Some may remember, back in December I ordered a table saw from Grizzly. It arrived damaged, had to be returned. It was reordered only to receive a second damaged saw. Both times freight company was mostly responsible. Anyway, 2 months later its review time for the Harvey Alpha 2HP table saw I ended up ordering.
Harvey did an awesome job packing my saw for freight from California to SWFL. The saw arrived after being stuck in Orlando for 2 weeks. However, it showed up with out a mark on it. The shipping cost 2x Grizzly's rate but worth it to have it show up undamaged.
Assembly went pretty well. The motor was braced for shipping with a steel bar that needed to be removed per instructions. Dummy me forgot to put the one bolt back in after removal. Turns out that bolt holds belt tension.
I ordered the cast iron right wing. I thought it was the same size as the left. NOPE, it's wider and HEAVY. It worked out great because the black phenolic piece fit to the right of the right cast wing. I just had to drill a couple additional holes in the rails.
I wired the saw for 220V for a dedicated outlet I had installed in my shop. In addition to rewiring the motor, Harvey includes an additional on/off switch and circuit breaker that must be installed. Easy-peezy, but additional steps.
The bad news is that the Compass miter gage didn't ship with the saw due to back order. I'm supposed to have it early March.
Someone asked if the cast iron table were flat. I can say that mine are, at least to the level of my straight edges which is good enough for me. However, I did have to align miter slots to blade. That took me a while because I didn't read the instructions. After messing with it quite a while, I finally read the instructions that point out 2 set screws that must be removed in addition to loosening the 4 table bolts. I got the alignment under .002 using a dial indicator. The fence needed basic adjustment as I would expect. The adjusters are really nice, accurate, and easy. The 90 and 45 are dead on.
The fence on this saw is a huge plus. Probably the nicest I've ever used. It's super heavy, but glides like it's on rollers. I couln't get it to deflect at all. Very accurate once the tape was installed.
I installed a brand new Forrest WWII 48T blade and did some test cuts. The saw is VERY quiet as is the blade when cutting. This will be a nice all around set up. I also have a Frued glue line rip blade and a new dado stack.
So what are my impressions? This is a nice saw that will probably be my last. The table being 31" deep is something manufactures should have done long ago. All of the fasteners used and supplied look like SS. They're quality. The cabinet is quality and heavy duty. The trunions, height adjust, and bevel adjust all work smoothly and look to heavy duty. The included tools are really nice.
Some cons would be the instructions are ok, but could be just a bit more detailed. They should include a dust collection fitting for guys like me that will not be using the blade guard and dc hose. All of the cast tables, although being ground flat, have a rough feel to them to the point that I went over them with a green scotch brite pad and paste wax. If you're looking for a polished powermatic top, this aint it.
All in all, I would have been happy with the Grizzly GO899 that I originally ordered and paid more for this. However, as they say, things happen for a reason. I did pay more than I originally wanted but got a lot more. The 31" table is a game changer for me, the heavy duty fence, cast iron right wing, and soon the compass miter gage.
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Originally Posted by Alan Lightstone
