

I have a 10" sliding compound mitre saw of theirs. Got it a couple of
years ago when I needed to do a lot of framing and couldn't justify the
cost of a better one.

It's heavy enough not to flex but you've got to check every angle you
set with a trial cut as the scales aren't 100% and the detents on the
main axis are out too.

The 10" blade has a standard fixing (25mm I think) and has 24 teeth,
it's been fine for all the framing and the bit of mdf
skirting/architrave I was doing.

All in all, it has served its purpose and saved me lots of time but it
is not without its limitations.

Btw, the 2 line laser on this one has been dead accurate and very
useful, saved me ages on lining up, particularly useful in trimming a v
slightly oversize piece by a mm or 2.
--
fred
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