Morso to Mitre Saw Upgrade?

[joh5nny]

I've been offered a good price on a new Cassese double mitre saw and currently use a Morso for cutting my mitres. Whilst I want to move my business forwards and increase my efficiency, there's never a good time to spend a few thousand pounds. But I am conscious of the "speculate to accumulate" adage and am wondering if it's the right time to make the leap.

The pros as I see it are better quality cuts, ability to cut wider and higher mouldings and speed of cut. Can I ask those of you have made the move from a guillotine to a mitre saw if those are in fact the benefits. I'm just trying to work out if this is a no brainer or just a nice to have. I'm not doing volume and the saw I'm looking at is (according to the Cassese rep I spoke to) designed to make up to 50 frames a day - that's currently more than enough for me and I don't envisage it becoming an issue for a long time yet.

Any thoughts and opinions / advice would be welcomed.

[Graysalchemy]

Definately better. I did the same about 7 yrs ago. However you need a hefty air supply and a decent dust extractor as well. Are you on 3 phase or single? 3 phase is better.

They are noisy as well so you will need to get used to wearing ear defenders or end up with ringing ears like me.

As long as it is well set up you will get a far better cut so much so you will probably see the inadequacies of your under pinner as well.

Which saw is it? the 939 I have will cut 50 frames an hour easily.

Finally are you buying new or second hand?

[prospero]

If you have the space and don't mind the dust and noise it could be a good move.

A lot depends on the type of frame you tend to make. On bigger mouldings and awkward ones with undercuts, etc, the saw will
be of great benefit. Smaller stuff (3 bites or less) I would stick with the Morso.

I rigged up a saw setup a couple of years ago. The hard part was converting an (im)mobile home out back as a workshop. It's just
two chop saws and a home-made measuring system but it does what I want and it didn't cost a bomb. Workshop aside, it came in
under 500.
Doesn't compare with a bells'n'whistles double mitre saw, but it's a darn sight quicker than a Morso on chunky mouldings. Of which
I use a lot of. The cut isn't bad either. Better than I thought it would be actually. I don't mind a few small niggles as I cut mainly
raw wood which is to be hand-finished.

You have to weigh up whether you are buying the proverbial Ford Mustang just to go to the proverbial newsagents.

[Graysalchemy]

Even on small mouldings you will get a far superior cut, there is no comparison between a cassese twin saw and a morso. With regards to dust by law you will have to have a dust extractor of sufficient capacity to use it. Also if you do t use one you will reduce the life of the machine.

[Framerpicture]

We installed a Cassese 969 saw few years ago and would highly recommend it -
Its very accurate although we do have a computerised measuring stop on ours, It handles larger mouldings and mouldings with scooped backed edges with ease and its definitely faster than a Morso on wider mouldings
We have kept a morso as well though as 1/2" mouldings and small slips can be quite tricky on our saw .

There's less fatigue if your cutting lots of frames with the saw and its definitely safer than a Morso
With no interruptions one person can cut and pin about 35 frames the same size per hour (in a moulding about an inch wide) including gluing the corners but this drops to about 10 - 15 frames an hour for bespoke when mouldings have to be found, unwrapped and underpinning settings changed

As Alaistair says, they are quite noisy in operation and even with good extraction dust can be an issue.We have a 200 litre compressor which is sufficient to run the saw and the underpinner

[GeoSpectrum]

I'm considering a similar upgrade, only I don't have space for the Cassese machine and am considering a Brevetti Prisma CE. Does anyone have any experience of migrating from a Morso to the Brevetti?

[joh5nny]

Thanks to everyone for the input. I've actually gone for it and e-mailed an order confirmation to DJ Simons a couple of days ago which will hopefully be actioned after the Bank Holiday. I went to the FAMART show in Bologna in early March and saw a new Cassese saw (the CS940) in action. I was very impressed with it, one of the main reasons being that it has a much smaller footprint than the 939 or 969. Looking at it, I'd say you don't need much more space than you need for a Morso. I also had a look at the Brevetti saws, but felt that the dust extraction on the Cassese was far superior. If you're interested in doing the upgrade Alan, but worried about space, I'd definitely have a look at this model.

[GeoSpectrum]

Thanks for that, I'll take a look but I suspect, as I'm probably looking for a used one, it may cost more than I want to spend at the moment.