Delta Miter Saws for Dummies

Delta Compound Miter Saw

The house carpenter says that nothing chaps her hind end more than some creative writing student pretending to know enough about carpentry and woodworking to write how-to instructions. They get measurements wrong, botch the order of steps, leave out critical information, and emphasize trivial points. And then there are the ones who, like eHow.com's Missy Farage, think they can reword an instruction manual to explain "How to Use a Delta Compound Miter Saw." Ugh: that one hurts to read!

Farage's unfamiliarity with the tool resulted in this stilted and ultimately useless introduction:

"Compound miter saws are a much-needed evolutionary advancement of the old-fashioned miter box and saw. Compound miter saws allow you to cut flawless and specific angles with a rotating blade. Forget the struggle of sawing; with a compound miter saw, cut your lumber with the press of a button. Delta compound miter saws combine the accuracy of a miter box with the convenience and ease of an electrical tool."

Oh, yeah: and things went downhill from there... but first, let's see Missy's definition of a compound miter saw and how she defines "compound":

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OK, moving on: first, Missy says to

"Unlock the miter saw by pressing down on the handle and unscrewing a small knob located beside the miter saw bed."

Unlock what, Missy? There are (at least) three functions possible here; unlocking the motor, unlocking the miter table, and unlocking the bevel. Which is it? Missy goes on to tell readers to "Adjust the angle of the saw blade to correspond to the angle you want to cut. The Delta miter saw has a half-circular attachment beside the saw bed that is ticked with degrees. By squeezing on a grip, you can adjust the angle of the saw to a specific degree, ranging between 270 to 0 and 0 to 90 degrees."

The carpenter says she understands the "squeezing on a grip" bull, but only because she's actually used a Delta miter saw. She does, however, say that Farage is completely full of crap with that "ranging between 270 to 0 and 0 to 90 degrees" bull. In the first place, the miter table only rotates through an angle of just over 45 degrees; in the second place, the bevel mount doesn't release the way Missy describes it: you loosen a large knob on the back of the motor mount to tilt the carriage.

Farage blathers on about how to "press the button to send the saw blade spinning" and lower the blade arm, before misinforming her readers about how the on-off switch works:

"The saw blade will stop spinning once the blade arm is in its upright position."

No, Missy, the blade stops when you release the trigger.

Farage demonstrated complete unfamiliarity with the tool in question, all for the purpose of collecting a few bucks. She said nothing about setting the bevel, nothing about marking the workpiece, nothing about cutting along a marked line. In short, our Missy proved that the award of Dumbass of the Day is richly deserved.

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