huh what's going on here in today's exciting episode we talk about this makita drop saw
the 40 volt and why i use it every single day
i've been using this makita drop saw for like five months now and originally it was
just so i could put it through its paces try it out but then i started using it
every day because it was my favorite drop sword to use every day now full disclosure
makita gave me this drop saw they didn't tell me what to say they didn't pay me anything they just
gave me the drop saw because of the exposure that it will get on the channel and according
to new zealand law i have to put advertisement here but having said that i'm going to tell you
exactly what i like about it but i'm also going to tell you exactly what i don't like about it
let's start with a positive i like to think of myself as a positive person depth adjustment
this little lever thing in here you move in if you just want to do regular cuts but if you want
to do a depth adjustment you move it out then it has this little spring-loaded screw that you can
adjust to go up and down and it works really well and because it's spring-loaded
you can literally watch it go down a couple of mil at a time and if you have a mark on
the end of your piece of timber you can get that blade exactly onto that mark
and that's for like if you're doing a checkout or something like that where you don't want to
cut all the way through your timber and then as soon as you're done with it you just push
that lever back in and the blade goes right down that's a good little system it works well
my favorite thing at first when i got the saw was how compact
and lightweight it is i always keep a drop saw here and the van behind the driver's seat
at the moment i just keep it on the job but it's usually there so you have to dip down a little
bit and then pull it out so having one that is a manageable way is super important to me and this
one is like 20 kilos i'll double check that and i'll put it right there but it's a lot lighter
than almost all of my other drop saws because i'm a spoiled youtuber pretty much i have four drop
source to choose from i bought the festool the kpx i had the dewalt uh had that for years maybe over
10 years makita gave me this one and milwaukee gave me their drop saw that would probably be the
closest comparison to this one the milwaukee wins in terms of compact and light weight
but it lacks the depth adjustment and the depth of cut that this one has so i've built this little
platform and installed this staircase here to get up to the platform this is the attic storage and
when i was cutting the plywood up here i would actually cut little bits of it on the drop saw
and that is because the drop saw has a very deep cut for how small the blade is at 90 degrees it
can go 70 mil by 312 mil when i'm saying depth i'm probably saying it wrong but i mean from the
fence to the furthest point toward the handle there that forward rail design that they've
been putting in more and more miketosaurs and it's sort of reminiscent of the festool that's
part of the reason why it can stay so compact and come out so far that's another thing i like
now obviously it's a 40 volt drop saw it's a cordless drop saw it takes 140 volt battery
and it has this bluetooth chip here so when you get the matching makita vacuum like this
it also has a bluetooth chip then you have a nice bluetooth pairing system for the dust extraction
again i've been using my festool midi vacuum for years and i really like that vacuum it's an
awesome vacuum but it's not it's not a bluetooth one they have bluetooth ones now and they have a
different way of connecting it with their drop saws but this one here has the chips and those
chips are on the circular saws they're on the planers they're on a lot of their other
makita tools i was a little dubious about the bluetooth system you know like its consistency
and working once you get it paired which can take sometimes like 30 seconds it's good to go
now number five of the things that i like about the makita 40 volt miter saw
is probably the thing that i expected the least and that is the angle adjustment system
i called it that i don't know what you'd call it but the ways in which you can change the angles
on this miter saw now all happens down here at the handle once you loosen the front one
that will let you do the base and the base goes up to 60 degrees both ways
and it also has this indent lever so once the lever's down you bypass the indents and
once the lever is up it locks into your common angles now that's pretty standard right that's
what you'd have on all drop saws but this one here the other circle once you loosen that
that is the thing that tightens and loosens the top of the mitre saw so you don't have to reach
around the back change your angle and then reach around the back and tighten it you tighten and
loosen it all from the front so you're here i'm happy with that tighten that doesn't move the
only reaching over that you do have to do is this little lever at the front you just pull
that forward and that lets you tilt the blade in the other direction very cool angle system
that's awesome the things that i dislike about this drop saw there's always something
