I received a test sample of the new Ryobi ONE+ONE cordless 10″ sliding compound miter saw last Summer (2017). As I started my initial testing, I ran into problems with the saw not being calibrated properly, and found some other annoying quirks.
Most of the issues I encountered can be corrected, with a little knowledge of how to calibrate a miter saw, but after you read my review you’ll have to ask yourself if this saw worth the trouble. To give you a little preview, I think it could be, in the right situation.
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Since I needed to calibrate the saw, a portion of this review will also show the calibration process I used, but before I go into the calibration and other issues, let’s start out by reviewing some of the specs:
- 10″ blade size
- 4000 RPM no-load speed
- Laser cutting guide line
- Baseboard Against Fence: 3-5/8″
- Crown Molding Nested (45/45): 5-1/4″
- Crown Molding Nested (52/38): 4-5/8″
- Baseboard Laying Flat: 12″
- 90° Cross Cut (nominal): 2 x 12″ or 4 x 6″
- 45° Miter Cut (nominal): 2 x 8″
- Weighs 34 lbs
The miter saw is available at Home Depot as a bare tool for $299, and includes a 10″ 40-tooth carbide blade, dust bag, work clamp, and blade wrench. If you don’t already own any Ryobi 18V batteries or a charger, you’ll have to spend at least another $100.
You’ll also probably have to order it online. At the time of this post (almost a year after the saw was released), it’s only available at one out of the 20-some Home Depots within a 100 miles of me, and that store is 86 miles away.
Available: Now
Price: $299
Buy Now(via Home Depot)
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One nice feature of the saw is that just about everything can be adjusted with the on-board wrench/screwdriver. It is stored behind the fence, through a rubber grommet that keeps it in place and prevents it from rattling.
This 5mm/#2 Phillips tool is what you use to move the blade guard, change the blade, adjust the laser, square the fence, and calibrate the scales. It can adjust everything except the bevel angle zero stop; for some reason, that requires a different sized hex key.
Speaking of moving the blade guard, you can’t get at the arbor screw by just lifting the blade guard, you have to loosen the blade guard screw and dislodge the blade guard.
Once you get the blade guard out of the way, changing the blade is easy. You just push in the arbor lock and turn the blade until it engages. Then you remove the arbor screw clockwise because it is a left-handedf screw (this confuses me for a second on every miter saw).
Laser Alignment
Right out of the box I noticed that the laser cut line wasn’t accurate. You can see above how it isn’t quite square to the cut line. The laser is split by the front of the board, but is well to the left of the kerf at the rear of the board.
It’s easy enough to adjust the laser, you just take the handy dandy screwdriver/hex key L-wrench and stick the screwdriver into the laser adjustment hole on top of the blade.
Unfortunately, when the blade guard is raised so you can see the uninterrupted line on the table, the guard blocks the adjustment screw, so you have to adjust the laser, move the guard out of the way, adjust the laser some more, move the guard out of the way… and repeat until you have the laser properly aligned with the blade.
I played with the laser adjustment for quite some time, and I was able to straighten out the laser so it was parallel with the kerf, but I was never able to move it so it overlapped the edge of the kerf exactly.
To be honest I’ve never really found a shadow line or laser cut line that was perfect, so when I’m trying to make a precise cut, I’ll always line up the pencil mark with the teeth on the blade.
Bevel Alignment
After the first few cuts I noticed that the saw wasn’t cutting straight up and down. The bevel indicator was showing 0°, but the bevel angle was clearly not 0°.
There’s a 3mm hex set screw on the side of the saw that you can adjust the 0° angle stop. There’s also a 45° stop adjustment screw that is out of sight. It’s a little frustrating that I had to go grab a different wrench.
I used a square to check the angle between the table and the blade. I thought I had the bevel angle adjusted perfectly, but my cuts were telling me differently.
A good way to check whether a cut is square, is to make a cut with the saw and then flip the waste piece over. This will double the error and you’ll see an exaggerated gap. I just couldn’t figure it out – my square was telling me the blade was square to the table, but my cuts were still off. That’s when I started looking at the table itself and found the first real problem.
Table Flatness
I grabbed my precision straightedge and a feeler gauge and found that the left side of the table was not in the same plane as the rotating part of the table. It’s 0.016″ lower, so if you rest a board on the left side of the table, it isn’t going to be square with the blade.
I checked out my Dewalt miter saw and a test sample I have from Milwaukee, and the tables on those saws weren’t perfectly flat either, but they were better than the Ryobi saw.
