Miter Saws
A Guide By

A miter saw (powered) usually refers to a power tool used to make a quick, accurate crosscut in a work piece. Miter saw blades are mounted on an arm that pivots left or right to produce angled cuts, most frequently in wood (though some plastics and light metals may also be cut).

Common uses include framing and cutting molding and trim. Most miter saws are portable, with common blade sizes ranging from eight to 12 inches.

A distinguishing feature of the miter saw is the “miter index”. The miter index allows the angle of the blade to be changed relative to the fence. While most miter saws provide "stops" that allow the miter index to be quickly set to common angles (such as 15°, 22.5°,  33.9°, or 45°), higher-end saws allow for precise adjustments to fractions of a degree.

A compound-miter saw has a blade-arm that pivots left/right, and tilts the cutting blade relative to the horizontal plane. Adjusting the saw on both of its axes at once yields a compound miter cut. Compound-miter saws are useful for picture frames, crown molding, or any project that requires angled cuts in two planes. The advantage to cutting crown molding using this method is that no bevel cut is required. Therefore, when adjusting the saw for out of square corners, the user needs to only adjust the miter system, as opposed to both miter and bevel systems when laying crown materials flat. Most of these saws allow for adjustments between 0° and 50°. A “double-bevel” compound saw allows for adjustments from -50° to 50°.

The only down-fall to miter and compound-miter saws is that they are usually not able to make a crosscut though wider boards in one clean pass like the radial arm saw can. This is where sliding compound-miter saws come in handy. Sliding compound-miter saws combine the features of both the chop and compound miter saw with the ability to crosscut through boards that are up to twice the width of boards you can chop through in a single pass on a regular miter saw .

A power miter/compound-miter saw is one of the best tools to cut tight-fitting joints on all kinds of moldings: window and door trim, baseboard and crowns. With a power miter saw and a sharp saw blade, it’s easy to fine-tune a joint for a perfect fit by slightly adjusting the angle or trimming off a hair’s width. And you’ll discover all kinds of other cutting chores that are easier with a miter saw too.

It is common for higher end saws to also come with laser guides.  Most laser systems will project one laser beam where the blade will pass on the material you are cutting.  This is handy especially when you are making bevel cuts where it is more difficult to get close by just looking at it.  Although it is not necessary, it can speed up the time involved in measuring and positioning where the blade will cut.  Most laser guides are adjustable for either side of the blade or down the center of the blade kerf.  There are also some systems out that have double laser guides that can be set for the width of the kerf.