Evolution R255+ Sliding Mitre Saw | Unboxing, Assembly, First Use, Review

Evolution R255+ Sliding Mitre Saw

Having bought and reviewed the Evolution Rage 3S about a year ago, it's now time to have a look at its big brother, the Evolution R255+ Sliding Mitre Saw. Full disclosure: Evolution Power Tools sent me this to review, and I have received no payment. I've seen the basic model on sale for about £150-£170. The Plus model, which I reviewed, is about £20-£30 more.

The first thing you notice as you open the box and decant the contents, is its size. It's ENORMOUS!

There's a single-sheet assembly diagram, accompanied by a small booklet of detailed instructions. Both these items use line drawings rather than photographs, and they are extremely clear. Assembly is quite straightforward, but I did make the error of inserting the slide rail unit upside down and it wasn't until I'd fitted the machine head and tried to fit the slide rail cover that I realised. So I had to do a bit of disassembly.

Get the handle the right way up

Here's a tip - the plastic bridging piece has the 'Evolution' logo embossed in it. Make sure this is the right way up and you'll be fine.

You might also struggle with fitting the blade if you haven't read the instructions closely. The hex bolt that secures it in place is left-hand threaded, meaning you have to turn it clockwise to undo it, and anti-clockwise to tighten it.

I had a couple of quality control issues. Despite undoing the release knob, I was unable to rotate the machine head into position for making bevel cuts. And I could not work out how to fix the front clamp to the body of the machine. A quick exchange of emails with Evolution's Technical Support suggested that the bolt holding the machine head in place at the rear had been overtightened - a quarter-turn with a 17mm wrench sorted that out. And it turned out that there was a fixing lug missing from the front clamp I'd been sent. They sent me a replacement clamp and I received it the next day.

The SMS+ model I'd been sent is almost identical to the SMS nonplussed version, but comes with a few extras.

• The fence at the rear is twice as tall as the standard one
• The hold-down clamp has three elements as opposed to two in the standard version. This makes the clamp a little more manoeuvrable 
• There is a plastic adapter to fit different sizes of vacuum hose to the dust extract
• There is a dust collection bag that can be fitted instead of a vacuum hose
• The SMS+ is supplied with a clamp that operated from the front of the machine
• There's a plastic cover for the slide rails
• The bridging piece at the rear of the slide rails incorporates a carry handle
• The saw blade supplied has 28 teeth against the 24 on the standard version. This means cuts are finer.
• A lot more of the machine is painted black, making it look very sleek indeed

Having completed the assembly, I set about testing it with some things that Evolution also sent me.

Sparks fly when cutting wood with screws in it

These included softwood, foil-faced MDF, 3" x 2" timber with screws in the end, a length of galvanised steel wall framing, and some steel pipe with a 4-5mm wall thickness. I also tried it with an 11" wide plank, and a chunk of 6" x 2" oak. The saw had no problem with any of these materials.

The machine is fitted with a depth stop mechanism so you can make cuts that only go part of the way through your workpiece, and a laser guide. My nervous system and I loved the slow-start action.

I'm less keen on the way the hold-down clamp tends to get in the way when you're trying to make mitred or chamfered cuts. But overall, it's very well made, looks terrific and works really well.

Here's the full video on YouTube: