Makita Miter Saw

I am looking at picking up a new Makita miter saw.  I’m really liking the LS1219L but I’m concerned that it will have the same issues that people have been reporting with the 1019l. I’ve looked at the 1216L as well that has had mixed reviews as well. Anyone have either of these saws?

No issues that can’t be solved with half hour of your time to tune it up. Except for the kapex you should really do that with every mitre saw

If you want to spend time on an expensive saw , recalibrating it…hoping it will work out,cool… professional trim guys ,YT and forums have talked about major issues with this type of saw…bent rails,not cutting 90 even after it’s adjusted……. Hitachi and Dewalt make great mitres , Festool being the best…look around,…see for yourself

Heard the same issues with the rails but none that haven’t said it was rectified. Can’t think of a mitre saw, Makita, DeWalt or otherwise I haven’t spent an hour or two on putting into square to start with. 

Framer joe wrote:

2 hours ago, Framer joe said:

If you want to spend time on an expensive saw , recalibrating it…hoping it will work out,cool… professional trim guys ,YT and forums have talked about major issues with this type of saw…bent rails,not cutting 90 even after it’s adjusted……. Hitachi and Dewalt make great mitres , Festool being the best…look around,…see for yourself

Don’t overblow it. First batches a year ago had a chance to need some recalibrationg.   Those same professional Al trim guys you mentioned have been using them for a year now to grezt success.  Rob robbilards crew, kruger from instagram.

The first batches of flexvolt batteries also had many that died remember ?

The cordless version dls110/dls110 that has come later was perfect and so is the 1219.

Out of the box you have Hitachi/deWalt precision. Want a kapex ? Take a square and half hour of your time.

And you’ll have a better mitre saw then a kapex which is a rather old mitre saw by no lacking functions

Sorry to the OP, do not have a Makita saw. I was going to go with the 36v version because I do like Makita saws but….many many many complaints and video showing a serious flaw. The fix on the original first release seemed to me to be an unnecessary thing for a buyer to do. I think they have been working the kinks out. I think the feature set of the Makita is pretty amazing but I actually disagree with Kornomaniac, it is not better than a Kapex. Although the Kapex is an old machine the feature set is not in the same set as Makita. Dust collection is unparalleled, twist adjustments, cut capacity, clamps, bevel adjustments, trenching blah blah blah…I wanted a cordless miter to accommodate my Kapex and I was certain that the Makita was the one but I did get scared off and actually went with the Milwaukee. That is not a bash on Makita. Makita makes awesome tools but they screwed up big time with their new miter. Kind of like Milwaukee just did with their new jigsaw. Kind of like Dewalt did with their new flexvolt batteries. Milwaukee maes great tools, Dewalt makes great tools. Though truthfully most of my shop is Dewalt even though I had to return a flexvolt battery. And I have had problems with all tool brands. 

Getting back to your question, sorry, these topics are always railroaded by members with very polarized views, myself included, I don’t have a Makita mitersaw. Though if they fixed the problem, I don’t think that there is a mitersaw that can do ALMOST as much as the venerable Kapex, and cost a lot less.

Whatever. Dewalt koolaid😁there are plenty of dws780’s out there with non parallel blades and sticky slides and jump start and less power than Makita. That being said there are tons of guys doing great work with Dewalt saws. All saws have their strengths and weaknesses. I agree that the Makita should ship these saws with the blade parallel, but this is the only saw I have ever owned that the rails can be adjusted. My 36 volt and 12” are now spot on and kick but. If I ran a large crew and did a lot of framing I would stick with the big dewalt, as it’s tough, simple, light for its size and the price specials make it virtually disposable. 

Parallel blade test dws780. Pretty darn good but not perfect

Parallel blade test ls1219l after adjusting. Better yet. 

ChrisK wrote:

5 hours ago, ChrisK said:

Dust collection is unparalleled, twist adjustments, cut capacity, clamps, bevel adjustments, trenching blah blah blah.

