I got to a point this morning where I was ready to throw the LS 1013L compound saw out my workshop and go tomorrow morning and buy the festo saw instead. It would cost about R6000 more than the Makita saw, but hey you get what you pay for.

The reason for my frustration, the laser has just got so bad that even if I switch off all my lights in my workshop I could barely see the laser line, in the past I would just blow the dust off the laser lens with the an air gun, but I thought before I hoof this machine out let me see it there is not a problem with the laser, so I stripped the whole unit off the machine and walha the laser is as bright as can be, but I put it back into postion no line, I look done into where the laser shines and find there is a clear plastic cover which is blocked with dust, I remove I and turn on the machine and there is a crisp clear red line across my piece of wood, so clean the clear plastic lens, problem solved.

So a tip for others who use the laser on the saw and find the line is no longer a clear crisp line or you can barely see it, when you look at the top of the machine where the laser is located, loosen the front and back screw and pull the plastic cap out the front and clean it, the laser will work like it did on the first day you purchased it . Hopefully Makita will learn form this and advise/educate their customers of this process, blowing up into the machine will only work for about the forst 500 cuts from there on the line will get blurred and thicker until eventually it barely visible.

By the way there is an adjustment to line up the laser with the blade, small grub screw on the laser housing for both sides of the blade which I found when I removed the laser sticker, on my machine the little china man must have forgotten to fit the grub screw, that's why mine has never been in line, or should I saw you have to tinker with the screw on top to line it up.