After getting fed up with all of the gimmicks and hype of most of the current mitresaws, I finally decided it was time to get a saw that could do the job consistently and accurately. I purchased the Makita ls1013L and won't go back to any other brand period.
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br /Let me start off by telling you why this saw is the one of the best selling saws of all time (with good reason)! This is the only saw on the market with three bearings that support the slide rail system. Everyone else uses one linear ball-bearing and one bushing, while Makita uses all linear ball bearings plus one more than the competition! So with (all bearing construction, no bushings) nothing to wear out and adjust, its no wonder why this saw continues to be regarded with the best "slide action" available today! They are also self-cleaning rails as well. The turn-table is big, larger than about 90% of the saws available! The only saws with big tables are Porter-Cable, Ridgid, and Delta, etc. DeWalt, Hitachi, Bosch, etc. all have small turn-tables. The advantage of this is to help support larger stock. It has the deepest saw extensions available (distance from fence forward, not the length of extension). Most saws have saw supports that attach to the side(s) of the saw (made of usually steel rod). This is good, as it adds more support to a work piece. Unfortunately, most are only 3 to 4 inches deep, while Makita's are 7 to 8 inches deep. So the saw can support wider boards easier than most others. For example if you look at the Bosch 4410L extensions vs. Makita's you'll see the difference! By the way, the Makita extensions are standard, most everyone else is like a $40.00 add-on. The turn-table turns really nice and smooth; it allows easy positioning of mitre angles. A lot of other saws tend to bind and screech after prolonged use (smoothness is appreciated).
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br /The bevel action and stops are second to none. Out of the box the accuracy of the bevels and mitres are right on the money. I have used all other slider brands and have found Makita's consistency impeccable! The fence, and no one has this feature, allows the vertical clamp (comes standard) to be positioned in 5 places. This is great for when having to make a variety of cuts. It actually makes cutting safer. I bought another vertical clamp so both sides have one. The right-sided mitre scale is a little weird, and takes time to get used to. But since the degree markings are big, it allows for easy adjustment. I have found that the saw does not slip into the detents when wanting to make 1/2 degree cuts off detent mitres (e.g. 90.5 degrees)! This is great for finish work. The left-sided flip fence is good for doing 4 inch crown moulding; and flips out of the way when not needed!
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br /The handle position is nice for right and left-handed operation! Power-head deflection (side-to-side) movement is non-existent. This is great because having a saw that makes wavy cuts due to head-slop is not a good thing. Adjustments: bevel, fence, blade changes, can be made quickly and efficiently using the handy (provided) 13 mm wrench; I can change the blade in under a minute flat-all with one tool, not two or three. The front knob is great for stopping the slide action if need be. I can turn the slider into a chopsaw at the turn of a knob. It is the only saw to come with a small plastic triangular set-square to help calibrate the saw when needed. Use this square to setup the bevel (90 degree) and 45 degree left / right bevel; with this square and the 13 mm wrench it takes only minutes to calibrate, not hours like MOST other saws. If you have ever noticed how some saws tip when you use them; the large footprint of the Makita prevents such issues.
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br /There are a couple of downers with this machine though. The right fence is only 1 1/8 inch tall, so for large work you may need to add a piece of RUSSIAN BALTIC BIRCH as a fence, or buy the Makita sub-fence if you want to. Also, the saw does not go up to 60 degrees! But other than that, the saw is as close to perfect as one can get! The laser is a nice piece of engineering; it is right on the money when it comes to hitting your pencil mark spot on! I can adjust the laser to exactly where i want it without trouble(either left or right of the blade). It does speed up cutting immensely! If you buy the dewalt DW718, good luck setting up the laser accurately. The laser comes on without the need for the blade to spin, like the BOSCH or RIDGID saws do. And since the laser is above the blade, not on the arbour, it is more accurate in my opinion! I recently helped a friend with the installation of crown moulding. The moulding was very ornate (dental mould, filigree, etc.); and if you have ever done that kind of moulding, it can be harder to line up in the corners, or even mark it with a pencil! The laser made it so much easier to mark and cut. The cut was done in one pass, not two or three! Very easy and NICE feature!
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br /The dust collection is very nice, they have added a new rubber backer -- this is placed right behind the blade to help suck up more dust. My old LS1013 is one fine machine with great dust collection, but this new LS1013L mitersaw, has even better dust extraction capabilities. Great for dust reduction in your shop, or on the jobsite! I use a RIDGID 6 PEAK HP vacuum with very good results. I'd say that it get roughly 70%; the dust tends to settle within 1.5 feet of the saw itself, very managable! Other saws, can throw dust more than 5 feet from the saw, what a mess to clean up after!
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br /I put a Ridge Carbide RS-1000, 80 tooth, slider blade on and the cuts could NOT be better! Even better than a Forrest Chopmaster and Miter Master! I own all three blades! I have cut everything under the sun: 5/4 walnut, 19 mm Baltic birch, 2 x 12's, 4 x 4's, and even teak, with absolutely no bogging down or struggling-this saw has the muscle and endurance to go the distance! I have owned belt driven sliders (dewalt and bosch)before and from my own personal experience, they do NOT have the power of direct-drive saws. Where Makita's hypoid (45 degree angle, direct-drive motor) provides ample power for even the most demanding jobs. And at 13 AMP it won't trip your breakers either. It is also quieter than most sliders too! Makita has not changed their baseline ls1013 mitersaw for nearly 5 years; only in 2005 have they added a laser. That just shows that if very litte has actually changed, in 5 years. Makita has confidence in their own product. Other companies change their product lines too frequently! With that said, you won't be disappointed, with the purchase of this saw; it really is a great machine with features that will make you enjoy using it. Purchase it, and see for yourself why Makita continues to lead the industry with the best overall mitresaw!!!...