So which of these kapex features do you think is still unique ? Not sure what you mean with the twist adjustments.

It is also lacking in motor power, lacking in cut capacity, only 60 ° to 1 side ( meaning you’ll have to be carrying around your wood to the other side of the saw for those ( atleast in Belgium) common 30° cuts used in roofs ). No detent override, rather smaller table and thus lesser workpiece support.

Even Festool reps aknowledge that a few of the newer features in the smaller saw should be updated to the 120 🙂

No doubt it’s venerable. But having Up front dial bevel ability with a spring to keep the bevel in place to exact tolerances is nice to have. Added to the fact that the Kapex has a smaller footprint, weighs a lot less, has dual exact line adjustable lasers and has far superior dust collection, the ability to make lapjoints without any extra work, I guess it’s hard for me to criticize such an old saw. But… you are right, it does not have a deten override. And another reason why the Makita is better than the Kapex…only 50* left and 60* right miters.  And….the Makita costs a LOT less than the Kapex. 

On a positive note for the Kapex, unlike a lot of those beautifully made Makita’s, my miter saw worked like a watch from Switzerland right out of the box. But so do those new Makita’s. You know after you have to adjust it right out of the box using a 2×4 and some tension after you get it adjusted.

Now….without derailing the OP’s post any further, I figured at the time, it was the closest to getting most of the benefits of the Kapex for a small price 👍 but alas…I still bought a Milwaukee. I figured it was the lightest of the bunch. 

Makita 60 lbs

Kapex 47 lbs

ChrisK wrote:

37 minutes ago, ChrisK said:

No doubt it’s venerable. But having Up front dial bevel ability with a spring to keep the bevel in place to exact tolerances is nice to have. Added to the fact that the Kapex has a smaller footprint, weighs a lot less, has dual exact line adjustable lasers and has far superior dust collection, the ability to make lapjoints without any extra work, I guess it’s hard for me to criticize such an old saw. But… you are right, it does not have a deten override. And another reason why the Makita is better than the Kapex…only 50* left and 60* right miters.  And….the Makita costs a LOT less than the Kapex. 

 

On a positive note for the Kapex, unlike a lot of those beautifully made Makita’s, my miter saw worked like a watch from Switzerland right out of the box. But so do those new Makita’s. You know after you have to adjust it right out of the box using a 2×4 and some tension after you get it adjusted.

 

Now….without derailing the OP’s post any further, I figured at the time, it was the closest to getting most of the benefits of the Kapex for a small price 👍 but alas…I still bought a Milwaukee. I figured it was the lightest of the bunch. 

 

Makita 60 lbs

Kapex 47 lbs

Just a normal discussion with arguments and no bullshit isnt possible on this forum anymore right ?

kornomaniac wrote:

14 minutes ago, kornomaniac said:

Just a normal discussion with arguments and no bullshit isnt possible on this forum anymore right ?

Depends if your slamming somebody or something. I tend to slam some THING. Having said that, the Kapex is overpriced. But I paid less for mine than what the Makita costs with batteries. I would NEVER pay 1400 for  this beautiful machine. It ain’t a Lie Nielsen

ChrisK wrote:

32 minutes ago, ChrisK said:

Depends if your slamming somebody or something.

Well I mean good or bad, if it aint DeWalt and I don’t use it, must be trash, right?

Cough.

SchenzhenSpecial wrote:

38 minutes ago, SchenzhenSpecial said:

Well I mean good or bad, if it aint DeWalt and I don’t use it, must be trash, right?

 

Cough.

Exactly 

Known kapex issues since release

grinding of miter lock unable to turn table fixed. Leaks grease from arbor. Table not flat. Table flexes if bolted down. Premature wear of blade guard mechanism. Motor weak. Motor burns out. Ridiculous safety trigger. Bevel lock plastic handle breaks. I could go on. That said it’s got great dust collection, it’s light, and the bevel scale is fantastic. There is no doubt many of us do great work with all these saws. I have a lot of festools. I find the kapex relative to other festools and other brands to be just plain weak. Yes my opinion. I remember when that little Hitachi came out. Like a revolution. Build whole houses with little bugger. It cost more back than then most saws today and Inthought it was a deal. 

