Bosch Professional GCM8SJL Sliding Mitre Saw Review

One of the best things about unboxing a Bosch tool these days is the responsible packaging they use. Rather than cubic metres of polystyrene, they use a moulded cardboard that’s tough as well as reducing plastic waste.

It’s clear from the first glance that the Bosch Professional GCM8SJL is a solid and well-engineered mitre saw. The machining marks on the table, fence, and other components let you know that straight away. Bosch haven’t used as many cheap die-cast components on this saw. It’s stronger, straighter, and more reliable that way.

Bosch market this saw as a compact and lightweight mitre saw that still offers the maximum cutting capacity for a tool of this size. You can cut pretty huge pieces of timber on this saw up to 312 x 70 mm. That’s really impressive for a machine with a small size 216 mm blade on it. It’s this huge capacity that makes it an ideal workshop saw for a demanding DIYer. You’ll rarely be forced to flip the workpiece to cut through normal timbers.

However, it’s not quite light or compact enough to be a true job site saw in my opinion. The base is as small as any of the other ones on my list, but the sliding section is simply enormous. The sliding section is almost comically oversized, and even though the carry handle on the top is comfortable, it’s a pain to lug around. Weighing a meaty 17.3 kg, I wouldn’t want to carry this beat up and down the stairs too often.

Like the Metabo mitre saw, the sliding section means you need at least 40 cm of clearance behind the machine, so it’s not ideal for tiny workspaces. The front mitre locking knob juts out a fair way as well, so you need at least 31 cm front clearance when you’re set to 0°. That makes for a pretty big footprint compared with the little Evolution R210CMS.

Seeing as this is a professional-level chop saw, it comes with a whole load of features you’d expect a tradesperson to need on a day-to-day basis. One of my favourite features is the rotating turret stop for quickly setting the angle. You can select 45°, 22.5° for eight-sided objects, or even 33.9° if you’re tackling crown mouldings in seconds. And all without needing to fiddle with the tilt function.

Setting the mitre angle with the front handle is easy, accurate, and reliable. You simply pull up on the trigger with your index finger, and the table swivels round. Locking the angle in place is achieved with a few twists of the handle. And when it’s tight it’s not going to move at all! Compared with the weak performance from the Einhell TC-MS 2112, this feels like a proper professional bit of kit.

What sets the GCM8SJL above the competition is lurking underneath the front handle though. If you need to change the mitre angle a lot, you can change the detent strength of the locking knob. By turning the sprung screw underneath the lever, you can make it harder or easier to pull the trigger that releases the mitre angle. This is independent of the locking knob, which makes this a rather specialist feature, but one that professional joiners or cabinet makers will love.

Like the Metabo KGS216M, the fence comes in two parts to allow the blade to pass by at extreme angles. But unlike the Metabo, the fence is incredibly solid. The heavyweight machined aluminium rails slide out of the way but don’t have the wobble that put me off the other German brand on my list. When tightened down the fence feels rigid and flat.

There’s another simple but brilliant feature on this saw that puts it squarely in the “professional” camp, and that’s the steel cables that retain the removable fence pieces. For a tradesperson who might take them off and put them back on again several times in a day, having them attached is vital. You quite literally can’t lose them now!

It’s a bit of a shame that Bosch haven’t added in any measurements on the fence though. Compared with the DeWalt DWS774, I would have liked to see something etched into the fence for quick reference. The sliding fence sections have had holes drilled into them to allow you to create a sacrificial fence with timber though.

Either side of the mitre bed are sliding table sections that increase the width of the table to a massive 750 mm. That’s plenty of room to work with long pieces of timber comfortably without needing an outfeed table.

Before making any cuts, the first thing to test out was whether this saw was fine-tuned direct from the factory. As far as my trusted engineer’s square was concerned, Bosch had taken the time to make sure the saw cut straight before shipping it out. It’s good to know that a pair of eyes and hands had checked the tool over before it came to me.

I still made the point of adjusting the fence to find out how easy it was to fine-tune the saw though. It’s not quite as simple as adjusting the Einhell TC-MS 2112, but then this is a much more complicated beast to deal with overall.