This saw replaced a stolen Hitachi C10FSH, and is better in every respect. The adjustable laser is great, you can set it to light up either side of your cut mark. This is definitely the quietest miter saw I've ever used, due to the dirct drive motor and special quiet-cut blade. Detent stops are tight and accurate, and the bevel stops are such that the saw "falls" into them, so you don't need to wrestle with it to get your setting. Another nice feature unique to Makita is the bottom slide-bar setup. The heavy slides are under the saw and not part of the beveling head, so you don't have that added weight to move around when adjusting the bevel. The motor has plenty of power, and there's no torquing of the head when depressing or releasing the switch, something that is a major issue with Dewalt miter saws.
br /Now for the complaints. The miter gauge is offset to one side, with the pointer less than 3/4" in front of the right fence. There's no adding a custom high fence to this saw or you'll cover the pointer. The left fence is virtually non-existent, so you'll need to buy the optional $60 sub-fence. Also, the slides seem a little sticky sometimes, maybe just the sawdust. The dust bag has no zipper, only a plastic cinch-slide that will definitely be getting tossed very soon, it's a pain to close.
br /Overall this is still a great saw, and I highly recommend it to anyone in the market for a good accurate slide saw.

I have had this saw for several months. It is a POWERFUL but quiet SILKY SMOOTH STRAIGHT SAW.
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br /It is deceptively large because of the sliding feature. I had to move my work bench to accomodate it.
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br /MAKE CERTAIN THAT YOU HAVE ADEQUATE ROOM BEHIND THE SAW.
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br /I was regretting my choice and wishing I had gone with a compound bevel like the Dewalt 716 until I had to cut some 2X12s last weekend. The Makita went through them like they were so much 1/4" plywood smeared with peanut butter.
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br /WOW! GREAT woodcutter!
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br /Obviously a decent blade accompanies the saw.
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br /I really like the independent switch for the laser, I can use it to line up my cut without running the saw.
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br /Why NO five stars?
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br /Dust collection is not great. I put an adapter in place of the dust bag and attached my Shop Vac. It helped but a bench top vacuum system near the blade guard is still needed or perhaps a big scoop at the rear of the saw attached to a real dust collector system.
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br /My saw arrived with a broken bevel lever. It is only a $4 part so I decided to order it myself rather than hassle with Amazon or anyone else. I also wanted some optional accessories.
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br /There is virtually no fence on the right side of the blade. However, there is a factory add-on fence option available as is a horizontal clamp.
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br /I went to a nearby home center that seems to specialize in Makita as they have a large display and they have had factory reps on site several times in the past. When the salesman looked up the prices for the fence attachment and the clamp they almost had to call 911 to restart my heart. Together they would have cost more than 1/4th the price of the new saw.
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br /Even though OUTRAGEOUS I did order the bevel lever and the right side fence attachement.
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br /The wait for the bevel lever was approx. a week. Good service, good price for a 3" piece of plastic.
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br /Some 2+ months later the fence attachment has never arrived. I hope it doesn't at this point, I have made a home-made attachment that works but isn't, of course, as pretty. But pretty is as pretty does and at about $5 a square inch the Makita fence is a littttle pricey IF IT EVER ARRIVES.
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br /This is a GREAT saw but it scares me to think what will/will NOT happen if the saw breaks down and I have to wait for an essential and really important part! The letters S - O - L come to mind.
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Bought this saw last week off Amazon. I did a bunch of research prior to making the purchase and had originally settled on the Bosch 4410L. One of the factors is that a construction friend of mine suggested I stay away from 12" blades - a little less accurate cut and I'm primarily buying the saw for trim work - and there do not seem to be many good 10" compound sliding systems out there. After speaking with a local shop (trying to find the Bosch locally for less than what Amazon sells it), I learned that the Makita was rated as having the most accurate cuts.
