Well, the granite top table saw I referred to a couple weeks ago is
here...and I thought I'd give my impressions so far.
Rule number one...have a friend help to move it as you assemble it! It
is overly heavy...but it is cumbersome.
The shipping frame/pallet is pretty impressive. The top box didn't
want to lift off, so grab your box cutter. Cut one corner and it
slides right off. The granite table extentions are in two seperate
boxes. Have a VERY stable table or bench to set those on.
There are two bolts that hold the machine to the pallet from below.
The finish on everything seemed to be pretty damned good. I spent some
time wiping the oil and stuff off while waiting for help to come.
Take the motor cover off and it'll fit thru just about any door that
you may need to go thru. Just swing it almost all the way open and
it'll pick up off the hinges.
I go the Steel City mobile base to go under it. You'll need a piece of
2'X2' 3/4" ply. I lucked out and found some at Menard's that was only
.010" under nominal. Lay the saw on a couple 2x's and you can fit the
base quite easily and tip it up onto the wheels with no or minimal
help.
Assembly was all pretty straight forward...follow the book and it'll
go together pretty quickly.
A couple of issues....
...the extension tables didn't line up well. The right side table was
just about perfect for the table slot width...but the front of the
table was over 1/32" off. And since the fence system bolts to the face
of the tables, that is NOT gonna work. The left fence was the
opposite. The front of the table was only about .010" offset but the
slot width ran from .762" at the front to OVER .785" wide at the back!
The tables are easy in concept to adjust....but getting the width
perfect on the slots is a VERY frustrating thing. Be prepared to take
several deep breaths and walk away. Adjusting the two tables took
longer than all the rest of the assembly.
One pretty major issue I had was that after you attach the right hand
table, you can not close the motor cover door...one of the table
screws sticks down too far and hits the top of the door. It's a pretty
easy fix with a hacksaw and a round file....just make two cuts about
5/8' apart and about 3/8" deep....bend the tab with a pair of pliers
and it'll break right out...clean up with a file and you're done.
The only other thing that may need attention is the table board. The
attention to detail when they made it was not the best....just had to
trim some of the laminate to make it fit between the fence rails. A
long pattern bit on the router table and a little finish cutting with
a sharp knife and it was ready to go.
That's it for the saw...and the only other issue was the fence...the
left side of the fence...towards the blade with the fence to the right
of the blade was nice and straight as far as I could run an indicator.
The right side is NOT parallel to the left. Not sure how most will be
able to fix it, but I took it to work and used a very large milling
machine to run an endmill down both faces...now they are straight and
parallel within less than .001"
Haven't done a lot of work with it yet, but it feels good so far and I
think I made a pretty good buy.
After I run it a while, I'll update this.
Luck
Mike
On 3/31/2012 8:26 AM, Mike---the other one wrote:
> Well, the granite top table saw I referred to a couple weeks ago is
> here...and I thought I'd give my impressions so far.
>
> Rule number one...have a friend help to move it as you assemble it! It
> is overly heavy...but it is cumbersome.
>
> The shipping frame/pallet is pretty impressive. The top box didn't
> want to lift off, so grab your box cutter. Cut one corner and it
> slides right off. The granite table extentions are in two seperate
> boxes. Have a VERY stable table or bench to set those on.
>
> There are two bolts that hold the machine to the pallet from below.
>
> The finish on everything seemed to be pretty damned good. I spent some
> time wiping the oil and stuff off while waiting for help to come.
>
> Take the motor cover off and it'll fit thru just about any door that
> you may need to go thru. Just swing it almost all the way open and
> it'll pick up off the hinges.
>
> I go the Steel City mobile base to go under it. You'll need a piece of
> 2'X2' 3/4" ply. I lucked out and found some at Menard's that was only
> .010" under nominal. Lay the saw on a couple 2x's and you can fit the
> base quite easily and tip it up onto the wheels with no or minimal
> help.
>
> Assembly was all pretty straight forward...follow the book and it'll
> go together pretty quickly.
>
> A couple of issues....
