The Bosch Professional GCM 800 SJ Sliding mitre saw certainly isn’t the most affordable, but it is excellent value. The power and precision are both unbeatable. Despite this, however, this saw is very lightweight and surprisingly compact. In fact, it’s close to perfect.
The frustrating point about this mitre saw is that the issues with it could all have been easily fixed at practically no extra cost to Bosch. Possibly the most annoying point is the fact that the instruction manual is, literally, a waste of paper. Fortunately, this saw is very intuitive to use. It’s also popular enough for the answers to any questions to be available online.
It’s mildly annoying that there’s no included dustbag. Admittedly, you can improvise one, but at this price, you’d have thought Bosch could have put one in the box. Similarly, the absence of a laser really isn’t a huge issue.
Lasers can be handy but they really only work well in fairly dim light and that’s not ideal for using power tools (or even manual tools). That said, at this price point, it would have been nice to have had one.
The last minor gripe is that this mitre saw isn’t ideal for trench cutting. We’ve heard of people dealing with this by switching out the provided nut with one from a local hardware store. This might be something to investigate if you do a lot of trench cutting. Alternatively, you might just want to practice until you’re comfortable using this saw “as is”. Again, it’s a minor frustration rather than a huge issue. Overall, this is still a great sliding mitre saw.
