Bye, bye Craftsman!


RichardA

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Congratulations on the upgrade! Dust collection is an amazing thing. As someone who recently upgraded from a saw who's idea of dust collection was providing a door you could open to scoop it out, I too can appreciate the difference this makes in your shop. 

I think you will find this to be a fantastic improvement. Treat yourself, and buy a new saw blade to go with it!

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21 hours ago, minorhero said:

Congratulations on the upgrade! Dust collection is an amazing thing. As someone who recently upgraded from a saw who's idea of dust collection was providing a door you could open to scoop it out, I too can appreciate the difference this makes in your shop. 

I think you will find this to be a fantastic improvement. Treat yourself, and buy a new saw blade to go with it!

Nah, don't need new blades, got a couple of Ridge Carbides, They just needed a better saw under them.

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On 10/25/2016 at 7:49 AM, RichardA said:

They just needed a better saw under them.

Hi Richard. I'm wondering how the set-up, calibration, and wiring worked out. Were the instructions adequate? Did you get a mobile base? Do you have any tips on unloading and such? Are you up and running and, if so, what are your impressions?:)

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My impressions........Well, it's a Rolls Royce compared to the late 1940's Craftsman I've been using for more than ten years. In my old shop  The light came at me in a different direction. When I built the new shop, the morning light allowed me to see how many tons of dust I was inhaling. The Craftsman sent dust in the air in more directions than you can count and the morning light streaming through the windows showed me that I was slowly killing myself.

The Grizzly 1023 was easy to set up, I had 220v in place when I built the new shop, knowing that one day I would upgrade. The morning light convinced me that it was necessary. Set up was easy, the instructions were adequate, though not exact. But having been a woodworker for a few days, common sense made the set up easy. I did not get the mobile base. Unloading was a bit of a PITA, fortunately a neighbor had a tractor with a bucket and was willing to help.This saw is one heavy Mofo.  My old saw would occasionaly bog down on 8/4 wood if I wasn't careful with feed rate. This saw eats 8/4 like it was starving, even using the supplied blade, which by the way is really junk.

The saw is set up very good. Miter slot to blade is out  one thousandth at the rear of the blade which is good for eliminating binding, blade to fence is out one thousandth in the opposite direction. The Shop Fox fence slides smoothly and setting up the scale is easy, and makes rough cuts very quick.  I haven't set up the router yet, but it appears as though it will work quite well, with a little tweaking.

  Overall the saw is very well made and works as it should. Dust collection is very good, when I remember to turn on the DC. The saw blade, and I think any saw blade tosses small chips over the top of the blade at me as I feed the wood through, eye protection is a must, and I can't say that often enough, eye protection is a must.  Generally speaking with the purchase of this saw, "I done good".  By the way, it passes the nickle test with flying colors!

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51 minutes ago, RichardA said:

I lived this long mostly by breathing diesel smoke and fumes, drinking Jack Daniels, and spending as much time as I could, snuggling up to any woman I could convince that I was worth the effort.  I'll be 74 at the end of the year, and my wife tells me that even the waitress that worked our table this morning, was over nice to me this morning.  Must be the after shave... Man scent.   Oh, and the saw is a good upgrade for me.  I like it!   ........!   Here's to ya!

That is the post of the year.

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5 hours ago, Jayson69 said:

Now why does everyone hate Craftsman??? I can understand the new stuff, but not the vintage.

It's simple.... The older Craftsman saw's spew dust in every direction, and trust me, there's no cure for it... I tried at least a dozen ways to get control over the dust, and always failed.  They are a good outside saw, but way to heavy to move around twice a day.

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