The big thing with Kapex is the armature issue that popped up a couple of years ago. If I hadn’t gotten mine reconditioned I would have gone with the older 1216L, the Dewalt, the Hitachi maybe the Bosch. Dust collection is a big deal to me. Though I have had no issues with my Kapex which I have had for about five years now. It’s a champ. Though if my armature goes it’ll be a 47 lb desk weight. Festool has unbelievable service so maybe they would fix it at no cost as it’s a known issue but a reissue needs to come out. The girl is old and needs some updating. As far as a weak motor? Not a Dewalt or Hitachi but with the original issue blades I cut through oak and hickory like a hot knife through butter.  The factory blades are unbelievable and upgrading to a Forrest is just not needed with my saw. Any other saw I would do it but the blades I have are amazing and there are mail order sharpening services that do great work on them.

But, I digress. I am sure you would be pretty happy with Makita if they fixed their issue at the factory before shipping it out. Closest thing to a Kapex. Really well thought out machine.

Here’s the thing.  Everyone has different work flow. I would never buy a miter saw without the following feature(for the record the Dewalt does this best). Being able to hold the blade guard up with my thumb while making a critical cut like a long bevel cut or removing a small slice. It prevents any hang ups. The kapex and Hitachi blade guards are elegant but too close to the blade. They always eventually catch and bang or cause frustration and get removed. 

ChrisK wrote:

7 hours ago, ChrisK said:

 

But, I digress. I am sure you would be pretty happy with Makita if they fixed their issue at the factory before shipping it out. Closest thing to a Kapex. Really well thought out machine.

They have tho. In Belgium we got the ls1019 ( that had the problems at initial launch ) half a year after it got available in America. 

Not a single problem from any of my customers since then.  The cordless version followed real close here. No problems neither. Since yesterday we finally have the 12 inch version LS1219.

Sold 2 but since only a day old that’s too soon to have an idea. The display model I put out is accurate tho 🙂

That’s good, it’ll be nice seeing that beast competing against Milwaukee, Dewalt and Ridgid as well as Ryobi  with their cordless saws. I’d throw Metabo in there but beats me where I could have bought one. Lowe’s stopped selling them as quick as they got them.

Have had the LS108L for 4 years now. Love it best saw I’ve ever owned, and I’ve had DeWalt, Ridgid, and Milwaukee before, needed to recalibrate it once over those years. Its constantly moving from jobsite to jobsite, have it on a Ridgid MSUV stand they work really well together.

I’m curious if they ever upgraded the detent plate on the new saws that seemed to have been made out of aluminum so every time the table was locked into a detent they kept getting wider and wider until there was so much side to side play that you couldn’t tell what angle you were actually set at. Also with the table working smooth for the first 3 days it was fine until it would get so hard to move that the table would slam into the detents making them wider. 

I’ve used the corded 10″ verson and the rails are super smooth, it was nice that it could be setup against a wall and the dust collection was good but everything else was a huge letdown. The blade not being in line with the rails was a pain when trying to make any adjustments to your cuts. If you wanted to take a hair off one part of a board and using the side of the blade to line up your cut it wouldn’t work because the blade was already showing that it was off  right after making a square cut 

Firstly, I’m a big Makita fan, I have 25 skins, 15 batteries and have good things to say to people about what I own. 

I Paid $1049 AUD in June for the DLS111Z and have been nothing but disappointed. 

