Pwk5017 Posted March 5, 2016 Report Share Posted March 5, 2016 Story made me think about all the stupid situations Ive been in by myself with heavy tools and improper gear. Oddly enough, I was going to be the one guy that told you to rock it in the SUV/hatchback. Table saws arent too heavy if you can separate the top from the cabinet, and they really arent that big either. I helped a guy get a PM72 in the back of scion xb(or whatever their mini SUV/hatchback is called), and after that I consider anything possible. For those that dont know, a pm72 makes a sawstop look light. It takes a 12-14" blade and this particular saw had the cast iron extension wing, so we had about 15 SF of cast iron surface. Interested to hear your take on the performance of the sawstop versus the delta. Did you have a near brush with disaster to make you want to upgrade? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minorhero Posted March 6, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2016 5 hours ago, Pwk5017 said: Interested to hear your take on the performance of the sawstop versus the delta. Did you have a near brush with disaster to make you want to upgrade? No, nothing dramatic like that. The delta unisaw I have is a 1hp saw which was frankly considered to be pretty great in the 1950s but is a bit under-powered by modern standards. It also lacks a true riving knife (I put a BORK on it but I don't care for it much). It also lacks anything that even looks like dust control which long term is not really great for me. Even though I wear a respirator when using the saw, fine particles will stay in the air for some time afterward. All of the above however exist on literally any modern saw out there. The reason I went with the sawstop over other options comes down to this. I used a sawstop for the better part of a year at a shop rented time at. I found them to be a good quality saw. Add that to the existence of he brake and it just seems like a good idea. Plus quite frankly when comparing prices of the higher end saws they are fairly similar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jfitz Posted March 6, 2016 Report Share Posted March 6, 2016 Congrats on the new saw!!!! I'm sure you'll love it. That's a fantastic story, start to finish. I really like the picture of it all loaded up on the back of the Forester. Wow. I think the transport is the most straightforward part of the whole thing - the unloading and move into the shop seems to be the diciest part of the whole ordeal. I picked up my saw (the exact same one) by myself as well. But I had them wheel the pallet onto a utility trailer with a pallet jack, and I only had to slide the box down the trailer's ramp into my garage. I think I got off easy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom King Posted March 6, 2016 Report Share Posted March 6, 2016 I'm impressed! Given what you had to work with, I don't think I would have done it any differently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
estesbubba Posted March 7, 2016 Report Share Posted March 7, 2016 Good thing you put pics in your post because after 30 minutes of reading I had to use the facilities. Scrolled down and looks like it at worked out! Congrats and enjoy the new saw. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minorhero Posted March 13, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 13, 2016 Well it took a few days but I finally got my saw all setup and calibrated. This is my third tablesaw, it is by far the most powerful I have personally owned though not the most powerful I have used. It is also the most full featured of any machine I have owned. Here is what it looks like now: Here are my thoughts on the saw as of right now. The internals are very well put together. I really couldn't be happier with the quality of many of its components. The powder coating on the parts is top notch and everything feels very well made regarding fit and finish. Even the random bits of hardware they give you to put the saw together have a quality feel about them. When I put together a shopfox classic fence for my unisaw the nuts and bolts definitely were on the cheap side and the fence itself while sturdy and very good for the money just wasn't in the same league as the t-glide regarding the overall feel. Calibration on the saw was actually rather easy. I was able to get the blade and the fence within .001" of square within a few minutes and without much fuss. For what it is worth both were .03 to .05 out of alignment when first setup. Not everything was perfect though. Really there are 2 negatives, one temporary and one permanent. The first of these is definitely the fact they didn't send me all the hardware needed to put the saw together. Basically they have 2 hardware packs for the saw. One is for the cast iron wings and fence rails. The other is for extension table. The extension table pack was missing entirely from my saw. I took every box down to its component parts 3 times trying to find it before I realized it simply was not there. I called sawstop and left a message on their voice mail telling them I didn't have it. About noon the next business day they called me back and said they would overnight me the missing hardware, and they did. This was one reason why it took so long to build the saw. The more serious problem is with the cast iron wings.... they are frankly warped, and warped in such a way as it is unfixable. Both wings exhibited definite bulges in the middle of a few thousandths of an inch, but the one on the right also has a corner that drops about 1 mm lower then the rest of the wing. The bulges in the middle I can kinda sorta work around but lowering the center of the wing and then pulling up on the edges. That one dropped corner is simply unfixable. The good news is that it is small enough as to essentially be