Accessories

Great Saw At First But Don't Use Too Often
I Bought this saw about a year ago and thought it was wonderful. Everything on it worked great. A couple of months later the handle to tighten the miter adjustment stripped out. I ordered replacement parts from Makita and received them in a very timely fasion. Shortly after that it stripped again so I made my own replacement parts that work much better. Unfortunately other cheap plastic parts on it are starting to fail and fall apart. 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.

great saw
Well after running some wood thought it I am glad I got it. Works great and runs super smooth.

Several inexcusable design flaws
I'm an occasional weeked do-it-your-selfer. I've owned my Makita 2704 for about 8 months, and I've completed several projects with it, including three nice pieces of furniture. 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. All those are very nice features.

So why only three stars? 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. The Bosch allows such alignment, why not Makita? There's also the nuisance of putting on or removing the blade guard. I know some people say they don't use guards. I hope they're not ripping without one, because if they are they will soon enough eat a board. 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.

Some further complaints. The throat plate is very flimsy, which can really affect accuracy when cutting small pieces. And finally, my biggest aggravation -- the fence and the table extension. The fence locks onto the table extension, which is not very securely held in place by the supposed locking levers. So the fence (actually the table extension) wobbles from side to side as you push your work through the saw. 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.

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. It's a real shame.

Very good saw for professionals
A month ago I bought this saw from Tyler Tools to replace the old Delta 9" I've been lugging out to jobs. Now that I've used it daily I feel that I'm qualified to write this review. This is a very good little saw. 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. All the tools store on-board the saw base - tightly. Just like the Bosch - the blade storage is also on-board the base. I bet the machined aluminum table will long outlast the Bosch and Rigid as will the metal gears. 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. Another reviewer commented that the bevel release levers were flimsy. Well - you really don't need to crank on it that much to release or lock it. Unfortunately the saw doesn't come packaged with any finesse. That you have to bring to work yourself.
This saw has more than enough power to handle ripping most any materials. The fence is sufficient. You got to remember it's not a cabinet saw and your not buying a Biesemeyer fence. The table extension works great.
The reasons I didn't give it a fifth star:
1. Makita greased up the front and rear fence rails with what appears to be cosmolene. Why? I had to wipe the thing down when I first unpacked it and I'm still wiping it off.
2. 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.
3. The plastic push stick is pure home owner crap. 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! You won't regret it.

Great Saw
The makita table saw is a great all around saw. It is easy to move around and is very stable with the portable stand. The only bad part of my deal was with amazon. The checkout is confusing and if you need to talk with someone about a mistake or a problem good luck. CUSTOMER SERVICE HERE SUCKS.