New Saw?
- Thread starter Luckbox72
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More fun for me to follow this thread than being in your shoes weighing the pros and cons of all the choices!
I went from an old Craftsman to a Ridgid 4511 that was granite topped and had cab mounted trunions, but a lousy fence. Put a Delta T2 on it and was a vast improvement. Under the hood was the problem though, too many cheap and light weight parts. It served well for about 2 years and then started to have issues. It did have a riving knife and blade guard, but just too much plastic and lightweight construction.
Current hybrids may be better. +1 on cab mounted trunions as CD Peters pointed out. A good fence that is easily adjustable can easily be added, since that seems to be a price saving skimp on many models.
Agree on a mobile base since most of us have to move our saws occasionally.
If golfdad is close enough to you, you might want take him up on his offer and see his saw. If Woodcraft or another vendor has any of the saws you are considering on the floor that would be great way to check out the construction, fences, and under the hood.
I went from an old Craftsman to a Ridgid 4511 that was granite topped and had cab mounted trunions, but a lousy fence. Put a Delta T2 on it and was a vast improvement. Under the hood was the problem though, too many cheap and light weight parts. It served well for about 2 years and then started to have issues. It did have a riving knife and blade guard, but just too much plastic and lightweight construction.
Current hybrids may be better. +1 on cab mounted trunions as CD Peters pointed out. A good fence that is easily adjustable can easily be added, since that seems to be a price saving skimp on many models.
Agree on a mobile base since most of us have to move our saws occasionally.
If golfdad is close enough to you, you might want take him up on his offer and see his saw. If Woodcraft or another vendor has any of the saws you are considering on the floor that would be great way to check out the construction, fences, and under the hood.
It seems to be coming down to the Grizzly 690 or the Grizzly 1023. I really like the 1023 but I am surprised to see it's cutting capacity is smaller then the 690. Although the by 1/8", and the right rip by 3.5" and left by 4" so I am not sure if I would really miss that or not. Also since I do not need the router table insert is it worth the extra $100 for the 8" larger table, but at the same time the charge $311 if you buy it separately so seems like it is a no brainier to get the RLW. I might just come down to if one goes on sale or one gives a shipping discount.
Was at the Klingspor shop in Raleigh yesterday and they have the Laguna Fusion and SawStop (CNS 30) contractors saw onsite.
Since both were mentioned in this thread, though I'd share what I 'saw' there
Laguna has 10% off the normal price $1299 Feb 5-8.
The sawstop was 1599 and wasn't covered by any of the weekend sales.
I noticed the Laguna had a 36 inch rip, while many others (sawstop included) are 30 inch rips.
Laguna has iron table extensions while sawstop had steel extensions.
Laguna has enclosed cabinet -- which aids dust collection, but made it difficult to look into the saw to see how the motor was mounted.
The Sawstop being a contractors saw was easy to see inside, but stooping wan't necessary as the motor hangs off the back side of the saw and is obviously a belt driven mechanism.
Motor is 1.75 HP in both.
Both can run off 110 (14A) or 220 (7A).
I'd seen an online review that claimed the Laguna at 110 required 30 amps, which seemed odd so know I know it's bogus.
I don't know how to go about evaluating the quality of fences, and clearly it's an important factor.
While possible to upgrade, I'd rather not be paying more than a thousand for a tool, then have to buy another upgrade.
The Laguna fence looked wide and hearty, but only 'locked down' at the front where the handle was, so after locking, it was possible (with some limited force) to wiggle the outfeed end - not much, but I figure any play is bad, and it clearly didn't have anything on the outfeed side to stabilize the fence.
The sawstop had a very narrow fence, didn't look as hearty, but didn't seem to have any wiggle once locked. It may have had some mechanism on the outfeed side to help lock it down, was hard to see the back of the saw.
I dream of a better saw some time in my future, so I'm enjoying the thread.
Since both were mentioned in this thread, though I'd share what I 'saw' there
Laguna has 10% off the normal price $1299 Feb 5-8.
The sawstop was 1599 and wasn't covered by any of the weekend sales.
I noticed the Laguna had a 36 inch rip, while many others (sawstop included) are 30 inch rips.
Laguna has iron table extensions while sawstop had steel extensions.
Laguna has enclosed cabinet -- which aids dust collection, but made it difficult to look into the saw to see how the motor was mounted.
The Sawstop being a contractors saw was easy to see inside, but stooping wan't necessary as the motor hangs off the back side of the saw and is obviously a belt driven mechanism.
Motor is 1.75 HP in both.
Both can run off 110 (14A) or 220 (7A).
I'd seen an online review that claimed the Laguna at 110 required 30 amps, which seemed odd so know I know it's bogus.
I don't know how to go about evaluating the quality of fences, and clearly it's an important factor.
While possible to upgrade, I'd rather not be paying more than a thousand for a tool, then have to buy another upgrade.
The Laguna fence looked wide and hearty, but only 'locked down' at the front where the handle was, so after locking, it was possible (with some limited force) to wiggle the outfeed end - not much, but I figure any play is bad, and it clearly didn't have anything on the outfeed side to stabilize the fence.
The sawstop had a very narrow fence, didn't look as hearty, but didn't seem to have any wiggle once locked. It may have had some mechanism on the outfeed side to help lock it down, was hard to see the back of the saw.
I dream of a better saw some time in my future, so I'm enjoying the thread.