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br /I'm a newbie to miter saws, so my evaluation probably isn't as valuable as some of the comments from those "in the trade". Here's a good laugh - I'm painting the trim before it goes on, then making the cuts...so my first project has been to make two saw-horses to lay the trim on for spraying. The cuts have been crisp and accurate. I haven't made any adjustments to the saw, except to play with the laser (this was a mistake - it took me a long time to get it as "dead on" accurate as it came out of the box.
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br /One thing about this saw, though. When I was shopping around, I couldn't understand the value of tall fences or sliding fences. Now I do - as the Makita has neither.
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br /The slide action is really smooth, cutting into stud lumber shows absolutely no drag on the blade.
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br /One other thing - everything you hear about the dust bag is true. I don't even know why they put the extra design work into a dust collection system - it doesn't work worth diddly. I've tried connecting my shop-vac to it (you'll need a special connector for this which you can find at Depot for under three bucks), but that is almost worse - there is a thin rubber shovel at the back of the blade where the dust is supposed to go, in the shape of a narrow "U". When using the Shop-vac, it sucks the "U" shut, rendering the dust collection nearly useless.
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br /If I figure that thing out, I'll make another post...
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br /Likes:
br /Smooth as butter cuts, very crisp
br /Excellent slide action - no bumps, no resistance
br /nice stops in both miter and bevel
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br /Dislikes:
br /Dust collection sucks (not a pun)
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br /Why didn't they....
br /- make a better fence system. Nearly every serious miter saw now has tall fences on both sides
br /- build a better handle?
br /- include one or two more clamps?
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br /Overall I'm happy. I'd love to check out a Bosch some day to see if I made the right choice. I did save over $100, so I can't bee too picky, though.

Overall, I'm very happy with this saw. As your above-average do-it-yourselfer, I consider my skill with tools very good. I have used many different compound sliding miter saws. Makita stands our at the top in terms of power, accuracy, and noise. A couple of things that I didn't particularly like was having the miter scale on the side. I feel the front miter scales on the Bosch and Dewalts were easier to see. Also, it would be nice to have some common bevel detents. Lastly, this may be common to all sliders, is that the sliding tends to stick a little when fully pulled forward. I suppose this is due to the saw dust being compacted by the rails.
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br /I really like the adjustable laser. Makes lining up the cut fast and easy.
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br /I'm just being nit picky on what I think would make this saw perfect.
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br /I would give this was 4 and a half, but that isn't an option, so I'll git it the benefit of the doubt and bump it to five stars.

I purchased this saw to replace an off-brand 12" sliding miter saw. The difference is in accuracy and quality is amazing. The saw performs as you would hope.
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br /Pros: Design, Usability, and overall Quality
br /Cons: The side reading scale. It is just different, not
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br /I have only used this saw for one project thus far and it performed flawlessly. I laid 800 sq ft og Brazilian Cherry flooring. The blade held up through the entire project and the cut quality was exellent. Though it is now due to be sharpened.
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br /This saw is in my humble opinion a well made and well thoughtout piece of equipment that performs extremely well. I will buy another one when the required.

I originally ordered a Bosch 12" miter-saw and waited over 2 months for it as it was on back-order. I guess the good magazine reviews sold a lot of these saws. I was not happy about waiting this long. But now am glad that I did.
br /While I was waiting I checked out other saws here. I came across a couple of Jay's reviews and went to the local big box store to check out some of the options. Well, the Makita is by far the best saw out there. I suppose if I had got the Bosch I would have been happy with it simply because I wouldn't have known what I was missing.
br /After contacting Amazons customer service department and expressing my dissatisfaction with the 2 month wait we worked out a deal were I changed my order to this saw, got 2 day shipping, all for a great deal. ($350 total) I feel sorry for all of the people who waited for the Bosch and missed out on a much better saw like this Makita.

The only thing I would improve on the saw would be to have a positive detent on both 33 degree bevels to cut crown molding flat. Saw only has one.