At this point I could either try to grind the table flat, shim the table, or just get on with the testing because it’s close enough. I’d already wasted a bunch of time on this, so I decided to move on.
Fence Issues
Once I fixed the bevel angle issue, I started noticing another issue. The blade was square with respect to one side of the fence, but if I checked the blade against the other side, it wasn’t. This means that the two sides of the fence weren’t parallel with each other.
The fence is one piece and is attached to the table with four bolts, two on each side of the blade. Just because the fence is one piece doesn’t mean that it can’t be adjusted; there is a little bit of give in both the fence itself and the bolt holes.
Since one side was already square to the blade, I loosened the two bolts on the opposite side just enough to where I could move the fence if I pushed or pulled hard. Then I used the blade as a reference and set the fence to 90° with with my square and tightened the bolts. Alternatively you could use a straightedge across the back of the fence.
If both sides of the fence aren’t square to the blade, you should probably adjust your miter stops first. At first I couldn’t find any miter stop adjustment because the stops are cast into the rotating table itself, but if you flip the saw over there are two 4mm head screws holding the stop. You’d loosen those, flip the saw back over and square the blade to the fence and tighten the knob. Then go back under the saw and tighten those screws. Just be sure to adjust your miter scale when you are done.
Dust Collection
After the sawdust explosion that is the Milwaukee 10″ cordless miter saw, one of the things I’ve been really watching for is dust collection. So it’s pretty much the first thing I tried when I unpacked the Ryobi One+One miter saw.
Above you’ll see how much dust the saw spits out while cutting a single 2×4 with just the dust bag attached. The bag alone didn’t perform too badly. Most of the sawdust ended up behind the saw with only a little in front or off to the side.
The dust port on the back fits a 1-1/4″ hose, so I pulled out my little shop vac to compare the results. After cleaning up all the sawdust from the saw and my truck bed, I attached the vacuum to the dust port and cut another 2×4.
The difference is marked. While there is a little bit of dust that you can’t see because of the small photo size, you can still tell the difference made by attaching a vacuum.
Projects
Once I had fixed all the calibration issues with the miter saw, it was cutting accurate enough to tackle my first project: making a sliding barn door for my son’s room.
The saw worked well for this project and the cuts were accurate enough that I didn’t have any problems with pieces being out of line when I put it together.
When I started using the Ryobi saw for finishing the trim in my hallway, I got frustrated with the fit of my miters. The bevel error was preventing the joints from closing. So I started using my old 12″ Dewalt miter saw. Things went much better after that.
I did spend quite a bit of time fiddling with the saw, trying to shim the table so it was flat, but I gave up and decided only to use it for rougher work.
Power
The most challenging test I put to the saw was cutting a piece of 8/4 ash that was 7″ wide. It’s no wet 4×6, but it’s probably more than most people will cut with the saw. In my quick demo video, you can hear the saw growl a little as I get into the meat of the wood, but at no time does it really seem to have difficulty.
I had already already swapped the included 40- tooth blade for a 60-tooth blade, because the 40 tooth was leaving quite a bit of tearout. This test wasn’t on fresh batteries either. I had made quite a few cuts already and the 4.0Ah P108 batteries’ fuel gauges were showing 3 out of 4 bars remaining.
Summary
Can you expect a lower cost, consumer grade miter saw to be calibrated perfectly out of the box? I don’t know, but if you want to get the best performance out of any miter saw, you’re going to want to check its calibration every once in a while, as even the best saws can go out of square.
Before I summarize the issues I had with this saw, lets look at what I liked about it:
- It’s really compact and light, making it easy to move for a 10″ miter saw, let alone a slider
- Once it’s calibrated, it performs okay
- It has plenty of power
- It has a blade brake
- Dust collection with a vacuum isn’t bad
Here are the problems I had with the saw:
- The saw wasn’t accurate out of the box, and took a lot of work to calibrate it
- The table isn’t flat enough for precision work
- The blade guard gets in the way of changing blades and laser calibration
- Included blade tears out badly
- The sliding action is stiff
I didn’t get a chance to mention it above, but the head sliding on the rails is a little stiff. It takes more effort than I would like to get it moving, and when you do it isn’t as smooth as I think it should be.
Now here’s the hard part, would I recommend this saw? If you are doing indoor trim work or fine furniture, it might be possible to set up this saw to do a good job, but you’re probably going to be better off with another saw.
