DeWalt DWS780 Compound Miter Saw Review - Popular Mechanics

The Takeaway: With a table that pivots and locks effortlessly, a blade that makes accurate, clean cuts, and an LED that casts a shadow on the cutline, this is DeWalt’s most popular—and capable—compound miter saw. If you can afford the considerable cost, you’ll be able to use the DSW780 to do everything from trim work to framing. We cut framing lumber to build a workbench as well as mitered tidy little returns on window trim aprons with equal precision.

• Cuts large trim, like baseboards, flat or vertically due to the tall fence
• Cuts a full width of 2 in. by 10 in. at 45 degrees
• Simple slide lock for working on small lumber
• LED cutline helps speed and accuracy
• $536.80

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A Versatile Miter Saw

DeWalt’s 12-Inch Sliding Compound Miter Saw is a big piece of equipment with the capacity to cut large framing lumber. It will cut the full width of a 2 by 10-inch rafter at a 45-degree angle—that’s a pretty long cut. In my experience, this means the DeWalt is the only saw you’d need for most common framing tasks, with the only exception being the birdmouth cut to seat rafters on a top plate. But, as I found, it’s also great with the slide locked for fine trim work.

Open Gallery

The DeWalt’s blade was sharp and accurate, with each tooth precisely following the one before it, which produced clean, smooth cuts. So smooth, in fact, that I was able to create joints in trim tight enough to glue without any sanding or other prep. I discovered this mitering returns on Victorian-inspired window trim I was working on. To create the return on the ends of the apron—the trim below the window sill, or stool, on the inside of the house—I had to cut the ends of the apron at 45 degrees. Then I had to cap the end with another tiny piece cut at 45 degrees that wraps the trim profile around the end. It’s fiddly work that I would normally do by hand, sanding the faces of the cuts, fitting carefully, and then gluing. But, since we had the saw in the shop, I decided to give it a try. And it saved me a lot of time.

LED Cutline

LED lights project down both sides of the blade to cast a shadow that shows where the blade will fall.

DeWalt calls their cutline lighting XPS technology, but the name doesn’t really explain what it does. LEDs project light down both sides of the blade and create a shadow that falls on the cutline. As you drop the blade onto the wood, the shadow gets sharper and shows you where the blade will cut. After a couple of cuts, I found I could quickly line up my marks on the trim with the edge of the shadow to make accurate slices.

Miter Cutting

I could easily swing the table to its limit in either direction, 50 degrees left or 60 degrees right.

The table on this DeWalt miter saw pivots effortlessly, all the way to the miter limits, both left and right. I found this to be true, even when the saw was caked with sawdust. This made it easy for me to adjust the saw for different cuts quickly, without over or under shooting the angle I wanted to set. Those angles, by the way, extend beyond 45 degrees in both directions, to 50 degrees on the left and 60 degrees on the right.

Bevel Cutting

Bevel stops flip out for 22.5, 33.9, and 45 degrees.

The tall, split fence on this dual-bevel saw slides out of the way for deep bevel cuts. I only had to cut to 45 degrees, but the saw can go to 49 on both the left and right, with handy detents and flip-up stops for common angles. While we didn’t have crown molding to cut, DeWalt’s saw is set up with detents to bevel cut crown molding flat and give you perfect corners, without sorting out compound angles.

There are smaller, less expensive saws that are suitable for trim work. And there are similar less expensive saws suitable for framing jobs. But you can do it all, and do it very well, with just one tool using this Sliding Compound Miter Saw from DeWalt.

DeWalt DSW780 12-Inch Sliding Compound Miter Saw

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Pros

• LED cutline speeds up accurate cuts
• Cuts a full width of 2 x 10 inches at 45 degrees

Cons

• Sawdust collector fills quickly

Bradley FordTest EditorBrad Ford has spent most of his life using tools to fix, build, or make things. Growing up he worked on a farm, where he learned to weld, repair, and paint equipment. From the farm he went to work at a classic car dealer, repairing and servicing Rolls Royces, Bentleys, and Jaguars. Today, when he's not testing tools or writing for Popular Mechanics, he's busy keeping up with the projects at his old farmhouse in eastern Pennsylvania.