DeWalt DWS709 Miter Saw Review: Take advantage of 13 stop intervals that allow for micro-adjustments, resulting in greater cutting accuracy.

Though woodworking can make for an excellent hobby, it is a discipline that requires adequate tools in combination with skill and experience for the best results. Along the lines of tools, this is a review of the DeWalt DWS709 sliding miter saw.

The unit is quite impressive and yields a great cut capacity. The price tag is a bit on the higher side of the spectrum, but based on what is being offered, the unit may be worth it. This review is going to be categorized into various sections of interest, after which a recommendation is made.

Motor

The 15-amp motor present is rated at 3,800 RPM, which is suitable for most of the cutting needs you are likely going to have and is a very good rating as far as miter saws go. The power means you are not going to have to worry about spending unnecessary amounts of time trying to get angled cuts right, considering your efforts may be best spent elsewhere.

As it is powerful, you find that there are many materials that you can throw at it and have it cut through with relative ease. It is not hard to tell that it is designed for intricate cutting needs, and it handles them quite well.

Accuracy

Accuracy is a big deal in a miter saw, especially when you are dealing with one that has the kind of price tag present here. You can get excellent precision, which is not always the norm for sliding miter saws. The included sliding mechanism on other units tends to reduce their stability and may even cause you some trouble where blade deflection is concerned.

However, the DeWalt DWS709 Does not have any of these issues. Take advantage of 13 stop intervals that allow for micro-adjustments, which translates to greater cutting accuracy.

Weight

Miter saws that managed to combine power with a lightweight design tend to be sought after. Based on the features that are present such as the sliding mechanism and the powerful motor, you would expect it to be incredibly heavy. However, that could not be further from the truth.

Somehow, DeWalt managed to achieve all of this in an incredibly compact design, which puts its weight at around 50 pounds. For a sliding miter saw, that is quite impressive. Of course, this means transportation is no problem at all. Now, isn’t that some excellent news if your trade takes you on the go?

Slide System

As a sliding miter saw, this is one of the standout features of the unit that translates to its tremendous cutting capability. Unlike non-sliding units, you can get through wider board types, without flipping the board and making a second cut. That’s essentially the reason you would opt for such an option, and this one is incredibly adept at what it does.

With ball bearings, sturdy metal elements, and dual rails, there is no surprise in its tremendous accuracy and the smoothness of the slide system that maintains its precision for the entire duration of a cut.

Warranty

The warranty offered with a sliding saw is always an important consideration, as it indicates the kind of redress that you are going to be offered in the event of a system fault not directly caused by you.

DeWalt tends to have a standard warranty that extends across all its power tools, and this one is no exception. What you get is the typical combination of a one-year free service agreement, as well as a three-year manufacturer’s warranty.

Dust Collection

If you are looking to break the tradition of miter saws that feature terrible dust collection capabilities, this is not the one to do it. Of course, this should not be turned off from the product, as it is more of an attribute of this saw style at this point.

Even with the presence of a mechanism dedicated to that purpose, you are going to find that most of the dust is not going to be collected.

Detent Plate and Miter Scale

You are going to find that this saw can miter 60 degrees right and 50 degrees left. As indicated before, you are not going to have any trouble cutting wide workloads without having to do a flip around and double-cut.

A stainless-steel detent plate is also present in the design, which has 13 popular increments of adjustment that you can lock at. The chosen angles are among those that you are most likely to use, which means the setup that would precede the cut should become a lot more convenient.

Bevel Scale

Reading the bevel scale included with this unit is a surprisingly easy task. It’s the kind of thing that makes having an oversized scale so beneficial. Therefore, you should have a very easy time setting your angle.

You are typically looking directly down on the miter scale, but this is not the case with the bevel scale, so having this quality-of-life enhancement mitigates how easy it would be to mess things up otherwise. 

Half-degree increments are accommodated, which allows for the additional precision needed for those jobs that can easily get messed up when things are slightly off.

Final Remarks

There is no denying that this is an exceptional design from a company that is well known in the industry for its power tools. It is incredibly suited to professional and DIY applications, though it may not be as ideal for those who only do woodworking as a hobby.

Professional grade cuts are synonymous with this model, and its lightweight design makes it conducive to handling very wide workloads. 

The oversized bevel scale is a huge plus, which translates to minimizing the kind of mistakes that you may make otherwise. Of course, accuracy is a big deal, but it’s safe to say that DeWalt things right in that regard.

The only downsides are the dust collection mechanism and the high price tag. The latter becomes less of a problem when you realize that you are getting a design that is worth it. With all this in mind, it’s not hard to give the DeWalt DWS709 a huge thumbs up and recommend it as a tremendous buy.