John Miliunas
11-03-2003, 11:19 PM
I know...You guys are probably thinking, "Sheeeesh, John's lost it now!" Not quite. Shortly before I bought my Delta contractor saw, I had read in the forums about the "nickel test". My objective became to tune that saw well enough to pass the test. I installed the machined pulleys and link belt, tweaked all that I could and it passed. Well, this evening, I finally got to the point on the new BW 10-LTS, to where I could finally power it up. I assembled and set the saw up per the manual with no further mods. This included the 7' rail and the Beisey clone fence, as well as the stock blade provided by Bridgewood. I set the nickel on it and hit the power for the first time. Man, that thing spins up FAST! At any rate, the nickel fell over in short order! "What?! :mad: " I did it again and same thing! I left the nickel lay and powered back up, just putting my hand on the table to see what vibration I could feel. Figured it out in short order. It wasn't vibration but the "wind" from the blade blowing the nickel over! :rolleyes: "What a dummy!" OK, so I placed the nickel upright, but off to the side and hit the throttle. Not even a whimper! Now I felt better and happened to have a few pennies in my pocket, so I tried it. Sure enough, a complete repeat of the nickel test! No detectable movement...AT ALL! OK, I'm impressed. :D I had some other chores to tend to after that, so I didn't even run a piece of wood through it. I did, however, clean the top once more and hit it with some Boeshield. Once I get to put it through some paces and try the Woodworker II on it, I'll give a better report on it. Thus far, though, extremely pleased with the Bridgewood! :D :cool: