Lou Ortiz
07-10-2007, 1:07 AM
Took the plunge and picked up a SC table saw. Having a good bit of fun and overall very happy with the purchases and would stongly endorse these. The cons are pretty trivial. I've found the setup exactly as Justin McCurdy did in his review of the SC saw. I'd eventually like to put this on a mobile base, but I'm holding out for the General Hover Pad.
Steel City Table Saw with industrial fence-model #35640 ($1950)
Pros...This saw is a tank (not alot of bells and whistles, but should last a couple of lifetimes), solid fence with plenty of adjustability, TiN surface is supposed to be easy care in the long run, setup well at the factory for square, made two calls to company during setup (didn't have a manual in my pack) and immediately got assistance from the folks in TN-very responsive customer service, good support on internet with manuals and info readily available, dust collection is good.
Cons...extension table has a very slight crown with no way to pull it down to match up with the table leaf, scale on the rule is almost exactly 1/2" off (4"=3 1/2") which is greater than the adjustment I can make on the reticle, nomenclature mismatch on the manual for the saw (the saw is the same, but the package I purchased carried a different number)
Wixey Digital Readouts
While picking up a new WWII for the above saw (the SC blade included with the package looks like a Freud), I spotted two new measuring/setup gadgets, both made by Wixey. One was their digital rule for the table saw and the other was their digital angle gauge. The angle gauge has a magnetic base for quick hands free adjustments. Though they ain't cheap, these add-ons are huge timesavers and I'd stongly endorse them. Wixey includes a spare battery with eachs
Angle Gauge ($40)
Pros...Absolute piece of cake to check setups on any equipment, it literally takes five seconds to check that a blade is at 90 to the table and the saw teeth aren't in the way as they might be with a square, my eyes aren't everything they used to be and I don't have to keep squinting to set up the blade, same thing for the jointer, mitre saw, etc., even works on non-metal surfaces-though you have to hold it to the surface by hand, being quick and easy makes it much more likely that I'll check my setups more frequently, makes setting accurate angles on tilts a snap
Cons...outside this not being free, I haven't yet run in to a downside, I've checked every mechanical way I can to find fault with the readings, but I'd need better equipment than I have to find fault with this
Digital Fence Readout ($149)
Pros...Fits just about any saw and apparantly gives you readouts in tenths, fractions and metric to the half a hundredths, allows you to zero the readout for any blade by just running a quick recalibration with the fence at zero (no need to nug through the width of the blade for dado stacks, different blades, left or right of fence, etc), I don't have to squint to see where the reticle is at on cuts at 1/32nd or below, assembly is quick and straightforward, operation is a breeze, allows adjustment for spacer clamped to fence when making crosscuts
Cons...The manual is a bit sparse, the track that the sensor rides along juts in front of the rail of the fence which could expose this to a bit more punishment than the extruded aluminum can handle (this is just conjecture at this point, but I occasionally move some pretty heavy lumber over the saw)
Lou
Steel City Table Saw with industrial fence-model #35640 ($1950)
Pros...This saw is a tank (not alot of bells and whistles, but should last a couple of lifetimes), solid fence with plenty of adjustability, TiN surface is supposed to be easy care in the long run, setup well at the factory for square, made two calls to company during setup (didn't have a manual in my pack) and immediately got assistance from the folks in TN-very responsive customer service, good support on internet with manuals and info readily available, dust collection is good.
Cons...extension table has a very slight crown with no way to pull it down to match up with the table leaf, scale on the rule is almost exactly 1/2" off (4"=3 1/2") which is greater than the adjustment I can make on the reticle, nomenclature mismatch on the manual for the saw (the saw is the same, but the package I purchased carried a different number)
Wixey Digital Readouts
While picking up a new WWII for the above saw (the SC blade included with the package looks like a Freud), I spotted two new measuring/setup gadgets, both made by Wixey. One was their digital rule for the table saw and the other was their digital angle gauge. The angle gauge has a magnetic base for quick hands free adjustments. Though they ain't cheap, these add-ons are huge timesavers and I'd stongly endorse them. Wixey includes a spare battery with eachs
Angle Gauge ($40)
Pros...Absolute piece of cake to check setups on any equipment, it literally takes five seconds to check that a blade is at 90 to the table and the saw teeth aren't in the way as they might be with a square, my eyes aren't everything they used to be and I don't have to keep squinting to set up the blade, same thing for the jointer, mitre saw, etc., even works on non-metal surfaces-though you have to hold it to the surface by hand, being quick and easy makes it much more likely that I'll check my setups more frequently, makes setting accurate angles on tilts a snap
Cons...outside this not being free, I haven't yet run in to a downside, I've checked every mechanical way I can to find fault with the readings, but I'd need better equipment than I have to find fault with this
Digital Fence Readout ($149)
Pros...Fits just about any saw and apparantly gives you readouts in tenths, fractions and metric to the half a hundredths, allows you to zero the readout for any blade by just running a quick recalibration with the fence at zero (no need to nug through the width of the blade for dado stacks, different blades, left or right of fence, etc), I don't have to squint to see where the reticle is at on cuts at 1/32nd or below, assembly is quick and straightforward, operation is a breeze, allows adjustment for spacer clamped to fence when making crosscuts
Cons...The manual is a bit sparse, the track that the sensor rides along juts in front of the rail of the fence which could expose this to a bit more punishment than the extruded aluminum can handle (this is just conjecture at this point, but I occasionally move some pretty heavy lumber over the saw)
Lou