New member Grizzly TS questions

[chris hood]

I am new to woodworking and look forward to learning a lot over time. Me and my wife both have a interest in woodworking, we both took wood shop in high school and that is about the extent of my skills and knowledge in woodworking.
I acquired a Grizzly G1022PR0 table saw with a shop fox fence on it with an end cabinet attached to the saw for blades and jigs etc. I got several jigs with it that I have now idea what they are for or if they even go with the table saw, some look to go with the router table set up we purchased from the same people.
I thought the price was fair but I have no idea what a fair price is for this table with all the accessories. I will share some images if I can figure out how to share them. I appreciate any help and insight or tips for someone getting started with their very 1st table saw and new to woodworking. I paid $600 for the table saw, not sure if that is a good price but it was local and I can not lift much ( shattered spine in a helicopter crash years ago) so I had help from a friend at church who has a bob cat, he loaded it and drove it home for me and sat it in my garage, we live in a small community so finding a good saw locally was a huge bonus for me. I can post pictures of the several jigs that came with it, maybe someone can help me figure out what they are for. I would appreciate it.

[Ron Selzer]

Welcome Chris, this is a good place to be.
Post pictures of the jigs and someone will know what they are used for.
Ron

[Edward Weber]

Personally I would say that's a good price for everything I see in the photo.

[Pat Germain]

Welcome, Chris!

Your Grizzly is what's known as a "Contractor Saw". It's a good starter saw which should serve you well. I used a Craftsman Contractor Saw for many years. Recently I upgraded to a cabinet saw.

I never took wood shop in school, so you are ahead of where I started. I learned a lot watching Norm on "New Yankee Workshop" many years ago. In the 2000s, I found a web page by a young guy in Phoenix who called himself "The Wood Whisperer". I was one of his first followers. He blew up big time and he now has a really good channel on YouTube where you can watch all his videos for free. Personally, I really like his techniques, his instruction and the quality of his videos. There are many beginner videos about setting up and using power tools as well as basic techniques.

I also like the Bourbon Moth YouTube channel. Again, decide for yourself if it's your thing.

First thing I would recommend is finding some videos about setting up a table saw. Then make sure your Grizzly saw is properly cleaned, lubricated, protected and calibrated. This is a big part of the hobby. If you simply start cutting wood, you might get some burning and binding if the saw is not properly aligned.

Post any questions here. The people are very helpful and, unlike some other forums, you won't be lambasted by a bunch of cranky guys with a superiority complex. (No kidding, that's very real on many other web sites.)

[Roger Feeley]

Welcome Chris. I’m often amazed at the depth and breadth of knowledge here. Don’t forget to search for old threads. I have often done a google search only to find the answer come up on sawmill creek.

A great test to check alignment is to simply cut some wood. Get a piece of just about anything. 3”x24”x3/4” mdf is fine. Remove the guard and set he rip fence to just take off 1/8” or less. Rip the board and observe what happens with the back side of the blade. Now move the fence to the other side of the blade and do the same experiment. In theory, if the blade is exactly parallel to the fence, the back side of the blade will barely touch the board and any dust generated will be equal in the two experiments.

but first….
you need to know if the blade is parallel to the miter slot. The experiment is identical to the one above except you are going to use your miter gauge. The trick here is to hold the wood securely to the miter gauge.

so, what do you do if the alignment of the blade to miter gauge is off. It varies from saw to saw. The contractor saw I had years ago had the blade mechanism (called the true moon) attached to the table so it was a process of loosening bolts, tapping one the trunnion, tightening and testing. It took me all day but I got it dead on.

If the miter slot alignment is good and the rip fence is off, it’s not much of a problem. Here it’s a matter of personal preference. Some people like them parallel and others like the back side of the blade a couple of thousandths farther from the fence.

once you dial it in, it’s pretty much accurate for life.

[Michael Burnside]

Welcome to the forum Chris. Seems like a pretty reasonable deal to me. One thing I wish someone would have told me sooner was the importance of good dust collection. I don't know if you are budgeted for it, but it should be on your short list. I would recommend one with a cyclone built-in and a filter.

[Bert McMahan]

Your Grizzly is what's known as a "Contractor Saw". It's a good starter saw which should serve you well.

Wouldn't this be a "hybrid saw"? I usually think of contractor saws as the ones without a stand with a tiny table, designed to be carried around in the back of a truck. This one has a mostly full size table and a full fence, which will be much more accurate and sturdy than the smaller "portable" units.

