What’s the problem?
I really like my 36v Makita sliding miter saw. I’ve used it a ton and it’s amazing how much power it has for a battery powered saw. However, there is one thing that I’ve never really cared for… The laser guide.
It’s just not that useful. It only shines on one side of the blade, so it’s useless when you are trying to cut on the other side. It’s also really hard to see in the daylight and I use this saw outdoors quite a bit. That’s the reason that I bought a cordless saw to begin with!
Why change?
Up to this point, I basically just never used the laser and lined up the cuts by eye. That actually works pretty well most of the time. Sometimes though, the lighting is not great and it can be a bit hard to see the pencil line on the board and get everything lined up. Maybe it’s because I’m getting old and my eyesight is not the best anymore!
In any case, I’ve seen that some of the newer saws have what’s called a shadow line cut guide. If you shine a light from straight above the blade while you are pulling it down to cut the piece, it will create a shadow line that shows where the blade is going to cut and illuminate either side of the cut line. It’s pretty awesome. You can see an exact line that shows the width of material that will be removed by the blade.
I thought that I’d try to replace my laser with an LED light instead to create this shadow line feature. Luckily, I was able to find a YouTube video that showed how to make the modification. It’s really pretty easy and I like the lights that he used for the modification. They were easy to mount and came pre-wired.
How do I do it?
Here’s a link to the video and the led lights that I used.
The general concept is to remove the wiring to the laser and any associated transformer. After that you just need to wire the led lights in series with the batteries and the switch. Here’s a little photo montage of the process.
The end result is a nice little upgrade for my saw. I’m pretty confident that it would be very similar for other battery powered miter saws. Let me know if you need any help with your saw modification.
Till next time…
Fantastic, Ryan! Mine doesn’t have a laser, so this is great for me. One quick question please: as mine doesn’t have the laser glass, do I need to buy one? It didn’t seem to feature in your design, so I guess you put it back for cosmetic reasons? Regards, Tony
Yes, Tony. You are correct. You don’t need the laser glass.
will this work on a ls1219l also,
Thank you
I’m not sure. I checked into the parts list for that saw, but it is not clear to me if the power to the laser is 12v or 120v. That will determine which type of LEDs that you need to buy. I’m sure that it is possible, but my guess is that you would need to use 120v LEDs since this is a corded saw.