Well over half of the emails sent to me are on the subject of tools. I have no objections to responding to them but I thought it would be beneficial to start a video library of sorts to briefly touch on what I think of a particular tool or set of tools. These won’t be in depth tool reviews as I know very few people are interested in that kind of thing and I really don’t want to go over all the details. Instead I’ll just focus on the things I like about the tool, things I don’t like about the tool, and would I buy it again. I have a huge list of “episodes” that can be made and plan on releasing one per week. Hopefully this will be helpful to some people.

Ridgid 12″ Compound Sliding Miter Saw

Specifications for the Ridgid MS1290LZA can be found here: https://www.ridgid.com/us/en/12-inch-sliding-compound-miter-saw

I received the saw as payment for work completed so I did not purchase it out of pocket but also did not receive it for free.

What I like:

12″ blade gives a little extra cut capacity over a 10″ blade. Not 100% necessary but it has been handy a time or two.

13.5″ of sliding cut capacity. Again, not 100% necessary but if you don’t have a table saw with a crosscut sled this will be able to cut items like shelving material to length.

Very smooth and repeatable left and right angle adjustments. I don’t use the compound feature so I can’t speak for that.

What I don’t like:

The left fence extension on my unit is not parallel with the fence and causes cuts on taller material to not be 90 degrees. This problem was resolved by removing the fence extensions. I haven’t missed them since removing them so as of right now it’s not a huge concern.

It’s HUGE. This saw definitely takes up a lot of space. That might be a concern if you are limited for space. I really don’t like how much space I had to dedicate to it when I designed my miter saw station .

. The laser is activated by the blade spinning so it’s not convenient to use for quick reference or positioning.

The insert plate is lower than the rest of the table surface. This means when the material is being cut the bottom of the material is not supported and can result in more tearout during use. A good, clean blade as well as pushing the saw front to back when making through cuts can reduce or eliminate tearout though.

Dust collection is horrible on this saw right out of the box. That’s more of a generic miter saw problem rather than specific to this saw though.

Would I buy this miter saw again?

As I stated earlier, I did not purchase this saw out of pocket. I received it as compensation for work I did for another company. However, would I buy it if I had to rebuild my shop tomorrow? Probably not. I think I would much rather try harder to find an older radial arm saw that is in good condition and pair it with an inexpensive, non-sliding 10″ miter saw than purchase this particular saw. If I couldn’t find a decent radial arm saw I would probably settle for a regular 10 or 12″ miter saw. I never use the compound bevel feature and if I needed to make a sliding bevel cut I could do that much easier at the table saw. The sliding feature can also be replaced with a table saw crosscut sled. That being said, I’ve got it and it’s doing what I need it to do so I have no plans to replace it with something else.