>
> ...the extension tables didn't line up well. The right side table was
> just about perfect for the table slot width...but the front of the
> table was over 1/32" off. And since the fence system bolts to the face
> of the tables, that is NOT gonna work. The left fence was the
> opposite. The front of the table was only about .010" offset but the
> slot width ran from .762" at the front to OVER .785" wide at the back!
>
> The tables are easy in concept to adjust....but getting the width
> perfect on the slots is a VERY frustrating thing. Be prepared to take
> several deep breaths and walk away. Adjusting the two tables took
> longer than all the rest of the assembly.
>
> One pretty major issue I had was that after you attach the right hand
> table, you can not close the motor cover door...one of the table
> screws sticks down too far and hits the top of the door. It's a pretty
> easy fix with a hacksaw and a round file....just make two cuts about
> 5/8' apart and about 3/8" deep....bend the tab with a pair of pliers
> and it'll break right out...clean up with a file and you're done.
>
> The only other thing that may need attention is the table board. The
> attention to detail when they made it was not the best....just had to
> trim some of the laminate to make it fit between the fence rails. A
> long pattern bit on the router table and a little finish cutting with
> a sharp knife and it was ready to go.
>
> That's it for the saw...and the only other issue was the fence...the
> left side of the fence...towards the blade with the fence to the right
> of the blade was nice and straight as far as I could run an indicator.
> The right side is NOT parallel to the left. Not sure how most will be
> able to fix it, but I took it to work and used a very large milling
> machine to run an endmill down both faces...now they are straight and
> parallel within less than .001"
>
> Haven't done a lot of work with it yet, but it feels good so far and I
> think I made a pretty good buy.
>
> After I run it a while, I'll update this.
>
> Luck
>
> Mike
Thanks for the brutally honest review Mike. I would send that review to
Steel City also.
Glad you had a mill. Most won't. You'd think they would have some QC
process to check that. Pretty major.
Good luck with your new saw..
On 3/31/2012 9:26 AM, Mike---the other one wrote:
> Well, the granite top table saw I referred to a couple weeks ago is
> here...and I thought I'd give my impressions so far.
>
> Rule number one...have a friend help to move it as you assemble it! It
> is overly heavy...but it is cumbersome.
>
> The shipping frame/pallet is pretty impressive. The top box didn't
> want to lift off, so grab your box cutter. Cut one corner and it
> slides right off. The granite table extentions are in two seperate
> boxes. Have a VERY stable table or bench to set those on.
>
> There are two bolts that hold the machine to the pallet from below.
>
> The finish on everything seemed to be pretty damned good. I spent some
> time wiping the oil and stuff off while waiting for help to come.
>
> Take the motor cover off and it'll fit thru just about any door that
> you may need to go thru. Just swing it almost all the way open and
> it'll pick up off the hinges.
>
> I go the Steel City mobile base to go under it. You'll need a piece of
> 2'X2' 3/4" ply. I lucked out and found some at Menard's that was only
> .010" under nominal. Lay the saw on a couple 2x's and you can fit the
> base quite easily and tip it up onto the wheels with no or minimal
> help.
>
> Assembly was all pretty straight forward...follow the book and it'll
> go together pretty quickly.
>
> A couple of issues....
>
> ...the extension tables didn't line up well. The right side table was
> just about perfect for the table slot width...but the front of the
> table was over 1/32" off. And since the fence system bolts to the face
> of the tables, that is NOT gonna work. The left fence was the
> opposite. The front of the table was only about .010" offset but the
> slot width ran from .762" at the front to OVER .785" wide at the back!
>
> The tables are easy in concept to adjust....but getting the width
> perfect on the slots is a VERY frustrating thing. Be prepared to take
> several deep breaths and walk away. Adjusting the two tables took
> longer than all the rest of the assembly.
>
> One pretty major issue I had was that after you attach the right hand
> table, you can not close the motor cover door...one of the table
> screws sticks down too far and hits the top of the door. It's a pretty
> easy fix with a hacksaw and a round file....just make two cuts about
> 5/8' apart and about 3/8" deep....bend the tab with a pair of pliers
> and it'll break right out...clean up with a file and you're done.
