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Been looking around for my first ever Compound Mitre Saw for a few months but didn't need it urgently so have had time to do some research. Just for general DIY jobs around the house but also for the occasional specific project… anything from making light work of cutting 50x200 Hardwood Sleepers for a raised Garden Bed through to making dozens of accurate & clean cuts of lengths of powdercoated extruded aluminium to make fences, gates & battening etc.
The obvious choice for most of us OzBargainers is the cheapie Ozito or 909 units from Bunnings or Masters or for those wanting to spend a bit more the lower-end 'Domestic' green Bosch at around $350-$400 should do the trick however I've read reviews on all of them and although very good across the board none of them seem to be 'amazing' at anything in particular.
I then found this unit from SWARTS. Big, powerful, belt-driven beast of a thing that ticks more boxes on paper than the Bosch but questionable accuracy as there are very limited and in fact non-existent reviews on it. One old review I found on the previous model was pretty decent but commented on its accuracy however the Rep posted an admission on that and said that the new model (this one!) was a lot better plus they had introduced a new QA process to make sure all units were properly calibrated locally before they were sent out to customers.
Make of it what you will however I just bought one on Pre-Order as the price had dropped from $399 to $360 and units will be delivered in early May. When I explained that it was between this or the smaller green Bosch the SWARTS General Manager replied hinting that these were in fact made in the same Chinese factory so I suppose that's a plus. The fact that it comes with a 100T Blade (worth $40+ alone) and has a '3 Year Professional Warranty' and includes Free Shipping made it good enough to make me jump on one ;) Add to that the fact that they've sold so many plus the great communications I've received from the Rep and it already feels like a good buy.
I obviously don't have it yet as it will be delivered early May so I can't comment on it however I hope this may benefit other OzBargainers looking around for Saws.
Better get one of those 3 years no questions asked replacement warrantly ones from Bunnings/Masters. I have a 909 from Masters and it's been going strong for over 2 years I think. Still the original blade and runs smooth as! Been using it a lot over the past year.