The Framers Forum

Hi,
Just doing amateur level framing. I have a Logan F100 Handsaw and am thinking of going electric. I can't invest in the expensive models that the professionals use. Are the electric mitre saws that are advertised on sites like Screwfix suitable for cutting frames? If so, is there any particular model which anyone would recommend?

Thanks in advance

Simple answer is no. Most mitre saws will not be accurate enough to get anywhere near decent corners.

The expensive ones such as a festool kapex can be very accurate, but for the same money, you can get a decent morso. I have a dewalt 773 (about £200 at screwfix) and with an 80 tooth blade, is just good enough for fitting architraves and skirting boards, but not frame mouldings.

If you are using bare woods and hand finishing, you may just get away with a cheaper mitre saw and some filler.

One other alternative is to use a mitre saw to overcut your moulding and use a mitre trimmer to make the final cut. I think axminster tools sell those.

Nick

Well not really, but there are people who find ways of using them. Accuracy wise thay are not really good enough for franing. Some people use a disk sander to clean up the mitre angle to exactly 45 degrees and an accurate vertical angle of 90 degrees. Your saw blade need to be a fine one with lots of teeth on the blade. There is always a little bit of wobble in the saws bearings as well. There will be quite a bit of messing around to get things set up. It's certainly not impossible, but it's not necessarily all that easy either.

They are people on the internet who make frames on the a table saw with a mitre sled, but it's anyone's guess how accurate this is likely to be. Which ever way that you do it, there are going to be some issues with accuracy which will necessitate some fine tuning. You will need a very accurate way of setting the table saw blade to vertical each time you want to use it for framing. It's a lot easier using a Morso!

Think about where you are going to be using your saw and all the air borne dust it will create. The dust gets everywhere!

I use a pair of DIY chop saws in a dedicated set up. I use it more than my Morso, mainly for wider mouldings.

Bear in mind though..... I only use it on bare mouldings that are going to be finished after joining. It is (surprisingly?)
accurate, but any minor chips and whiskers and tiny gaps get 'made good' when the frame is finished. I wouldn't really
recommend it for finished moulding.

** Although the saws were quite accuarate straight out of the box, having a pair allows one to be tweaked be slewing it
slightly on the bench. The same principle as the Left Fence Tweak on a Morso. Also you don't have to swing the head and
disturb the angle.
*** The saws are Makita. The pukka Japanese machines. Watch out for Chinese made versions made under license which are
half the price. The whole setup came in at <£500. I swapped the 24T blades it came with for 80T negative rake.