New DeWalt 716 First Day Opinion.

Today I broke out my new DW 716 to trim a new house. This saw replaces my Delta 12" 36-422L that was recalled, B&D gave me this as a replacement. So far this saw feels pretty well built to me and it's nice and compact. I like the way the arm geometry feels, it feels about perfect as it drops down with good line of site. I felt the Delta blade was to far forward and you were always cutting with the backside of the blade lifting the grain and it would tend to lift and shred small trim. The arm return spring feels good too, stronger than the Delta that would tend to be lazy. Motor is fairly smooth but does not run like a Makita motor. Plastic miter pointer sucks as there is no center line just a clear V shape that's hard to read. Detent overide is not that great either but the detents are tight. So far it seems to be accurate right out of the box, table is flat too. Dust collection is better than the Delta, the Delta saw would shoot sawdust straight up in your face. Overall it seems like it will be a decent saw, theres nothing really great about it that get's me excited but maybe I'm just expecting too much as usual. Time will tell how it holds up.

Why in the world would you let B&D recall a 36-422l? That's by far the best miter saw ever made, and are highly sought after in the finish carpentry world. I would have bought it off you working or not.

Well safety for one, The recall was for the arm, it could develop a crack in it near where the motor bolts on? so I said with my luck mine would crack off and take my hand off. But I used that saw for 6 years and it was not all that great in many ways... have you used one?

Yeah I've used one, I own one and use it as my primary miter saw. No other saw can cut 7" base standing against the fence, or crosscut 9 1/2" without a slide, the saw is just built for finish carpentry. I've been searching for another one of these saws for a few years just to have as a backup. I know there are a few other trim carpenters and cabinet makers on here that can attest to this saw, I think Basswood has one. If you search on google you can find a bunch of wanted ad's for both the 36-422l and the 36-412.

Well to be honest at first I thought it was the best 12" CMS saw made, I had bought 3 of them, but after 6 years of use there were quite a few things I came to not like about it. Big capacity yes... but that had a negative affect as well. The motor was weak, very loud, it would blow sawdust straight into your eyes, deflection in the arm, plastic crown knobs broke off... can't really say I will miss it too much other than the slightly bigger crosscut but my slider can handle that need.

I have an older dewalt that has the clear pointer too. I took a permanent black marker and colored it, so I could see it!




Dave

Thought about that today... will try that tomorrow.

It seems you have spent quite a bit of time with the Delta saw too. Yes they do blow sawdust everywhere, but that isn't enough of a problem to outweigh all the positives of the saw in my opinion. I don't agree on it being underpowered though, in fact it seems to be one of the more powerful CMS I've owned. Now its pretty hard to gauge power on a CMS since I use them only for finish work so the motor isn't really ever loaded like cutting large stock. I hope the Dewalt dw716 makes you happier. I used to own one and it still ranks as my second favorite saw behind the Delta, with the 12" Bosch coming in third. I never had any problems with the Dewalt, it just didn't have the same capacity of the Delta and that's the deal breaker for me. So I ended up selling it once I bought the Delta and haven't looked back

Let's hear a little more about the 12" Bosch CMS.

can you say kapex?!

What about a Bosch 4212L who uses one?

Get the light. I think around 90 bucks. Casts a shadow of blade, love it for trim work

I've got a DW716 with the LED light attachment, works great except in direct sunlight (obviously!). I retired it for a makita 10" slider.

Yep! Changed out my laser for the led light. It is much nicer and now I am not spending ten minutes adjusting the laser after a blade change!

I got the light... to be honest I never cared for any saw with a lazer... it is distracting, all I need is a good sharp pencil point. The light shadow distracts me the same way, I would rather just have a light that shines down and lights the work area like Milwaukee did.

I was gonna buy it off him and in my research I found the recall info. I was the one that found the recall and I let him know about it.


First guy I worked for had one. I loved it so much, that my first saw was gonna be, and was a Bosch 5412L. Ended up selling the 5412L to a friend when I got my Axial Glide as a Present from my girlfriend and family. I have had good luck with my Bosch miter saws, but they are all dated now except for the Axial Glide...which is too big to really be moving from job to job to job. My jobs are typically either a day or two, or a few weeks. The Makita LS1016 is better for me. Smaller, lighter and still a great saw. The Axial Glide is parked in my shop now.

A few years ago I worked for a guy who had two DW706s for field use....I almost bought one..its a good saw.

Love the light!!!

your big boy shop

To be honest, and this is coming from a guy who was never a DeWalt miter saw fan I like the DW716 so far, it's sturdy and compact, accurate, kinda basic but thats ok...it works. I actually like working with it all day better that the Delta 36-422l. The 36-422 looks great on paper and had great specs but... in daily use over 6 years it showed me it's not perfect and had some design flaws. That said I don't think the 716 is a outstanding miter saw. But my expectations are very high and I'm not happy with much of anything these days. Maybe it's just me.