Cutting through the CLS I tested with was as I expected. The Bosch GCM8SJL made short work of even compound cuts that might have stressed a smaller chop saw. The big motor didn’t struggle at all with the cuts, and it felt comfortable throughout.

The slide-out section was as smooth as can be and made it easy to cut the timbers in several sections to save the blade and avoid tear-out. I can’t fault the performance of this saw, except that the soft start feature might get in the way if you were ganging up lots of cuts in a row.

Sitting on the right side of the blade is a Bosch 1,600 Watt motor. This powerhouse pushes the blade up to an incredible 5,500 rpm. That’s faster than any of the other saws on my list and will make the most of the 216 mm wood cutting blade with 24 teeth.

After testing the GCM8SJL mitre saw out on my standard bits of CLS, it’s clear that this is an incredibly powerful bit of kit! I’ve used many full size 300 mm trade mitre saws in the past, and this cuts as well as any of them. I wouldn’t worry about putting the hardest woods through this mitre saw. It’s probably helped by the excellent blade included with this saw.

This could be a quirk of the machine that I’ve been testing out, but the GCM8SJL makes a strange grinding noise when it’s first spun up. It doesn’t sound great compared with some of the other saws on my list. The grinding noise went away once the saw blade was up to speed, but it’s not the best advert for this machine!

As for sound power, this saw is rated to an ear-busting 112 dB. That’s equivalent to the noise a chainsaw makes, so make sure you’ve got decent ear defenders! I wouldn’t want to use any power tool without some form of hearing protection, but this is particularly loud.

Even the best chop saw on my list comes with a long list of safety precautions to take before it’s good to use. Following the guidelines in the weighty instruction manual are essential to help avoid injury, and I’m glad they’re well laid out and studded with helpful diagrams.

No power tool is completely safe. However, wearing the correct level of personal protective equipment (PPE) is a great start! Always wear eye and ear protection, and make sure all loose clothing and hair is well out of the way. Make sure the saw is on level ground and clamped to the workbench before using it as well.

What I will say about this saw is the quality of the materials used to construct it. The heavy gauge machined aluminium parts that make up the saw bed and extending table feel well made. The mechanisms for the mitre, bevel and slide-out rails are extremely solid.

These material choices fill me full of confidence when using the Bosch GCM8SJL sliding mitre saw, so I can’t see it breaking any time soon. I’m assured that this saw would last for a long time, even with trade use. There’s nothing flimsy or cheap about this saw, it’s a well-made professional product.

If you’re a weekend DIYer that just wants to put together a few projects, this professional-level saw is probably a bit too specialist for you. There are some brilliant features like the turret stop for quick bevel adjustments and the impressive detent adjuster, but I suspect that most weekend DIYers won’t need them.

It’s the most expensive saw on my list, and for good reason. The quality of the design and solid materials used throughout feel like they’ll last for as long as you need them to. The mitre table has a smooth as butter action and it can cut through some seriously large size timber.

But unless you need a professional-level tool then I wouldn’t spend this sort of money on a chop saw. As a workshop saw it can tackle all sorts of projects, but it’s probably a bit much for the home gamer.

As soon as I started taking the Bosch GCM8SJL mitre saw out of the packaging, I knew it was going to be an excellent saw. It’s heavy, but that’s because it’s made from heavier gauge aluminium and steel than the rest of the saws on my list.

It’s incredibly sturdy, and all the moving parts are smooth and well thought-out. There are features on this saw that would better suit a professional tradesperson than a part-time DIYer, but if you’ve got a lot of cuts to make this is the saw for you.

I’ve got no doubts that this is the most capable and feature-packed saw on my list. However, it’s not compact enough to fit in a tiny shed workshop and it’s got features that I doubt I’d ever touch. This saw is perfect for a tradesperson, not a casual DIYer.

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INDIVIDUAL MITRE SAW REVIEWS:

• DeWalt DWS774 Sliding Mitre Saw
• Einhell TC-MS 2112 Compound Mitre Saw
• Evolution R210CMS Compound Mitre Saw
• Metabo KGS216M Sliding Mitre Saw