Metabo HPT 10" 15-Amp Corded Compound Miter Saw Expired

Gas used to be less than a dollar a gallon too.

I've bought this saw twice. My first was branded Hitachi, and it was reliable until I gave it to a friend. I rebought this exact model a month ago from Amazon warehouse. Mine arrived a little abused. I took the time to unbolt and realign everything with 90 degree assembly blocks. Now it's absolutely dead-on. Ran it all day for a few days, put it through several hundred cuts, and it's still dead on. I removed the plastic handle used for changing the miter angle, and bolted that in place since I'm using it as a dedicated 90 degree cross cut saw for crate building. I don't expect anything shy of dropping it is going to budge the alignment.

A few observations:

It's quite light for a 10". As miter saws go, it's medium-loud. There's no soft start, but it's quite stable and doesn't jump resting on an assembly table. Dust collection is pathetic. Even with a dedicated vac, it only catches about 10%. I improvised some 'cheeks' on either side of the blade housing, and that got dust collection up to about 60%, but IMO, the only way to run this thing is outside or with the doors wide open. I don't know why the round dust port narrows to a slit behind the blade, but as far as I can tell, that just allows it to clog itself with wood shreds while most of the fine dust sprays out beneath the port to either side as the blade enters the cut.

For the value, and for power and accuracy of cuts, for the portability, this thing is 5 stars. Taking into account dust collection, since that's important for an enclosed shop, I'd give it 3 stars. On a budget, if you can live with the dust going everywhere, I don't think you can get a more reliable saw. You're going to have to spend 4x as much (or more) for very good dust collection on a miter saw.

I knew all this when I purchased mine. I paid about $125, and I'm very happy with it. No regrets that I didn't wait, and if I upgrade later, I'll keep this one for mobile work.

Footnote for those wondering about using it for metal cutting - it spins a little too fast for optimal metal-cutting, and again, chip collection will be abysmal.