While researching 'trunnions' and trying to understand why I should care, I found this general article provide nice overview view of the table saw market and the tradeoffs in design/cost. Likely old news for you pros out there, but may be useful for someone who's looking to buy first saw, or upgrade for the first time.
http://www.rockler.com/how-to/table-shop/
http://www.rockler.com/how-to/table-shop/
I got a flyer in the mail, it covers all 4 stores in NC.
Had a football theme "50 Yard line super Savings" on the front.
They had the 2 saws mentioned above, along with a few higher-end saw stop saws.
Click on the 'locations' link in the sidebar, it shows the flyer on the web.
So sale may apply to in-store rather than web sales.
http://www.woodworkingshop.com/locations/
H'mm I forgot to register for the $50 gift card :-(
Had a football theme "50 Yard line super Savings" on the front.
They had the 2 saws mentioned above, along with a few higher-end saw stop saws.
Click on the 'locations' link in the sidebar, it shows the flyer on the web.
So sale may apply to in-store rather than web sales.
http://www.woodworkingshop.com/locations/
H'mm I forgot to register for the $50 gift card :-(
I did not see mention of the smaller Sawstop or the other company with flesh sensing capability (I think it was Bosch). I went from a Ridgid to a Sawstop professional cabinet saw and have never regretted the decision. It was expensive but well worth it for the saw quality and the safety features come along for free!
Have you considered used? I make a living in the shop and we've used Deltas for many years. You should be able to find a good Unisaw in your price range if you shop around a little. Look for a newer left tilt, at least 3 hp, with a Biesmyre (SP) fence. I've been holding out for years, and paying higher workers comp premiums, waiting on Delta to come out with flesh sensing tech on the Uni. That being said, I'm going to replace our saws with Sawstop. I would never consider moving away from Delta but keeping my employees fingers attached is a win-win.
Alan & Eric -
If you are curious, here is a link to the post I made when I got my 0690 back in June 2011...
http://www.ncwoodworker.net/forums/showthread.php?t=39403&highlight=G0690
One "upgrade" modification I made on mine was to expand the 4" dust port to 6" - I have a Clearvue 1800 cfm collector and it is much happier with 6" ducting.
HTH, and congrats on the new saw Eric, from my own experience, I'm sure you won't be disappointed!
Chris
Oh, and Eric - it does come with a blade guard, I just don't have it installed (I only use the riving knife). The blade guard installs in the riving knife mount, and it's a pretty quick changeover to go from one to the other (the blade guard does double as a splitter).
If you are curious, here is a link to the post I made when I got my 0690 back in June 2011...
http://www.ncwoodworker.net/forums/showthread.php?t=39403&highlight=G0690
One "upgrade" modification I made on mine was to expand the 4" dust port to 6" - I have a Clearvue 1800 cfm collector and it is much happier with 6" ducting.
HTH, and congrats on the new saw Eric, from my own experience, I'm sure you won't be disappointed!
Chris
Oh, and Eric - it does come with a blade guard, I just don't have it installed (I only use the riving knife). The blade guard installs in the riving knife mount, and it's a pretty quick changeover to go from one to the other (the blade guard does double as a splitter).
Well the saw showed up on Thursday, some damage in shipping. The box the saw came in had a big hole in the side but no damage to the saw, the rail box was all banged up, bit there appears to be no damage, the box the fence was in, one end was missing and the fence was not in the box. The driver found the fence and it is missing the knob at the end and the magnet was broken in half. I marked all the damage and called grizzly. Customer support was excellent and the knob and magnet are on the way. I have put the saw together. It took sometime by my self but it was totally doable. The hardest part was getting the black extension table lined up, that alone took about 40 min. It seems like as I would tighten the bolts down it would shift the table either up or down, but I was able to get everything lined up. I didn't need to shim any of the extension wings, they were flat and some minor taps with the dead blow to align everything. Even after the fence falling out of the box the only alignment I had to make was about a 1/8th of a turn on one of the set screws to square the fence to the blade. It is a very solid and looks to be very well built machine.
I still need to get the 20 amp outlet setup in the garage, so I have not turned it on, and in the process of getting in on the mobile base I put it down on the plug and bent the prongs abit, but seeing that it only came with a 6' foot cord, I am going to remove the current cable and replace it with a 20-25' cord wired directly to the saw, so that isn't all that bad.
I do have one question for anyone who currently owns the saw. When I was putting on the blade and checking alignment I noticed the blade/arbor does not spin, it appears to have a break or something to keep you from spinning the blade. Is this normal or is there something I missed. I can grab the blade and when I try to rotate it there is a lot of resistance and if I rotate it and then let go of the blade the blade will rotate nearly back to the original position.
I still need to get the 20 amp outlet setup in the garage, so I have not turned it on, and in the process of getting in on the mobile base I put it down on the plug and bent the prongs abit, but seeing that it only came with a 6' foot cord, I am going to remove the current cable and replace it with a 20-25' cord wired directly to the saw, so that isn't all that bad.
I do have one question for anyone who currently owns the saw. When I was putting on the blade and checking alignment I noticed the blade/arbor does not spin, it appears to have a break or something to keep you from spinning the blade. Is this normal or is there something I missed. I can grab the blade and when I try to rotate it there is a lot of resistance and if I rotate it and then let go of the blade the blade will rotate nearly back to the original position.
What you are describing seems normal to me Eric. I guess "stiff" might be the appropriate description. I can move my blade with one finger when I have to move a tooth to TDC for setting depth, and hold there else it rotates back. I think this will get less noticeable once you have run it a bit and the "set" in the 3 v-belts relaxes a bit.
Sorry to hear you had some shipping damage, but glad to hear Grizzly CS jumped right on it. I've had the same experience with my (limited) dealing with Grizz C.S.
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