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However, I can counter some of the nay sayers with regard to the rip fence. It is very strong and works effortlessly. Just read a bit and you'll see that you merely have to adjust two screws. Got the saw on Ebay (sorry Amazon) for about $430 and the stand on Ebay (oops again) for $196. As for the stand.I love it.
I purchased the 2704 separate from the stand. Just basically use it for ripping at this point. It does securely tighten when you follow the owners manual. It does store the saw vertically. I am a first time purchaser and, for that matter, user of a table saw.
Completely satisfied thus far. I did so and fence remained tight and cuts were extremely accurate.
I am a big believer in Makita tools and own many for my contracting business, but I strongly suggest buying a different saw. The best part on the saw is the folding stand which I now use to hold my old De Walt rack and pinion table saw. Shortly after that it stripped again so I made my own replacement parts that work much better. I ordered replacement parts from Makita and received them in a very timely fasion. Everything on it worked great. I Bought this saw about a year ago and thought it was wonderful. A couple of months later the handle to tighten the miter adjustment stripped out. Unfortunately other cheap plastic parts on it are starting to fail and fall apart.
Well after running some wood thought it I am glad I got it. Works great and runs super smooth.
It's possible to wiggle your arm under the saw base to reach the button for releasing the blade guard latch on the Makita, but there has to be a better way. I bought the saw because of the stand, the T slots in the table, the adjusting wheel for the blade bevel, and the large rip depth. It's a real shame. I hope they're not ripping without one, because if they are they will soon enough eat a board. I know the 2704 is a contractors saw, but that seems a poor excuse for leaving off any way to adjust the alignment of the table to the blade. Some further complaints. So the fence (actually the table extension) wobbles from side to side as you push your work through the saw.
The fence locks onto the table extension, which is not very securely held in place by the supposed locking levers. I managed to fix the problem by using two small Irwin clamps to hold the table extension solidly in place, but it should not be necessary to jury rig a fix like that, and it it wouldn't work very well for ripping anything more than a foot wide. There's also the nuisance of putting on or removing the blade guard. I've owned my Makita 2704 for about 8 months, and I've completed several projects with it, including three nice pieces of furniture. All those are very nice features.So why only three stars. I know some people say they don't use guards.
The throat plate is very flimsy, which can really affect accuracy when cutting small pieces. The bottom line is that some inexcusable design flaws have marred what otherwise would be the state of the art best portable saw on the market. I'm an occasional weeked do-it-your-selfer. The Bosch allows such alignment, why not Makita. And finally, my biggest aggravation -- the fence and the table extension.
My opinion of Makita tools might be biased because of past good experiences with their other tools (though their cordless tools don't impress me much) however there is just no denying that this is a well designed machine. The table extension works great. 3. Well - you really don't need to crank on it that much to release or lock it. The fence is sufficient. All the tools store on-board the saw base - tightly. Another reviewer commented that the bevel release levers were flimsy. I had to wipe the thing down when I first unpacked it and I'm still wiping it off.2.
Now that I've used it daily I feel that I'm qualified to write this review. You got to remember it's not a cabinet saw and your not buying a Biesemeyer fence. The reasons I didn't give it a fifth star:1. Although the stand seems to be working just fine - I don't have that kind of faith in it - yet. The jury is still out. Makita greased up the front and rear fence rails with what appears to be cosmolene.
I bet the machined aluminum table will long outlast the Bosch and Rigid as will the metal gears. The plastic push stick is pure home owner crap. Unfortunately the saw doesn't come packaged with any finesse. This is a very good little saw. Just like the Bosch - the blade storage is also on-board the base.
That you have to bring to work yourself.This saw has more than enough power to handle ripping most any materials. You won't regret it. Makita could have spent the cost of it by adding 1 foot more to the length of the power cord.So, all you contractors and big dollar carpenters, hurry on down to your favorite on-line store (Tyler Tools) and get yourself this mighty fine saw. A month ago I bought this saw from Tyler Tools to replace the old Delta 9" I've been lugging out to jobs. I hooked up the shop vac to the saw's dust port and was relieved of 90% of the dust generated during the ripping of MDF.
Why.
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