If you are framing, building a deck, or even making some patio furniture, and you don’t mind spending some time to set the saw up properly — it’s light, powerful, and it’s inexpensive compared to other saws in it’s class.
Would I buy this saw? Not if it was to be my only miter saw. Despite not trusting it for trim work, I find myself using it for small jobs, like cutting a few 2x4s or making larger cuts that are awkward on a table saw or a non-sliding miter saw. It is really nice to be able to carry a 10″ sliding miter saw where I need it without straining or bruising myself in the process
Buy Now(via Home Depot)
Thank you to Ryobi for supplying the review sample unconditionally.
Raoul
That saw sounds like it would drive me crazy and I would never use it. If accuracy isn’t an issue I would go for the circ saw and if I really needed a miter I would set up a better saw.
It is always a good idea to calibrate saws especially new ones. That said I have bought about 5 Dewalt 12″ sliding compound miter saws over the last 15 years and if I remember correctly every one of them came out of the box perfectly calibrated. Dewalt’s design may be getting dated compared to some of the newer ones but the saws just work and you don’t have to worry much about them. I liken them to a Toyota, accurate, and should last for 250,000 miles.
Chris
Same when I bought my 780… The thing was dead on the money in every respect of the saw, it was perfect with every cut
Pete
I really want to believe you got a saw with a bit of a lemon taste lol. I was really hoping this saw would be better, and it’s probably good enough for most of what i’m doing most of the time BUT theres there would always be that nagging feeling that my cordless saw isn’t good enough for finish work.
Patrick H
I got this saw for Christmas and I didn’t bother with the stock blade. That was the first thing to go. I did minimal calibration on mine and it has been pretty good so far I haven’t done anything super precise with it yet but i haven’t had any problems yet. I have found myself going to it over the dewalt corded saw just for the mobility. Maybe I’m not as demanding as Ben or maybe I just lucked out on my particular saw.
RC WARD
When you have to ask yourself “is it worth the trouble?” It isn’t.
Stuart
True, but for someone that wants a higher capacity cordless saw, but cannot budget more for a pro-grade brand, the tradeoff is lower cost for potentially longer setup and calibration involvement.
Craig Tate
I had similar issues with there lil cordless miter saw. The main treason why I stayed with it was because its super light and cheap…also needed a better blade..I would not use it if I had to have professional level results like hardwood trim, but for painted stuff and 2x4s its fine (once adjusted)….on a sidenote I kept having issues getting zero on the table (the detent leaves much to be desired) so I removed the stock plastic green insert and replaced it with a thin, long piece of steel to give me a handle out the front. Made adjusting the table many times easier once the tool was screwed down. At any rate its great for my needs but not for a professional in my opinion.
fred
If you are only cutting trim – you could make a new auxiliary base and fence out of MDF. The disadvantage is that you need to spend some time to get it accurate and you lose cutting capacity. What you gain is it acts a bit like a zero-clearance insert for a table saw – helping with tearout (you should not have this anyway with a high quality sharp/clean blade). I understand that you don’t get much for $299 – but sometimes frugality is not accomplished by buying cheap.
Joe
You can get a Dewalt 7 1/4 mitre for less. It would cut most finish trim perfectly. Why bother with this ? I love some Ryobi cordless tools but not for trim work. Much better options out there.
Koko The Talking Ape
I really appreciate the details in this review, especially re all the difficulties in setting this guy up. You are a patient man, Ben! I would have thrown the thing against the wall.
Nathan
I like the thread and a great comment on quality of devices. Since I’m still on the shop for a new mitre saw it might be an interesting guide or test review to just show which saws on the market are accurate.
I mean I admit I assume there is some level of accuracy when I look at saws but you know they aren’t exactly rated for accuracy today. I mean there’s no accuracy specs on a mitre or table saw box that I know of. So it’s a good thing to discuss.
Joe
Still waiting for Kobalt, Ridgid or Hitachi to release this kind
Ben
I have the corded 10″ Ryobi miter saw and have had no issues with it. Hard to think you wouldn’t calibrate right out of the box. Regardless if DeWalt you never had to. You would think best practices would call for calibrating before first use.
David Zeller
I appreciate the details of what you went through. That said, I wonder about basing our opinions on the evaluation a test population of one. It seems your feelings were greatly affected by the flatness of the bed. Now I want to check three at the store!
Hopefully, other examples are better. Of course any of us could have gotten yours…
Also, a question/idea. Was the guard in such a location that you could have drilled a small hole for access to the laser adjustment screws, without detriment to the guard, of course?