Like all the other guys have said, this is probably the best sliding miter saw on the market. Mine came damaged. The little piece that is on the fence that aligns the flip up part of fence was broken off. I probably would not of even noticed it, however, I did notice that the flip up fence was not aligned with the main fence. I called Makita customer service and they said that I would have to deal with a local service center to get the new fence under warranty. Seems like a pain to me. I am just sad that the quality control inspection missed this detail. Other than that, this saw is wonderful and purchased it over the Bosch and Dewalt.

I could not be more pleased. Very accurate and smooth cuts. I especially like the soft start. Plus it is also quiet.
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When our new house was built the contractor had this saw and he set it up in the garage to do his work. He told me that I could use it whenever necessary so I did use it quite often. When the time came to purchase a dual slide compound miter saw there was only one choice. Excellent quality.

First of all, let me start by saying I have used a lot of different brands of miter saws and this Makita is, by far, the most substandard of them all. I am a trim carpenter by trade and have unfortunately been saddled with this saw by the company that I work for over the last two months. The list of defects is long. First, the positive stops are bad to say the least. The zero stop has about 1 degree of play on both sides of zero, forcing the operator to BEND OVER THE SAW to look at the HORRIBLY placed miter gauge on the table top.
br /This is a horrendous design.
br /If you have more than one carpenter using the saw, you need to always be on guard to verify if the saw is in the zero position or has been moved slightly to one or the other side of zero. If you have already laid your stock on the table you HAVE TO MOVE IT TO SEE WHAT THE MITER ANGLE IS. I have never seen a worse design.
br /Secondly, the blade guard cam that retracts when you pull the blade down to cut is constantly stuck, again due to a bad design. There is no roller, just a blunt ended push arm that binds on the guard every time you go to make a cut. This is a $500 production saw, right? Wrong. You'd be better off buying some crappy Craftsman or Delta than this hunk of junk.
br /Thirdly, the laser worked for about a week and has since (two months) been AWOL. None of us can get it to work, and we have guys with years of experience using different models of saws. The other reviewers also complained about the so called "dust collection"... Makita might as well have looped the discharge port to spray the dust back in your face for as well as this thing handles dust disposal. Also, the tiny fences are a joke if you want to cut stock over 3" high.
br /All in all, this is a poorly designed, expensive mistake that you would be better off avoiding.
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br /One last thing, the "quiet" blade that comes with the saw is amazing, it really is quiet. It is the only redeeming factor in this fiasco of a saw.

I am a home woodworker and purchased this saw to replace a radial arm saw. The laser was one of the main features that caught my eye.
br /The saw was purchased from Amazon and even though the packaging integrity was minimal, the saw arrived in good shape. The first thing I checked out was how square to the fence a cut was, no problem, right on. Checking the laser next I was amazed to find out the laser was not parallel to the blade but at an angle. On a 3" wide board it was off by 1/16" and on a 7" wide board the laser was off by 3/16". In other words if you drew a square line across the board, lined up the laser on one end, it would be off on the other end of the line. Where do you line the laser up to cut??? I took the saw up to a factory service center and explained the problem very clearly using diagrams. They said they would check it out. Two weeks later I went to pick up the saw, I checked it out at the service center and the laser was still off. They said the adjustments met all of the specs. Then I called the factory technical support on the west coast. I was told I was being way to fussy and wood working didn't require any more accuracy than that. Poor Laser, Poor Support from Makita. Never again.

i own dewalt cordless kit,bosch jigsaw,hitachi and makita chop saw.my hitachi and makita miter saw are great.i decided to get another makita ls013 for my son cause of great amazon deal with 389-50 dollars which is 340 dollars.i do not care about manafactur deals like saw blades or finish nailersor palm sanders so to me this is agreat deal with no tax or shipping.you should always check your tools right when they come.i did not even turn on the saw.first thing is put straight edge on table.i did not even have to use feelers.you could see a gap on left hand side.i called up makita and they stated noone has ever complained of this.but of course amazon is sending me a new saw no charge.if you know tools you know many great tool companies have problems.read the posts.people have had powermatic saws coming misaligned or with fence problems.but nothing can make up for a table bed which is not flat on a tablesaw or miter saw.routers are interesting tools because its bed-the router plate is not machined.many are not only off but cupped.this makes no difference to me because pat warner makes clear round and offset bases for routers so i get his look up his website.i cannot get over the deals amazon has frequently on tools and the customer service.i am posting this to let hobbyists know to check out their tools right away.