I remember the year that my radial arm saw died ( or was it Clayton Delaney?). It was February of 2001 when my trusty Craftsman 1954 version radial arm saw wore out an unfindable part. We had been buddies since it came home with me from an auction (paid $65.00). We gave it a nice sendoff and went looking for a replacement. We decided a miter saw was the right tool so researched and finally decided on the Makita LS1013 sliding compound miter saw with a 10” blade.

The request went out to amazon.com to send one, along with a credit card number of course. Three days later, my buddy, the UPS man drove in and placed a big box right outside our garage (really workshop) door. When I got home from work, I didn’t even go in the house first. I opened the door and lifted the box to move it inside. The bottom opened wide and my new toy started sliding out, attached to a couple of pieces of crumpled cardboard. The saw had its head cocked at a horrible 45 degree angle and its adjustment knob that should have been sticking straight out proudly, was bent at another 45. I gently placed the forlorn looking toy on a table, straightened its poor head and got its knob bent back where it belonged. It wasn’t smiling, exactly, but it seemed to feel much better.

A thorough visual checkup revealed no obvious damage so I plugged it in to check its heartbeat. A pull on the trigger made us both smile. Despite the lousy packaging by Makita and the best (worst?) efforts of UPS, the baby was fine. I checked all its settings for shifts or damage. Everything was dead on. This is one tough saw.

What you get

Out of the box, the driveway in this case, comes the saw, fully assembled and ready to go, even to the 64 tooth carbide blade. There are two extension wings that must be slid into their holes on the side, a vertical clamp that has to be assembled, and a dust bag to put over the port on the back of the saw. All of this takes maybe ten minutes. All write ups on this saw say it needs no adjustment before use. Considering the trauma this one took, I can recommend using it as it arrives.

The vital statistics

Uses a 10” blade with a 5/8” arbor. Will not take dado blades
At 90/90 it will cut through a 3 5/8” X 12” board in one pass
At 45/45 left cut is reduced to 2” X 8 ¾”
At 45/45 right cut is reduced to 1 1/4” X 8 ¾”
Spins the blade at 3700 rpm with its 115 volt, 13 amp motor
30” wide, 20 ½” deep (with slide not extended), 24 ½” high.
It weighs 46.5 pounds

Cuts bevels 0 to 45 both left and right
Cuts miters 0 to 47 left or 0 to 52 right
Positive stops at 15, 22 ½, 30, and 45 both left and right.

But, is it any good?

This saw has been top rated in many shootouts. My experience is that it has earned those ratings. I use it mostly in a shop environment, but it would be equally at home on a construction site. Set it up on a stack of 2 X boards. Lay a couple on edge on each side of it (the table surface is 3 ½” up) for long wood supports and it is ready to go. It has a lock to hold the motor assembly down so you can just pick it up by its top mounted handle and haul it back to the truck when you are done.

A couple of other nice features include a left side flip fence that extends the fence out when it is flipped out and makes the fence higher when it is flipped in. It also has an easily adjustable stop that sets the cutting depth for making dados and then swings out of the way. The whole table surface rotates when you miter so you have full cutting support at all miter angles. There are two easily adjustable, and replaceable, plastic inserts to set up as a zero clearance slot for the blade. When set right, these also make a good cutting guide, saving having to pull the saw down.

The vertical clamp works well and can be placed in five different positions to allow good hold down under almost any circumstance. It also gets in the way a lot and must be moved when using the flip fence feature. The blade that comes with the saw is top quality. I replaced it with an 80 tooth for finish cuts.

In Use

One penalty of getting the 12” cut width is that the slider needs more depth than can be accommodated on standard 24” tables mounted against a wall. It needs at least 30”. The dual arms of this saw give extremely smooth sliding action and repeatability. The stops for mitering are excellent.

miters
When you spin the front knob, the one that sticks out straight when it isn’t bent, and pull the release with your index finger (or pinky if you’re left handed) the saw turns smoothly around a pivot with a dial that is clearly marked in one degree increments. If you drop it into one of the presets it drops in smoothly and when the knob is twisted clockwise (we’re talking a half-turn at the most) it will give repeatable cuts. You can swing it right, then left to cut a 45 miter and they will fit. There are marks for cutting crown molding. It is easy to swing to the mark and lock it in. when you come back to zero, you will be at zero.

bevels
The bevel lock release is at the back of the saw and sometimes a little hard to reach. The detents at 0 and 45 left/right are again right on. The one degree marks are a little closer together, but still easy to hit. There are marks for crown molding there as well.

I have regularly cut such odd compound angles as 1 degree bevel and 7 degree miter. I just dial the numbers in and cut with full confidence that is what I will get. I recently did my periodic check of the saw’s accuracy and it is still dead on. If it ever does shift, the excellent manual gives pretty easy directions for adjustment. The trigger is on the vertical handle mounted on front of the business part of the saw. The safety release is above it and takes a while to get used to. I don’t even think about it any more.

One other feature that I like, if you’re whacking off a bunch of 2 X 4s for instance, is the slider lock. You can spin the bigger knob on the front knob assembly and lock the saw so it doesn’t slide. Now you have a cut-off saw. Makes it quicker when you don’t need the extra width.

So what’s not to like?

The knob sticking out in front is easy to bump into and bend. I have once or twice. The attached dust bag doesn’t have to be emptied very often since it doesn’t catch much of the stuff thrown by the blade. The vertical stop could be more user friendly. That’s about it.

I have used this saw well over a year now. I haven’t found anything it won’t do. I have had zero problems with it. We’re fast friends now. I would be even sadder to see it go than I was the radial saw.
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Recommended: Yes