Exactor or Excaliber Sliding Table

[Rob Sack]

I am thinking of buying a new Saw Stop and adding a sliding table. My current saw has an original Excalibur 60" slider, which has performed quite well over the years. I know some time ago, the original Excaliber Co. split into two separate companies, Exactor and Excalibur, each producing slightly different versions of the same basic design. If I remember correctly, one of them had stainless steel runners and the other had powder coated runners. I believe Excalibur is now owned by General Industrial Tools out of Canada. I was wondering if anyone has done a thorough comparisan of the current Excalibur and Exactor sliding tables and has any thoughts on the subject. I would appreciate any input.

[Bob Falk]

For what its worth, I did consider the Excalibur/Exactor for my Sawstop, but ended up with a Jessem Mast-r-Slide, which has the advantage of being completely supported by the saw, so I could keep the saw completely mobile on the mobile base, an advantage for me. I am happy with the Jessem, however the setup was a chore....very accurate now that I have it dialed in. If you intend to keep the saw in one place, the Excalibur gets good marks.

[Bill ThompsonNM]

I looked at both a couple of years ago, at that time it seemed they were close enough that $ was the primary issue. Amazon had a sale and and I bought the exaktor. Works great -- you know, of course you can support the table with a diagonal brace to regain mobility .

[Chip Lindley]

The Exaktor was included when I bought my gently-used PM66. It's fit and finish is good, and it does what it is supposed to do, once set up! It is not mobile, but surely does a nice job of trimming large panels or mitering wide shelving.

[Van Huskey]

I saw the upgraded the larger Excaliber at IWF (I think this is the 60") and they did a GREAT job with the upgrades. Not sure if the Exactor has been upgraded, you may want to check into that.

[Philip Rodriquez]

I have a ICS SS with the 49" excalibur. IMHO, let the price decide which one you go with. I got mine from Tools-Plus.com.

[Dave Verstraete]

Robb
Why not take your current Excaliber slider and put it on your new SS?
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/picture.php?albumid=55&pictureid=446

[Kevin Groenke]

Hey Rob,

We have a newish (~2002) Exactor and an older (~1993?) Excalibur mounted to SawStop ICS's. The only significant difference is the powdercoated steel vs stainless rails. Unless there was a significant price difference I would get the Exactor with the stainless rails as they will never chip or corrode. (our powder-coated Excalibur tubes are somewhat chipped, and a tiny bit rough on the slide.)

If you have a 60" Excalibur on your existing saw, I would probably just reuse it. I doubt that you will recoup the cost of a new slider if you sell it with the saw and I'm not aware of any significant recent improvements that would make your old sliding table obsolete.

g'luck
-kg

[Van Huskey]

I'm not aware of any significant recent improvements that would make your old sliding table obsolete.

g'luck
-kg

Actually as I referenced above they did a serious overhual of the larger Excaliber recently:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tz_BV_B71j4

[Rob Sack]

I did contact Excalibur yesterday and found out there is a big difference between my current Excaliber sliding table (first generation) and the current model (third generation). I also thought the stainless steel tubes on the Exactor would be a plus, especially considering the powder coating on my old model started disintegrating years ago, affecting the smoothness of the slider. I ultimately removed the powder coat, which fixed the problem. According to the people at Excalibur, stainless steel tubing is not consistent in regards to flatness and/or straightness. What Excalibur is doing is powdercoating steel tubing and then machining the flats that the slider bearings ride on. The current Excaliber has four beefier legs instead of the previous three, better bolting, and better rigidity, which they explain accounts for the difference in price as compared to the Exactor.

[Van Huskey]

The current Excaliber has four beefier legs instead of the previous three, better bolting, and better rigidity, which they explain accounts for the difference in price as compared to the Exactor.

Also they more than doubled the number of bearings the table slides on an eliminated the UHMW material in favor of bearings.