Evolution Rage 3S Sliding Mitre Saw Review

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Assembling the Rage 3S
Until a few months before I bought this machine, I had no idea that such things as sliding mitre saws existed. Sure, I'd seen them in DIY stores, but had no idea what they were, and still less idea that I needed one. But after trying to make a picture frame with mitred corners I started looking for decent mitre blocks, and I had a distant memory of using a hand operated mitre saw in woodwork classes at school. Searching online for those things threw up results for lots of Sliding Mitre Saws and I realised that was exactly what I needed.

The Evolution Rage 3-S seemed to be a good bet for me. It was a great price, about £100 from Screwfix, but there's always the possibility that something so cheap will be badly made and unreliable. And although it's made in China (isn't everything these days?), it's designed in the UK and it had great reviews on various websites I looked at. So I bought one.

Cutting wood
The machine comes in a big ole box and requires a small amount of assembly. The instructions were moderately clear, although I did need to watch a video to clarify one thing that wasn't clear to me. Spec-wise, the Evolution Rage 3-S has a 1500 Watt motor, a laser guide, and a 210mm cutting disc that can cut plastics, metals, and wood up to 60mm x 220mm. It makes easy work of all these tasks, and gives nice clean cuts.

CONS
The hold-down clamp can only be used on the left-hand side. The socket for it on the right-hand side is useless because the motor housing hits it when you lower it to make a cut.
Minimum cutting length
Also the clamp is a good few inches from the cutting disc, so you can't cut anything shorter than that distance.

After using it for a few weeks, the laser guide stopped working.

When you set the cutting head at 45° as you're looking at it, it's possible to cut through the upstand that holds your workpiece in place. EDIT: when taking the photo, I found a screw at the back to enable you to loosen this bit of the fence and move it out of the way if required. My bad. Ho hum.

The fence I cut through
The fence retracted

CONCLUSION
Despite the niggles mentioned above, I am very happy with it. Should you buy one? Absolutely!
Watch my video of me unboxing, assembling and using the machine:





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