Benjamen
I agree that it’s problematic to rely on only one sample, but what is the alternative? Ask for 6 samples or have ToolGuyd purchase 6 samples? How do you choose the samples? Buy them from random stores? Ideally maybe reviewers could cooperate and take some objective measurements and report the results, but that is a large undertaking.
Plus sample size isn’t the only influence. Did Ryobi send me a cherry picked saw to influence the review, did they send me pre-production sample, or did they send me a random one picked out of a warehouse?
I thought of the same thing, drilling a hole to access the laser adjustment screw. I don’t think it would effect the performance, but the point is really I shouldn’t have to.
ToolOfTheTrade
I think you kinda went overboard with the out of the box calibration for your test sample free miter saw. I’m sure every miter saw ever made has a flaw and are not true in the sense of precision machining. It’s a miter saw where there are tolerances in every single cut that is made because it’s used for cutting wood and it is made to accurately cut wood with tolerances, which most of the time, the human eye ain’t gonna pick up on. You’re not cutting steel to be used for precision machining, which a miter saw would never be an option for. This saw is primarily used for framing and rough work like decks, porches, exterior and interior trim etc. I don’t think that a woodworker would use this in his shop unless it’s for rough dimension cutting. You also have to remember that these are high production tools and factories are trying to spit out as many parts as possible to have it assembled, boxed, and shipped for sale as quickly as possible. They’re not spending a great deal of time on inspection and quality control for each and every single part. Also, I bought the Dewalt 20v miter saw and it is awesome and it was cheaper than this one.
Benjamen
That photo I show of 2×4 cut and flipped over is the best I could do after spending all the time calibrating the saw. You should have seen the gap out of the box before I tried calibrating it; it wasn’t even suitable for framing.
I would expect a consumer grade saw to come out of the box and be able to cut a butt joint without being out of square to the naked eye in several planes.
I ask you this: If you are cutting a face frame out of 3/4″ stock and there’s a 1/16″ of an inch difference between the top of the joint and the bottom — Is that acceptable? That’s the level this saw was at out of the box.
Stuart
There are very many wood-cutting applications where you need precision. Miter saws are absolutely used for fine woodworking, all the time. Frames, trim, custom fabrications, etc.
Tools can be knocked out of calibration during shipping, with use, or mishandling. Personally, I get annoyed when too many things are misaligned out of the box. But if something is misaligned out of the box and hard to correct?
I agree, Dewalt’s 20V Max miter saw is awesome (except for the guard during blade changes). But it’s also a much smaller saw.
Separately, I’m really happy that you like your Dewalt miter saw. You might not remember, but in mid-2016, you were passionately opposed to the idea of a cordless miter saw. In mid-2017, you said you tried one, and it was pretty cool. And now, “it is awesome.”
(I can post the comment links here if you want the reminder.)
As you experienced, different needs and experiences can lead to different expectations and demands from a tool. So please try to be open-minded.
It’s okay to have disagreeing opinions.
Some users, myself included, prefer tools that are easier to calibrate properly. A lot of errors can be compounded, to where a seemingly small error leads to gaps and joints that need to be heavily corrected – at the least.
Frank D
Reminds me of the calibration issues with my cast iron ridgid saw … except I could not do it at home (over torqued and glued bolts? Who knows ) … had supposedly dissamble it so i could transport it, to take it to a service center, where it get assembled, fixed, dissambled for transport home … then …
I just took it back to Home Depot for a refund, and bought a contractor’s table saw on wheels.
Frank D
Instead of all that hassle, I just took it back to home depot.
ktash
I owned what I think is the corded version of this saw. Very similar experience to what Benjamen describes. The single fence out of line, too much slop in the sliding, not square, etc. When I tried to loosen some parts they were overtorqued and stripping them was a real possibility. I took it back in less than 24 hours. The dust collection looked better than many, which is one reason I tried it. Interesting, Ben, that you noted this as a strong point.
Guess I’m spoiled by my non sliding Hitachi, which didn’t need calibration and is still going strong. Paid $80 or $90 for an on sale damaged box item. If Hitachi makes a similar corded saw to this slider at an affordable price I’ll be very tempted and will probably try it. Not sure if they are keeping the same quality since they are now owned by someone else, but I hope so. Again, the dust collection will figure in.
I’d even pay a fair amount more for really good dust collection in a 10″ slider. Not Festool prices, but festool level dc from a company like dewalt, bosch, etc.