Metabo KS 216 Lasercut Compound Mitre Saw
3 reviews
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- +6
A cheap offering, damaging the Metabo brand! – On 17/01/23 I took delivery of a Metabo KS 216 M drop saw. Despite it's professional appearance, it fails to meet some basic standards. Let's start with the least important thing which is "dust extraction", and move down. It's almost non existent. As can be seen from my photos, far more sawdust ends up on the saw base than goes up into the collection bag. There were only four cuts taken to produce this amount of dust. As I'm now stuck with this saw, I'll see what I can organize in terms of having a vacuum cleaner attached to it.
Now for the all important workpiece clamp, again as can be seen from my photos, if you place the clamp on the right side of the saw, there is no space for the saw body (and blade) to descend into. Therefore it cannot be used in the vertical position. Let's look at the alternative horizontal position. As I have illustrated in the last photo, this would only be suitable for a piece of wood at least as thick as the round part of the clamp head. Any other scenario would be very dangerous. This limits it's horizontal use quite significantly.
Absolutely the most disappointing fault with this saw is it's inability to give accurate cuts. Let me explain. The first thing I did with this saw was to cut a block of wood (as seen in one picture) at 90 degrees and check it with my highly accurate engineers' square. The cut was way off. I loosened the four bolts holding the fence and adjusted it to be exactly square to my blade (perpendicular). I then did a re-cut and found it was still off. I played with this until I got it to the point of being reasonable. I then moved the saw table to the 15 degree position from the direction of the right. I moved it back to the 90 degree position and did another cut, only to find my cut was way off again. I then realized that there is a huge inaccuracy in the "stops" for the mitre settings. Move the table from one direction and "feel" the 15 degree stop, then go to the other direction and back to 15 degree stop and there is a visible difference as to where it stops. I have illustrated this fact in photos. The net effect of this means that unless I set it at 90 degrees and leave it there, any time I want to cut any angle other than 90, let's say 30 degrees, firstly I have to check that it is 30 degrees, and when I'm finished re check my 90 degree setting. To summarize this observation, the "stop points" for the mitre table are loose and sloppy. It's just sheer good luck if you stop at the right place! I bought this saw to do small work like jewelery boxes etc. so accuracy was my top priority. I have completely wasted my money as this saw is suitable for house framing and not much else. There seems little point writing about the few things I like about this saw, as it's inaccuracy overshadows and outweighs everything else.
Purchased in for $209.
Cheap components for a cheap saw – I purchased this Mitre Saw in Victoria and had problems on the first day with it. I returned it under warranty and they found it had a warped blade - straight from the factory. Following this I had used it as a home project saw here and there. Simple cutting is fine, the laser is good however often needed adjusting. 2 years in and after a low amount of work hours the gearbox in the saw went, cheap components - You get what you pay for.
Additionally, Metabo have not honored their 3 year warranty stating it is "not a manufacturing issue". Offering a $142 fee to fix the saw which costs $197 new.
I would not recommend this saw, spend a few more dollars to get something that will last.
Great accuracy and reliability – This saw is very accurate. I do a lot of joinery which requires a dead flat end on a rail to be joined to a leg / stile so that glue will adhere to both surfaces with no gaps. This saw allows me to do that. I previously owned a Ryobi compound saw which was fine for cutting timber to length, but the end was not quite square (about 1 degree out) and not quite flat (there was too much play in the blade producing an almost rounded end). Although this is okay for trimming timber to length, this was not satisfactory for glue joints, which is why I upgraded to this Metabo saw.
As usual, there are adustments to square up the blade to the table (i.e. bevel angle of 90 degrees) as well as adjustments available to square up the fence to the cutting line (i.e. mitre angle of 90 degrees). I rarely make bevel cuts so cannot comment on its accuracy. Bare in mind though that is only a left-tilting bevel cut. The mitre adjustment is a very tight mechanism producing accurate and repeatable mitre cuts. It will not move once tightened in place. The hold-down clamp can be used either overhead or from the front (on both sides of the saw) which is very handy for safely trimming small pieces of timber. The laser is spot-on out of the box. I rarely square off measurements with a pencil because there is no need to make a test cut; that's how much trust I have in the laser. The measurement on the right fence are also a useful feature as well as the two support outriggers on either side, although I have built a small support table which provides more support.
The only sore point is that there is no soft-start; there is quite a jerking motion when starting the motor so it definitely needs to be bolted onto a bench. Also, there is no electric brake, so if you're doing many cuts at a time, it can be annoying waiting for the blade to stop (around 5 seconds or so) before you can safely remove waste from the table. Also, depending on the type of timber being cut, particularly moist timber that Bunnings occasionally provide, the laser cover can get clogged up with saw-dust.
As for the capacity, well I use it mainly for cutting floorboards and up to 90 x 45 thick timber. It does have an included dust bag and connection for shop vacuum too but once again I can't comment on how effective this is because I don't have the room to use these features.
After using it for over three years, it hasn't had any problems. All in all, I'm happy I decided to spend a bit extra in purchasing this very accurate and reliable compound saw.
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