How ya doing? I'm Matt from 731woodworks.com. This is my review of the Delta 26-2251 12-inch sliding compound miter saw. Full resolution pictures and full video review below. You can also see the original unboxing video.

Full disclosure, Delta sent me this saw back in September of 2020 for me to use and review. Amazon and other affiliate links used in this review that help support this website. Using the links costs you nothing extra but help us out by providing a small commission.

I’ve used it about four months now and I built a bunch of projects with it. I've built farmhouse end tables and coffee tables. I've built mallets, I've built signs and several other small projects. In this review I will tell you what I like about the saw, and then I'll tell you what I really don't like about this saw. It may be a deal breaker for a lot of people. There’s also one surprise that I didn't realize I was going to like so much.

Best Feature Of The Saw

One of the first features that I was impressed with, if you go back and watch the unboxing video on my channel, was that butter smooth slide mechanism. It surprises me every single time I use it! It is so unreal how smooth it glides back and forth. I have used this saw for four months. I don't have dust collection on the saw, so it has gotten sawdust all in and around those joints that operate the slide mechanism. It is still super butter smooth. It doesn’t even make a sound when you're moving it back and forth. You would think after a while it would squeak or grind or something. But it does’t. It’s still silently smooth.

Does The Saw Move When Extended?

One of the most asked questions I get is, "Does this saw have some deflection?" In other words, when fully extended, does the saw move left and right or have “slack” that will cause it to be out of square? Yeah, it does. But so did my DeWalt DW779 miter saw. If you extend the sliding saw all the way out to the end and you put lateral pressure on it at all, it's going to deflect or move to the side. If I put any pressure side to side on the saw when fully extended, it will move. It moves quite a bit actually. It is not completely rigid when fully extended. But you have to actually be applying pressure left and right on it. You have to be aware of that and conscious of the fact that it will move and you need to press straight down when making the cut.

Moving the Miter:

I do love the miter locking mechanism of this saw. There is a twist knob on the front of the miter adjustment that you rotate it clockwise to lock and counter clock wise to unlock. You can then push the button on top of the miter adjustment to unlock it from a positive stop and move it. You can lock it at any point from zero to 60 degrees to the right and zero to 50 degrees to the left using the twist knob. Otherwise there are positive stops at zero, 15, 23.5, 31.6, 45, and then all the way out at 60 (or 50 to the left).

Full Video Review:

Size of the Saw:

The overall footprint of this Delta Cruzer saw if you measure from side-to-side, is approximately 25 3/4” wide. From the very back to the very front of the Delta Cruzer is about 31 inches. And then of course if you're looking at the height to the top of the handle to the base is 26 and almost 3/4’s of an inch. So it's a fairly small footprint for a 12-inch miter saw. That's probably one of the main things about the Delta Cruzer that you are looking at, the size or space savings. The fact that it doesn't have those extension arms on the back like a lot of other sliding miter saws saves a ton of space. Another similar space saving miter saw is the Bosch. The Delta Cruzer will allow you to have this saw flush against a wall and still have the benefits of a sliding miter saw.

Shadow Line:

One of the things I love most about this saw, that I didn't realize I was gonna love, is the shadow line feature. I did not realize how convenient having a shadow line on the Delta Cruzer would be. All it is is a shadow of the blade projected onto the piece you are going to cut. Is it precise? It's pretty dang close, like really, really close. I use it all the time to get accurate cuts.

The upper fence of the Delta Cruzer has little knobs on the back that you can take the tension off, and then they will slide to give you a little more support further out or you can completely remove the top portion of the fence. Be sure to slide these out of the way if you are making bevel cuts.

Speaking of bevels, the Delta Cruzer has positive stops at zero, 15, 22.5, 33.9, and then again at 45 degrees. I personally don't make any bevels. Most everything I can do as a miter cut.

Accuracy:

Out of the box accuracy. I haven't touched this things in four months, as far as trying to adjust the square on it. Everything has been perfectly square with zero issues. The only thing I added to the Delta Cruzer was FastCap Zero Clearance Tape and a Diablo 80 tooth blade.

