Anybody else have this saw? I've had mine for a month and have mixed
feeling about it. Going from a home-built TS, it's my first real saw
and thus luxurious in many ways.
It is tremendously satisfying to make cuts with. It was not set-up out
of the box. I was able to set the blade to <.001 with respect to the
miter slot, but it's drifted to being out by about 2 mils. That *is*
after moving it miles all over the shop in a re-arranging exercise.
Forrest WWII 40T blade.
There is some cupping and dishing in the table, varying maybe +/-
.005, maybe more. Shop Fox claims the manufacturing tolerance is 20
mils, which strikes me as being way too much. The wings required
shimming and still aren't optimized. I said good enough after many
hours.
The arbor tilt and blade height adjustment do work very smoothly,
better than the Unisaw I examined.
The Biesemeyer clone fence is a mixed bag. It's a somewhat crude
affair, fabricated from essentially angle and square(?) iron stock.
Except for the lumpy HDPE fence face (to be replaced), it functions
very well, but I find myself wishing for a more refined mechanism.
I looked at the Unisaw and was mostly impressed. I wish I had the
Unifence on this saw, but I steered away from Delta because of recent
reports of QC problems. The 1677 is an attractive machine. Very solid,
heavy (I know--same as 1023), beautiful cream paint. Left-tilt 220V,
3 hp, which is waaay more than enough. Very heavy gauge metal cabinet.
I know that overall it will serve me well, but I think I wish I had
sprung for a General or Bridgewood, or something that is another notch
above this.
Dave
I have the 1023 which is essentially the same. Got mine about
3 months ago. It is so far better than the imported contractor
saw that I hade been using for 15+ years, that I have very
few complaints.
I also had a little trouble with wing alignment. After fooling
around for a couple hours, I reversed them and believe it
or not, that completely solved the problem. No shimming was
needed. I had miniscule runout - so little that I thought that I
would not be able to improve upon it.
I have the SF fence too and I don't know what you mean by
"lumpy". I have found it to be very solid, square and accurate.
Maybe I don't know what a more refined fence would be like,
but I am very satisfied.
The DC system is very good and the power and weight are
a real plus - especially when feeding sheets of 3/4 ply
through it - which I seem to be doing a lot lately.
I'd like to upgrade to the WW II for my next blade, but the
Freud 60 tooth I got from Amazon is doing a good job so far
and it was around $30 IIRC. No burning at all.
I expecially like the way the saw "feels". The handwheels are
big, solid and silky smooth. The fences glides smoothly and locks
down easily but firmly.
For $1K, I think it's a good value. I don't believe that spending
twice as much would get you twice the quality - at least from
what I have seen in shopping around.
Lou
In article <[email protected]>, Interious
<[email protected]> wrote:
> Anybody else have this saw? I've had mine for a month and have mixed
> feeling about it. Going from a home-built TS, it's my first real saw
> and thus luxurious in many ways.
>
> It is tremendously satisfying to make cuts with. It was not set-up out
> of the box. I was able to set the blade to <.001 with respect to the
> miter slot, but it's drifted to being out by about 2 mils. That *is*
> after moving it miles all over the shop in a re-arranging exercise.
> Forrest WWII 40T blade.
>
> There is some cupping and dishing in the table, varying maybe +/-
> .005, maybe more. Shop Fox claims the manufacturing tolerance is 20
> mils, which strikes me as being way too much. The wings required
> shimming and still aren't optimized. I said good enough after many
> hours.
>
> The arbor tilt and blade height adjustment do work very smoothly,
> better than the Unisaw I examined.
>
> The Biesemeyer clone fence is a mixed bag. It's a somewhat crude
> affair, fabricated from essentially angle and square(?) iron stock.
> Except for the lumpy HDPE fence face (to be replaced), it functions
> very well, but I find myself wishing for a more refined mechanism.