of course there's always something number one the light has its own button
why why does the light have its own button the button is up here
so you go to make a cut you press the button the light goes on it casts a shadow
that you know lets you know where the blade is going to hit when you get to the timber
you make your cut you go away you nail some timber together and then when you come back more often
than not the light is off again it's a nuisance so the milwaukee when you pull the trigger on
the milwaukee the light goes on and it stays on for a certain period of time you cut come back
and when you pull the trigger again the light goes on obviously this is a very minor thing but just
having to go up there and go like that every time is a minor nuisance so i prefer it the other way
um another thing that's up here with the light switch is the vacuum switch and you don't press
that when you go to make a cut as long as your bluetooth is paired when you pull the trigger
the vacuum goes on but if you don't want to pull the trigger to turn the vacuum on you press this
and then you press it again and then after a few seconds
it turns off the good thing about that is you can press that button
take that out and you can clean the base of your saw without having to have a spinning blade near
your hands that's pretty cool i really like that now another dislike or drawback let's say
just a thing to consider if you want to buy a drop saw is you're going to miss out on the depth
that's a 90 more piece of wood and you can't cut an animal piece of wood up on edge like that you
could probably cut a 90 ml skirting on edge like that you've got a bit of space here from the bolt
where you'd probably sneak it in behind the bolt but a 4x2 like this
or a 2x4 if you're american you can't cut it like that you have to cover like this so that's one
thing you'd probably want to consider if you're thinking about this saw you're missing out on that
that height now while we're on the subject of the base another limitation is the fence it's not that
high it's about as high as the width of my phone whenever i want to do skirting or high quality
finishing timber especially on that villa job we did and bungalow job i'll get the festool capex
out it's got a nice high fence and also a higher cut capacity this is limited in that way but i'm
not doing that every day so that's why this is the daily saw now the fourth drawback is the price the
thing i dislike about this is the price obviously it didn't apply to me because i was lucky enough
to be given the saw but if you're considering this just keep in mind that you can probably
get a similar saw maybe with a few less features for about eight hundred dollars versus thirteen
hundred dollars maybe maybe you're committed to the 40 volt or maybe this has certain features
that you really like it's got to tick most of your boxes now the last thing the last drawback
the thing i i do dislike about this saw is at first i thought the dust extraction was great
that was my first impression of it the fact that it all hooks up via bluetooth and it seemed to
work well but after using it for five months it tends to block up a lot now the issue is down here
at the base it has this little port where the dust gets sucked into and then it goes through
this small tube around the side that works this way up into this other port now this other port is
connected to the blade there's a little wee shroud just behind the blade that takes dust there so
it's a good system in theory you've got two points where it's sucking up dust but i find that the
tube is too small going around there's too many tight angles for the sawdust to get jammed up
all my timber gets clogged up at the base here i basically have to put my pencil in here pull the
dust out in order for it to work again it's funny because it's not the kind of thing you notice very
often you know i'll just be cutting away cutting away not really thinking about it thinking about
whatever i'm building and then i'll come back and be like there's a lot of dust on this thing what's
wrong with it and then i'll look down and i'll just see that that port down the bottom there is
completely clogged up so um that's something to consider if dust extraction is important to you
now honorable mentions i mentioned this in my first impression video
the old pistol grip it's not like the festool you know directly above the blade but it's not far off
these handles are very divisive people don't like them people love them i'm on the love them camp
i think it's intuitive you're holding right where your cutters and you're pushing down on your cut
a lot of drops will have the handle out here and then you're kind of working against the blade
so there you go that is the makita 40 volt miter saw my five month review and why
it's my daily swirl i just like the all-round sort of functions of it it does everything i need it to
do it's lightweight it's cordless it's a handy little drop saw let me know what your favorite
dropship is or what's your best all-rounder and why and if you've got any questions about
this that maybe i didn't cover in the video yeah please ask below and i'll um i'll try
my best to answer them thanks for watching this exciting episode and i'll see you in the next one
you