>
> The only other thing that may need attention is the table board. The
> attention to detail when they made it was not the best....just had to
> trim some of the laminate to make it fit between the fence rails. A
> long pattern bit on the router table and a little finish cutting with
> a sharp knife and it was ready to go.
>
> That's it for the saw...and the only other issue was the fence...the
> left side of the fence...towards the blade with the fence to the right
> of the blade was nice and straight as far as I could run an indicator.
> The right side is NOT parallel to the left. Not sure how most will be
> able to fix it, but I took it to work and used a very large milling
> machine to run an endmill down both faces...now they are straight and
> parallel within less than .001"
>
> Haven't done a lot of work with it yet, but it feels good so far and I
> think I made a pretty good buy.
>
> After I run it a while, I'll update this.
>
> Luck
>
> Mike
On Sat, 31 Mar 2012 08:26:50 -0500, Mike---the other one
<[email protected]> wrote:
>Well, the granite top table saw I referred to a couple weeks ago is
>here...and I thought I'd give my impressions so far.
>
>Rule number one...have a friend help to move it as you assemble it! It
>is overly heavy...but it is cumbersome.
>
>The shipping frame/pallet is pretty impressive. The top box didn't
>want to lift off, so grab your box cutter. Cut one corner and it
>slides right off. The granite table extentions are in two seperate
>boxes. Have a VERY stable table or bench to set those on.
>
>There are two bolts that hold the machine to the pallet from below.
>
>The finish on everything seemed to be pretty damned good. I spent some
>time wiping the oil and stuff off while waiting for help to come.
>
>Take the motor cover off and it'll fit thru just about any door that
>you may need to go thru. Just swing it almost all the way open and
>it'll pick up off the hinges.
>
>I go the Steel City mobile base to go under it. You'll need a piece of
>2'X2' 3/4" ply. I lucked out and found some at Menard's that was only
>.010" under nominal. Lay the saw on a couple 2x's and you can fit the
>base quite easily and tip it up onto the wheels with no or minimal
>help.
>
>Assembly was all pretty straight forward...follow the book and it'll
>go together pretty quickly.
>
>A couple of issues....
>
>...the extension tables didn't line up well. The right side table was
>just about perfect for the table slot width...but the front of the
>table was over 1/32" off. And since the fence system bolts to the face
>of the tables, that is NOT gonna work. The left fence was the
>opposite. The front of the table was only about .010" offset but the
>slot width ran from .762" at the front to OVER .785" wide at the back!
>
>The tables are easy in concept to adjust....but getting the width
>perfect on the slots is a VERY frustrating thing. Be prepared to take
>several deep breaths and walk away. Adjusting the two tables took
>longer than all the rest of the assembly.
>
>One pretty major issue I had was that after you attach the right hand
>table, you can not close the motor cover door...one of the table
>screws sticks down too far and hits the top of the door. It's a pretty
>easy fix with a hacksaw and a round file....just make two cuts about
>5/8' apart and about 3/8" deep....bend the tab with a pair of pliers
>and it'll break right out...clean up with a file and you're done.
>
>The only other thing that may need attention is the table board. The
>attention to detail when they made it was not the best....just had to
>trim some of the laminate to make it fit between the fence rails. A
>long pattern bit on the router table and a little finish cutting with
>a sharp knife and it was ready to go.
>
>That's it for the saw...and the only other issue was the fence...the
>left side of the fence...towards the blade with the fence to the right
>of the blade was nice and straight as far as I could run an indicator.
>The right side is NOT parallel to the left. Not sure how most will be
>able to fix it, but I took it to work and used a very large milling
>machine to run an endmill down both faces...now they are straight and
>parallel within less than .001"
>
>Haven't done a lot of work with it yet, but it feels good so far and I
>think I made a pretty good buy.
>
>After I run it a while, I'll update this.
>
>Luck
>
>Mike
oops...forgot one thing...
either buy a Leecraft zero clearance table insert to start out with OR
have a few sheets of 50 grit paper around to flatten the throat plate.
It wasnot flat enough AND the steel inserts they put in for the
kick-back pawls to rest on were proud of the plate.
Mike