>
> I looked at the Unisaw and was mostly impressed. I wish I had the
> Unifence on this saw, but I steered away from Delta because of recent
> reports of QC problems. The 1677 is an attractive machine. Very solid,
> heavy (I know--same as 1023), beautiful cream paint. Left-tilt 220V,
> 3 hp, which is waaay more than enough. Very heavy gauge metal cabinet.
>
> I know that overall it will serve me well, but I think I wish I had
> sprung for a General or Bridgewood, or something that is another notch
> above this.
> Dave
Good idea about the extension wings.
A dial indicator across the fence indicates a variation of +/- .005 or
more. The distribution is such that is shows up on long cuts. Not a
big deal since I'm going to replace it with a wood face.
I can't fault the handwheels and locking mechanism. Very massive.
I really do like this TS. I was using it extensively yesterday and was
reminded just how much. You're probably right about not getting
proportional return on a 2k$ saw. Probably better to spend the money
on a planer and jointer, after I find a new router, then build a
Router table, etc ...
Dave
On Sat, 26 Mar 2005 11:29:16 -0500, loutent <[email protected]> wrote:
>I have the 1023 which is essentially the same. Got mine about
>3 months ago. It is so far better than the imported contractor
>saw that I hade been using for 15+ years, that I have very
>few complaints.
>
>I also had a little trouble with wing alignment. After fooling
>around for a couple hours, I reversed them and believe it
>or not, that completely solved the problem. No shimming was
>needed. I had miniscule runout - so little that I thought that I
>would not be able to improve upon it.
>
>I have the SF fence too and I don't know what you mean by
>"lumpy". I have found it to be very solid, square and accurate.
>Maybe I don't know what a more refined fence would be like,
>but I am very satisfied.
>
>The DC system is very good and the power and weight are
>a real plus - especially when feeding sheets of 3/4 ply
>through it - which I seem to be doing a lot lately.
>
>I'd like to upgrade to the WW II for my next blade, but the
>Freud 60 tooth I got from Amazon is doing a good job so far
>and it was around $30 IIRC. No burning at all.
>
>I expecially like the way the saw "feels". The handwheels are
>big, solid and silky smooth. The fences glides smoothly and locks
>down easily but firmly.
>
>For $1K, I think it's a good value. I don't believe that spending
>twice as much would get you twice the quality - at least from
>what I have seen in shopping around.
>
>Lou
>
>In article <[email protected]>, Interious
><[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> Anybody else have this saw? I've had mine for a month and have mixed
>> feeling about it. Going from a home-built TS, it's my first real saw
>> and thus luxurious in many ways.
>>
>> It is tremendously satisfying to make cuts with. It was not set-up out
>> of the box. I was able to set the blade to <.001 with respect to the
>> miter slot, but it's drifted to being out by about 2 mils. That *is*
>> after moving it miles all over the shop in a re-arranging exercise.
>> Forrest WWII 40T blade.
>>
>> There is some cupping and dishing in the table, varying maybe +/-
>> .005, maybe more. Shop Fox claims the manufacturing tolerance is 20
>> mils, which strikes me as being way too much. The wings required
>> shimming and still aren't optimized. I said good enough after many
>> hours.
>>
>> The arbor tilt and blade height adjustment do work very smoothly,
>> better than the Unisaw I examined.
>>
>> The Biesemeyer clone fence is a mixed bag. It's a somewhat crude
>> affair, fabricated from essentially angle and square(?) iron stock.
>> Except for the lumpy HDPE fence face (to be replaced), it functions
>> very well, but I find myself wishing for a more refined mechanism.
>>
>> I looked at the Unisaw and was mostly impressed. I wish I had the
>> Unifence on this saw, but I steered away from Delta because of recent
>> reports of QC problems. The 1677 is an attractive machine. Very solid,
>> heavy (I know--same as 1023), beautiful cream paint. Left-tilt 220V,
>> 3 hp, which is waaay more than enough. Very heavy gauge metal cabinet.
>>
>> I know that overall it will serve me well, but I think I wish I had
>> sprung for a General or Bridgewood, or something that is another notch
>> above this.
>> Dave