Either way I fully agree with the rest of your post. I'd also throw out the "Woodworking for Mere Mortals" channel on Youtube. He does a great job at focusing on simple projects using cheaper tools that are more affordable to hobbyists.

[Jimmy Harris]

Wouldn't this be a "hybrid saw"? I usually think of contractor saws as the ones without a stand with a tiny table, designed to be carried around in the back of a truck. This one has a mostly full size table and a full fence, which will be much more accurate and sturdy than the smaller "portable" units.

Either way I fully agree with the rest of your post. I'd also throw out the "Woodworking for Mere Mortals" channel on Youtube. He does a great job at focusing on simple projects using cheaper tools that are more affordable to hobbyists.
What you're talking about is usually referred to as a jobsite saw. Contractor saws usually have more sturdy and semi-permanent mobile bases. It's a little confusing.

OP, be careful with that thing. I'm not sure, but it looks like it might not have a riving knife on it. That will make it prone to kick back.

[Ronald Blue]

Jimmy is correct. This is a contractor style saw. The portables are job site saws. This one looks better than the majority of them. The fence is a Biesemeyer style and the table extensions while not solid are cast iron. It looks like it has been taken care of as well. Go through and do the table saw tune up and it should work well for you.

[Roger Feeley]

HREEs the manual. https://cdn0.grizzly.com/manuals/g1022_m.pdf
I didn’t see the Pro version. This one has a lesser fence. Maybe the Pro version has the better fence.

[chris hood]

Wow! What a way to make a guy feel welcome. Thank you all so much for the warm welcome. Seems like I made a good choice. I know not all forums similar to this are not always friendly or helpful, so thanks.
I do have the owners manual that came with the saw and the manual the came with the fence, it is a shop fox fence, I guess it is a good one, I have yet to learn all that yet but look forward to it. I do not know if the shop fox was a factory fence or is that an aftermarket extra. I have the Shop Fox Classic the manual says. The grizzly manual is for 4 models, the G1022SM, G1022Z, G1022PRO which is what mine is and the G1022FX. The images on the manual show the G1022PRO with the shop fox fence on it, so maybe it came on it. I spent this weekend vacuuming the saw dust out from where the gears or whatever they are called are under the saw blade, I sanded the top with some red emery cloth and WD-40 hope that was ok. it had just a faint bit of surface rust from no use. The gentleman I bought it from had developed dementia really bad, his wife is slowly selling off all his shop equipment, what a shame, he was so talented, welder woodworker and fabricator. I got a router table with all the drawers full stock with bits, jigs hold downs , endless amounts of stuff with the router and lots of Rockler extras for $400 and the Table saw had some jigs too I believe. If it is ok to share more pictures here of the jigs I will unless it needs to be shared in a different thread or something. I also acquired a Rockler Dust collector, wall mount type with hose bag and a wall plate hanger he made for it, have not got the dust collector yet though she is holding it for me, she wants $175, is that a fair price?

[chris hood]

Thank you.

[chris hood]

Thanks. Will upload some more picture here if it is ok to post them in this thread.

[chris hood]

Welcome to the forum Chris. Seems like a pretty reasonable deal to me. One thing I wish someone would have told me sooner was the importance of good dust collection. I don't know if you are budgeted for it, but it should be on your short list. I would recommend one with a cyclone built-in and a filter.
How about this type, I am buying one identical to this one listed on eBay from the lady in my community that I got the saw and router from, same price as the one on eBay.

[Bill Dufour]

Get a can of floor wax for wood floors and coat the table top with it. Wax on wax off just like a car. Wood will slide easier and it stops rust. Or buy a can of special magic wax of some brand in a spray can.
BilL D

[Aaron Inami]

Dust collection is going to be very hard at this level. The Grizzly G1022 contractor saw does not have any sort of dust collection whatsoever. You will have dust falling out the bottom as well as dust being sprayed out at you from the blade cutting (unless you decide to invest in an overhead blade guard / dust collection). It's just the nature of the beast for most contractor saws (and even many cabinet saws). Some of the more modern designs on table saws will actually have much better dust collection (i.e. Grizzly cabinet saws, Sawstop Contractor, low-end Harvey), but the price for these is at least $2k.

Don't expect super performance from the 650CFM wall-mount dust collector. However, some dust collection is better than no dust collection. You may want dust collection for the router table. It's a good price for that model, especially if you can get it locally without shipping charges.

If there is still some rust on the table saw, I have found using a green scotch-brite pad on a random orbit sander at low speed with WD40 as a lubricant works very well. I use Renaissance wax on my cast iron surfaces. There are several different waxes that different people like.