One great feature about this Delta sliding miter saw is it actually has a depth stop built into it. There is a flip down metal piece and an adjustable screw that you can set depth of the blade. It will prevent you from plunging the blade deeper than you have set with the set screw. Great for making dado type cuts.

Power:

As far as power goes, I've cut purple heart, oak, walnut, pine, etc with no issues, The Delta Cruzer has never bogged down while cutting. It does what it's supposed to do. It's a very powerful saw. It works flawlessly at cutting stuff.

This and That:

The Delta Cruzer has a slide lock to prevent the saw from sliding forward during normal use and transport. It has a two position lock. Position one is for baseboards (as indicated on the slide lock). Position two is just for the slide lock. Just flip it down and it connects onto a screw that keeps it from moving forward. You can also lock the blade down just by pushing a blue button on the side when it's in the down position. It has a carry handle on top that is separate from the power switch handle. The power switch includes a safety switch next to it that you have to depress before this power switch will activate the saw. If the safety switch is not pressed, then you cannot press the power switch. There is also a led light switch that activates the “shadow line” feature of the saw on top of the power switch handle.

The power cord is secured with clips so it doesn't move anywhere when you're sliding the saw and get tangled in the slide mechanisms.

Fine Tuning:

There are adjustment screws that allow you to adjust the miter angle. If you need it to make minor adjustments to dial in the square of the saw, you can do that by loosening these screws and moving the miter gauge plate. There is a bright blue needle that points to the degree miter that you're going to cut making it easy to see what angles you’re cutting. Right out of the box my Delta Cruzer has been a very accurate saw. All the miter numbers are very easy to see. The miter numbers are black, printed on a silver plate. On the bevel gauge, zero to 45 are white printed lettering on the blue background. It looks good and really stands out making it easy to see, even in low light conditions

What’s Not Good?

Now, let me tell you what I do not like about this saw. Dust collection. Or lack thereof. I don’t have an official dust collection system in my shop at the time of this review. So with that in mind, sawdust doesn’t normally bother me too much. But man, does this saw generate a lot of sawdust. You can really see this on my video review of this saw. The Delta Cruzer throws a ton of dust forward and to each side of the saw. After one cut, most everything in the vicinity of the saw is covered in saw dust. That is without any type of dust collection attached to the saw. When I add a shop vac to the dust collection port on the saw, nothing changes. It still has a lot of dust thrown into the face of the user. I think that the problem is a design flaw with this saw. The dust comes off of the blade and hits the dust deflector flap at almost a 90 degree angle and then flies to the side and back in front of the saw. The speed of the sawdust coming off of the blade can’t get sucked up into the dust collection because of the angle that it’s hitting the deflector. It's just keeps bouncing forward and to the sides of the saw, creating a giant mess. I have seen people build a shroud around the Delta Cruzer that closes in around the saw to deal with the dust produced by the saw.

In my opinion the only drawback to this saw is the dust collection issue. If you don't care about that and you need that space saving, this saw is fantastic. If you don't need that space savings behind the saw and you're more concerned with dust collection I would recommend the DeWalt DW 779 sliding miter saw. The dust on the DeWalt seems to go through its dust collection port and straight behind the saw, for the most part. So you can actually hook up a dust collection and catch the majority of the dust.

Final Thoughts

Do I recommend the Delta Cruzer miter saw? Sure, if you need that space saving design. If you want that butter smooth slide. Woo, that thing is smooth! That shadow light line is a great feature. If you don’t need the space saving design and you need better dust management from a miter saw, I’d recommend the DeWalt DW779 miter saw. The DeWalt is regularly on sale for $349, making it significantly less expensive than the Delta.

I hope this review gives you some needed information to help you make a better buying decision. I know that making large tool purchases can be a hard decision sometimes.

Now get out there and make some sawdust!

731 Woodworks!