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Excellent Sliding Miter saw Review by Stephen

Value
Quality
Performance
Features
Price

I bought this saw as a replacement for an old (20+ years) Sears 10" radial arm saw that had seen considerable use and was rebuilt a couple of times. I have the new Milwaukee mounted on a Ridgid stand and have had absolutely no problems with the saw or stand. The angle calibrations are right on the mark, I have made test cuts and checked them with a Starrett machinist's protractor. The detents are spot on for both the angle and miter. There is virtually no side play when the slide is extended fully forward, The handle placement is excellent and all operations are smooth. As for any negatives it would have been nice if there were a digital readout for the miter angle, an on-off switch for the digital indicator would have been nice, but I don't leave power to the saw when it isn't being used as a safety precaution. As the other reviewer commented it is difficult to see your cut line without lifting the blade guard but this can be fixed by merely cutting a slot in the blade guard to look through. This was not my idea, but is how some of the other miter saws are constructed. As for the light it could be a little brighter but it's adequate. Dust collection is nothing to brag about but if you connect a shop vac, preferably one that can actually move some air, 650cfm or more it's not bad. Without it just plan on cleaning up a lot. No tool is perfect and if it were I'd guess few could afford to buy it. I think the Milwaukee 6955-20 is an excellent all around miter saw and I would recommend it to anyone considering a 12" compound sliding miter saw. I looked at most all of the saws on the market and felt this was the best choice for me.

(Posted on 7/11/11)

lack of foresight milwaukee 6955-20 Review by randamadee

Quality
Performance
Features
Price
Value

Where to start on how much this saw sucks. The big thing is right out of the box my angle read out is off. Works sometimes and others times not. I have to slide it around from one side to the other and back often many times for it to settle in to something that seems consistent with the manual indicators. I am told this can be fixed with calibration. The right fence does not slide. The lights are weak to the point I ask why bother. The cord is short. The clear plastic guard is extremely light bending in nature so that you can’t see through it to judge a pencil line, meaning you have to lift the blade guard because it doesn’t even have slots to see through. they decided to limit the travel of the sliders so that the saw does not take up as much room, which sounds great but it means if you have marked your stock at the back edge you HAVE to sight down the blade judge where it is in relation to the pencil mark because the power head does not slide past the point where fence meets table. This means the thicker the stock the further the blade is away from the back of the stock during the alignment with the pencil mark process. This affects accuracy be assured, as your judgement is now more heavily relied on, not to mention the extra hassle and time this takes. And time is a big thing to not waste if you ask me. The dust collection they say is the best and brag about this point, but if you are cutting thick stock ever, which means often if you do allot of custom stuff which I do (slabs and small beams) this goes for even stock on edge. Then the dust shroud hits the stock meaning you can’t even cut such stock without removing the shroud. Remove the shroud though and you have absolutely no dust protection as there is no vacuum adapter. How retarded. There is no hold down clamp. There are spots for one meaning you have to go buy one as an afterthought. More money. The lock for the slide assembly is so close to the mounting assembly that it makes you wonder if it was made for Smurfs as large hands are just simply in the way. The depth stop is sloppy as they rely on a rubber o ring underneath the stop. Rubber squishes guys, so if you plan on using this say for dadoes in anything make sure it you are careful not to cut too deeply by using too firm a pressure on the power head. I really do not know what people see in this when they give it good reviews. There is so much to learn from and update. The last thing I have to say is how lacking the customer service is. I have spent hours and weeks on the phone and awaiting replies to emails. Finally I talk to someone and they tell me I can send it in and they will recalibrate the angle read out. Yeah, a brand new saw that is so poorly designed that it shouldn’t even be sold to craftsmen let alone my blind dog, that I am expected to send it back and be without the saws I stupidly sold when I bought this one. That’s right; they don’t even have a loaner program, which means I will have to buy another saw to use while this one is fixed. I think not. I will just use the manual indicators like always have. Do not get this saw, you will regret it if you do anything other than framing. Oh, and another possible fear. The LCD is always on when the saw if plugged in. No off on switch with it, so my guess is you may want to unplug it every night to prevent early burn out.

(Posted on 3/15/11)