This site is bright and breezy, with a range of different DIY tools and accessories, plus a fair bit of gardening equipment, paint and so on. Unfortunately it is very limited in what it offers in terms of mitre saws, although it is still worth taking a closer look as the range does vary from time to time.
Where can I find the website?
The website is found at www.focusdiy.co.uk. If you are at all familiar with the company you will recognise the bright blue and yellow colours of its branding.
How do I find the mitre saws section of the site?
You need to go to the search box for ease of use here. There are no power mitre saws, and so there is no benefit in going through the power tools section. The best way is simply to type ‘mitre saw’ into the search box to see what comes back.
What types and brands of mitre saw do they offer?
They only offer unpowered mitre saws – hand mitre saws, made by Stanley. This would be perfect if you wanted something you were possibly only going to use once, and you didn’t have a huge budget to spend on a proper mitre saw.
The one on offer by Stanley basically consists of a mitre box and a standard saw. This means you are limited on what you can do with it, since you can only use the exact angles they have provided for you in the pre-cut and shaped mitre box. The other point to bear in mind of course is that you won’t be cutting through wood with a saw that whizzes round on its own. This one will require your hard work and elbow grease to get the job done!
However you might find this is all you need, and if that is the case it might just do the trick. It might be fine for a single job too, although you would be better off looking elsewhere for a proper mitre saw if you were going to do a lot of cutting.
Do bear in mind though that ranges change all the time, so you might come to visit the site again in the future and find new mitre saws to consider.
Are there any buying guides or useful sections of information about mitre saws?
Unfortunately there aren’t any guides or anything similar that would be of use to you if you are considering buying a mitre saw. There is no information under the listing for the mitre box and saw, but the picture is quite large and very self explanatory, so no extra details are really required in this case.
Once again, this could change at some point in the future if a mitre saw becomes available that Focus decides to sell. It should be said that Focus is not the heaviest of DIY stores in that it provides an extensive range of more hard working items like this. Regular items that are used in most if not all homes – hammers for example – are much easier to find. Mitre saws are a little less frequently used.
Anything else I should know about?
The other tools on offer are, as you would expect from Focus, well-presented and reasonably priced. They do also offer home delivery if you are planning on buying anything else. But if you want to get that mitre box and saw you will need to visit your local store to get hold of it, as it isn’t available for home delivery.
You will see the ‘in store only’ blue label next to the item, and when you click on it you will see a Google map come up with a list of all the locations of Focus stores next to it. You can then see which store is closest to you.
In conclusion
This is not a good site for mitre saws, although it has some merit for the general DIY-er. The site is impressive overall and has a reasonable range of items, although as far as their tools section is concerned, it is clearly intended more for those who are doing a few odds and ends with regard to DIY jobs.
If you want a proper mitre saw that can do a lot more than a hand saw and a mitre box, you will need to say goodbye to Focus and focus your search elsewhere.