without any possible impact on my use of the saw. Its also the kind of thing most people would not notice, but I put the wings on and by golly I will always know that its there. My 1950 unisaw does not have these problems. I read somewhere once that delta for decades used to stockpile saw tops in unfinished states and seasoned them like you would season wine. Apparently cast iron can move quite a bit in a year or so after it is first cast. Thus if you grind a top inside of a year after casting the thing it can warp. By letting the tops sit unfinished for a year you ensure that when you grind the top it stays flat. This practice has fallen out of favor among modern tool makers because frankly they don't want to sit on a limited number of tops letting them season. I have no doubt that my wing was flat when it was ground, but its definitely not flat now and this is why. It really reinforces for me the idea that the old cast iron behemoths of days gone by were made better. That being said, not a one has dust collections worth a darn, few of them had a riving knife, and none has a blade brake. So despite some hardware issues and a little corner that dips down I am pretty happy with my saw. For one thing it went through an inch of cherry like it wasn't there and didn't have the least indication of a burn with the stock combination blade. (which I think is an tenryu rapid cut rebranded as a "sawstop" blade) Here is what that looked like: So if you are thinking of getting a sawstop I feel safe in saying it will cut wood, do it well, and frankly have a great feel about it. But do not expect perfection. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mat60 Posted March 13, 2016 Report Share Posted March 13, 2016 Great review...Enjoy your new saw man.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chestnut Posted March 13, 2016 Report Share Posted March 13, 2016 Interesting cast iron lesson, good review. Is it being nitpicky to go to that detail? Idk what's reasonable. I know my wings aren't perfectly flat either but that was putting a strait edge across the center table and both wings. Pardon the spelling sent from my phone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minorhero Posted March 13, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 13, 2016 46 minutes ago, Chestnut said: Interesting cast iron lesson, good review. Is it being nitpicky to go to that detail? Idk what's reasonable. I know my wings aren't perfectly flat either but that was putting a strait edge across the center table and both wings. Pardon the spelling sent from my phone. It really just depends on expectations as to whether its being picky I suppose. I can say that my 1950 unisaw is flat despite being 66 years old. Its not exactly a secret how it was made either. So when a modern saw can't match that standard its a bit annoying. Not exactly earth shattering though because like I said it will not affect performance. But when I spend a few hours flattening the wings to the center I can't help but notice the existence of a defect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chestnut Posted March 13, 2016 Report Share Posted March 13, 2016 I went from a job site saw to mine and honestly it's like comparing a mushroom to a laser. I think my saw is great but I'm used to some of the worst on the market. I wish i could go around and rip some boards on a bunch of different saws to see what they are like. Even doing that I'd have to use it for a while to figure out what really irks me about the different ones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjeff70 Posted March 13, 2016 Report Share Posted March 13, 2016 It's the same with anything made today. Take the invention of the phone for example. It's been around for 100 years. Convenience improved, but everything else about it significantly declined. Corporate greed has taken its toll on everyone. Nice write up minorhero, I enjoyed with interest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chet Posted March 14, 2016 Report Share Posted March 14, 2016 Hey Minor, As far as you saw's wings are concerned, I want to suggest that yo ufo back through th esters in regards to mounting the wings and the rails for the fence. I recall having a problem with how my wings mounted. Then when I backed up some steps and realized I had missed some steps in the process that resolved the alinement of the wings. Just a suggestion. Maybe give SawStop techs a call. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minorhero Posted March 14, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 14, 2016 I went over everything pretty carefully when I first discovered the issue. There is definitely some help there in the form of using the fence rails to raise drooping ends. That is how I dealt with the bulge. The single dropped corner is just unfixable due to the placement of the droop. It's not near a screw hole. I am sure sawstop would respond by sending me a new cast iron wing but I took those wings on and off 10 times calibrating them and can't bring myself to do it again over something that won't affect cut quality . Thank you for the suggestion though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cstandi1 Posted March 15, 2016 Report Share Posted March 15, 2016 I too had to unload and assemble my saw as well. luckily I have a truck and a garage I could back into. I assembled the saw base while leaving the body of the saw in the bed of the truck. Then I backed into the garage a bit and screwed some pulleys into the exposed beams and set up a 4:1 pulley system lifting the saw body up. I pulled the truck out the lowered the saw onto the base and screwed everything in place. Used the same idea to setup my Laguna 1412 Bandsaw. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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