Harbor Freight has come out with a new cordless saw, the Hercules 20V brushless 10 inch dual bevel miter saw. Let’s check it out below. A big thanks to Joshua B. for spotting!
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Hercules 20V Brushless Cordless 10″ Dual Bevel Sliding Miter Saw – Features
Hercules is one of Harbor Freights pro brands designed to compete with the top dogs like Dewalt, Makita, Milwaukee, etc. In fact many of their original tools were not only designed to directly compete with Dewalt, they even tried to mimic their style as well – but in blue of course. They’ve gone on to make their versions of many of Dewalt’s major hitters like their table saws and even miter saws. And to no surprise, they’ve now come out with a cordless miter saw of their own under the Hercules blue team – so let’s check it out.
Let’s go over the major features first. As their first cordless miter saw under the Hercules brand, this model features a 10 inch blade and is a sliding miter saw. I wonder why they went with a 10 incher instead of 12 inches. Possibly to keep it slightly smaller which makes it a bit more portable and a little lighter. Though it would be cool to see a 12 incher as their flagship as they usually offer larger cutting capacities in both height and width of cut. It’s also a dual bevel miter saw.
Features Continued
Dual bevel means that the saw can tilt to make bevel cuts in both directions. Not all miter saws can bevel in both directions. Though dual bevel isn’t technically necessary as you can just rotate the board – this is a quality of life feature that’s sought after to make work easier.
Being a cordless tool, it’s completely battery operated. Hercules considers this a 20V tool because it operates on their 20V Max batteries. However as you can see above, it actually requires two 20V batteries to operate essentially making this a 36/40V Max power tool. The manual states that 2 batteries are required to operate. Personally I think that it would be better from a consumer standpoint if this saw only required one battery to operate. Milwaukee does it with their cordless miter saws and they are also 18V (18V and 20V are the same thing). A brushless motor with 36/40 volts of juice means that this miter saw should be plenty strong and Harbor Freight confirms this with their “High-output brushless motor delivers high-performance cutting” statement.
Features Continued
The fences are similar to Dewalt’s fences in design and are tall which allow for tall cuts of 6-3/4 inches in height. Horizontal cross cut capacity of 12-1/2 inches with the front fence. Front fence? Yes, according to Harbor Freight this saw has a front fence and a “rear” fence with the rear fence crosscut capacity of up to 15-1/8″ inches. I tried looking into their manual for more info on this but other than the reference, I couldn’t find any more info. My guess is that they are copying Dewalt’s unique fence design in which you can increase horizontal crosscut capacity by removing the top fence sections completely which uncovers the “back” fence which is more of a nub, that allows boards to go further back to increase the crosscut capacity. I’m assuming that Harbor Freight is doing something similar here.
This looks totally possible from what I can see in the pictures of the rear of the fence sections. This is something I criticized the original Hercules corded miter saws for lacking. Another thing I criticized for lacking was a miter cam lock on their corded miter saw. And guess what else is featured on this cordless version? A miter cam lock lever which is way better than a twist knob. I give kudos to Harbor Freight for taking constructive criticism well and listening to and applying feedback to better their products. Good job Harbor Freight!
Additional Features
Other features include a very solid and beefy looking base and the sliding system is upper rear double rails which is the standard on most miter saws including Dewalt’s. This miter saw also incorporates the LED shadow light system for accurate cuts. This method uses LED lights to cast a thin shadow of the blade line on the material so you can line up your cut before you cut. This is far better than laser systems with the drawback being that it’s harder to see when it’s bright outside. It also includes two side extensions, a material clamp, and a dust bag. Though if you’re worried about dust, it’s better to connect a vacuum.
Hercules 20V Brushless Cordless 10″ Dual Bevel Sliding Miter Saw – Pricing & Availability
It’s available now for $329 as a baretool which is actually a pretty low price for what you’re getting.
- Fence system enables cuts in 2 locations, front fence and rear fence, for generous 15-1/8 in. horizontal cuts
- Integrated precision shadow guide system for accurate cuts
- High-output brushless motor delivers 4200 RPM for high-performance cutting
- Precision miter cuts from 0-50° L and 0-60° R
- Dual-bevel design, 0-48° L and R for a wide variety of cuts
- Electric brake stops blade to safely move from cut to cut
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