Straight out the box I done the checks/adjustments as per what I had seen on Instagram and elsewhere. For around 1 month it was fine. The saw has plenty of power and feels smooth on the rails. Runtime is good as well. Now I am having the issue with the detent plate and there is nothing I can do to fix it. I have tried pulling it forward but it still has play when locked in ‘0’. Also, when operating with the bag, I find it CONSTANTLY falls off, although it actually picks up a really good amount of dust it’s just so frustrating. The bag catches on the hose that connects the two dust ports and just drops off as soon as you slide it back. 

It’s also very heavy – the way the rails are designed and saw head locks at the back it’s pretty awkward to carry. 

 I am actually trying to sell mine (seems difficult to sell 2nd hand tools here in Aus)  and will buy the FlexVolt 12”. 

NB I own the 7 1/2” DLS714 and although the 190mm blades aren’t always readily available, I have no complaints about this Saw other than its only single bevel which I knew when I bought it anyway. 

Hi, I, too, like you, choose a saw. I do not know which is better to buy, maybe here they will help me more than my friends. They advised me only that it is better to take a saw from the manufacturer Makit. Wonderful help, thanks to them. I read on the Internet, found this site toolsinaction.com, I got a lot of useful information about the saws there. I also read all kinds of reviews and selections of the best saw models, for example, this one https://bestazy.com/best-miter-saw/. I had a question, like you: is it better to buy an LS1219L, 12 16L or 1019l? Maybe another any other saw, huh? I’m lost in all these models, help

Depends on ones needs. All around crew saw, personal trim saw etc…  

glass wrote:

I agree that the Makita should ship these saws with the blade parallel, but this is the only saw I have ever owned that the rails can be adjusted.

Your rails are twisted. There are videos on how to fix it. Try a google search. Good luck

Hi I was just doing a search for issues with the rails on this saw because I just returned my saw and got a replacement with the same problem! Figured it must be twisted rails. Both saws when adjusted square to fence showed Close to 1/16” overlap to left when saw is extended. 
is there a fix? 

I know this is an old post but I need to say my XSL06 is a beast. It’s so smooth. Cuts like butter. Power is amazing for a cordless. It came square straight out of the box. Rails were in alignment and blade parallel to rails. Im ocd so I sanded the work area table lightly to make it perfect. I am aware of the detent issue so I operate with the override on and once I’m at the desired angle I release the pin instead of slamming it in. It’s $14 for a new detent plate so it’s really not an issue. A guy on yt had a guy make the detent plate in stainless steel and has a video with a link to buy one. The dust collection is insanely good. In my opinion better than kapex. I love this saw. I’ve had dewalt, Hitachi, milwaukee and before all of those manufacturers were even companies I had an old craftsmen saw that I bought in the 70’s. Solid steel saw. Lasted until the late 90’s and I gave it to my son and he still has it and uses it still to this day. That was a great saw but weighed every bit of 75-80lbs. I’ve had my makita for 2 1/2 years now and it has been great. Took a bit to get used to the crown stops but now that I figured them out all is well. I haven’t had to make any adjustments (knocking on wood) yet and I take this saw from job to job. It’s been a great saw with great batteries that last all day. I never run dead ever. When batteries have a full charge to start the day they last all day with constant cutting. The bevel feature is awkward to use at first but once used to it you will have no issues and it won’t slow you down. I rarely use bevel anyhow. Cutting flat is weird to me. I have the saw on a delta stand and it kicks ass. When my dewalt kicks the bucket I’ll buy another makita to replace it. Cordless feature is great and makes for a better day when not tripping on cords all day. I ask my crew leader at least once a week about the dewalt because I’m anxious to replace it. When all my guys are on my job site they love using the makita and keep asking when I’m getting them one. That’s huge for me. I have 3 guys working for me and all 3 like it better than the DWS730. I’m sold. I bought mine on sale for $500 usd. It was a great deal. The price is hovering around 750 right now so I’ll try to be patient and wait for Amazon or HD to have a sale on it or the xsl04 preferably. The saw is worth it at that price. Even if I had to adjust it for and hour or so it beats 1500 for the competitions.