Harvey Alpha HW110S-36 Review

[Julie Moriarty]

Those Harvey machines do look like they're "a cut above". Nice to have more high quality choices.

I wouldn't say cut above but certainly it seems for the price they are a pretty good deal. I'm not all that impressed with the cast iron tops. The cast top on my old saw are smoother and seem to be more "tightly" cast. There's a cord from the switch to the cabinet that is seriously in the way of accessing the tilt handwheel. That will have to be replaced with a longer one so it can be moved out of the way. The paint job on the rail is pitted and the bevel on the main table and the cast extension are of different sizes. No reason for that in this day of CNC machines.

On the other hand, their newer products, like the miter gauge and the dust processor, really do seem a cut above.

Do you know what the distance from the front of the blade (fully raised) to the front of the table is ?

From the front edge of the cast iron table, it's 14" to touching a fully raised 10" blade.

[Jacques Gagnon]

There's a cord from the switch to the cabinet that is seriously in the way of accessing the tilt handwheel. That will have to be replaced with a longer one so it can be moved out of the way.

Julie:

Very interesting post - thanks for sharing.

Since you will be playing with the wires, have you considered installing a safety cut-out (not sure if this is the right term) so that you do not need to plug/unplug when changing blades?

Regards,

J.

[Julie Moriarty]

Since you will be playing with the wires, have you considered installing a safety cut-out (not sure if this is the right term) so that you do not need to plug/unplug when changing blades?

Yes. On my other saw I installed a box with separate switches for the router and the saw. Then I put a 10' long SO cord on that for mobility The box was mounted to the front of the table so I could switch either tool off and have a secondary means of disconnect. This setup will be the same except for needing a 2 pole switch and a second cord for the 240v feed.

[Julie Moriarty]

Legs for the sliding table were modified and secured to the mobile base. I used Unistrut angles for 90⁰ brackets. It's pretty solid.


Once the slider fence is on, the overall length is 95"


Still waiting on the router table. which comes with legs. I have the extension for the mobile base already here.

[Robert Mayer]

The dust collection on that thing must be really good, grizzly is putting those dust collection brackets right under the blade too. Wish they made a retrofit kit for my older grizzly saw.

[Julie Moriarty]

The dust collection on that thing must be really good, grizzly is putting those dust collection brackets right under the blade too. Wish they made a retrofit kit for my older grizzly saw.

On everything I've seen to this point, dust collection was accomplished by sucking up whatever fell down from the blade into the cabinet. This saw has a shroud around the blade and a 3" hose that runs from the shroud to the 4" inlet, which shares overhead dust collection.

BTW, I think Harvey makes tools for Grizzly, among other brands.

[Rod Sheridan]

"I used Unistrut angles"

Spoken like a true electrician

Hope you enjoy your new saw..........Regards, Rod.

[Julie Moriarty]

"I used Unistrut angles"

Spoken like a true electrician

Hope you enjoy your new saw..........Regards, Rod.

And originally I was looking at using Unistrut for the legs. Old habits die hard.

As for the saw, I gave it a tiny workout yesterday. Not much ripping but enough to see sawdust collect on the inside of the cabinet. There is no way for that dust to be extracted from the cabinet other than opening the cabinet door and removing it manually. The only dust port is connected directly to the dust shroud surrounding the blade. So in order to collect that dust too, another dust port will need to be added. Maybe installing a 2" port at the base of the cabinet will help. Right now there is a 4" duct running to the saw. I'll change that to 6" and install a Y split to 4" and 2". The 4" connecting to the existing port and the 2" to the new port.

I also noticed the 3" hose, that runs from the blade's dust shroud, seriously rubs against the edge of the cabinet door when setting the blade bevel past 35^₀ or so. You can feel the resistance when it hits that point, then it pops past the door edge. Over time that will probably wear a hole in the dust hose. Part of the problem is the port on the dust shroud is poorly located, requiring a severe bend in the 3" hose as it works to get past the electrical connection box on the motor.

And the short cord problems became more obvious during operation. With the sliding table attached, there is no way to plug the power cord into a wall outlet unless the table is angled toward the wall. I've got some SJTOW cord on order.

The ripping I was doing required the blade guard to be removed. That meant no overarm dust collection (which seems to work pretty well) so I got to see how much dust is spewed out above the table. It was noticeably less than the old saw. And this saw definitely needs a zero clearance insert. That dust shroud collects narrow cutoffs, with no way to clear them out. I was ripping 10" long strips of walnut. The narrow cutoff was pulled into the dust shroud and the blade ended up rubbing against them. Other pieces were violently ejected out the top, fortunately away from me.

Something about the fence didn't feel right so I switched that out with the fence I had installed on the old saw. I think I bought that from Peachtree years ago when I upgraded the old saw. It's longer and has slots on the top for attaching hold downs as well as a UHMW insert running along the face of the fence.

I'll do more updates as I learn more, if anyone is interested.

[Robert Hayward]

I'll do more updates as I learn more, if anyone is interested.

Yes, please do more updates. I find your thoughts and views of the saw very interesting.

[Tony Shea]

Yes keep posting how you like this saw. It is def on the list of potential buying options for me. I'd love to just get a Sawstop but the prices these days are just a little excessive when compared to brands like the Harvey.

[Julie Moriarty]

OK. Here's the latest...

The loose cord situation has been rectified. Now there are no hanging cords to get snagged on. 120v & 240v boxes added to the rear of the saw and their respective cords secured to the DC hose. No loose cords for the roller wheels to get jammed on.


After cleaning up the wiring, I reinstalled the DC hose from the blade dust shroud. Wow, is that in there tight! After putting the cabinet door back on, I found the overarm tubing prevents the door from opening all the way.


Still no shipment on the router table extension and no idea when it will be shipped. But yesterday I ordered their zero clearance insert and it shipped the same day.

[Julie Moriarty]

While I don't move as fast as I used to...

One thing that bothered me about the cabinet saw was the dust collection was pretty poor. Even with the new Gyro dust processor. An awful amount of dust was collecting inside the cabinet and there was no way to remove it, outside taking a vacuum to it.

This weekend I tried to tackle the problem by drilling a 4" port into the cabinet.


Then I removed the 4" ducting and replaced it with 6" down to the cabinet saw and added 6" flex to the 6x4x4 splitter seen above.


Admittedly, this was a gamble. And it was a lot of work, at least for a 70 year old woman.

Fingers crossed, I took a 1" piece of bloodwood and, without the aid of overarm DC, proceeded to rip it.

I was shocked to see almost no dust above the table. The addition of the second 4" port took dust collection from lousy to amazing. And I was amazed that happened.

[Warren Lake]

I ran the SCM one day and forgot to hook up the dust collector. comes from working for 40 years often without it. When I walked past the saw there was dust behind it Realized I had not hooked up the small portable dust collector. The past general saws dust just fell in the bottom of the saw. The SCM on its own shot it out the back where the pipe hooks up up to six feet from the saw. Impressed.

[Alan Lightstone]

I added a second dust collection port to several of my tools including my SawStop contractor's saw in the past. They all helped.

BTW, that boombox big enough for you? I can hear it up in Tampa.

[Edwin Dodds]

Hi Julie, hope you're enjoying that nice tablesaw!
Just a couple of questions, if you don't mind. When you pull the sliding table all the way out to the front of the saw, is there any noticeable side to side play in it?
Also, if you remove the miter fence from the sliding table, when you re-install the fence does it reference itself perfectly back to 90 degrees, or do you have to play with it a bit?