Part of this may also come down to how quickly I can get one of these saws (Grizzly or SawStop as of now). I was planning on buying the SawStop from Woodcraft, but now they're backordered for 3 weeks. I would have ordered it sooner, but they were in stock at the time and I couldn't take delivery. We move into the new house on the 5th of March and I was hoping to have it delivered that same day.
Anyone know who I can call that might have one in stock or can get it soon? I've talked to Woodcract, CPO Outlets, Beaver Tools and Rockler so far.
These days, it seems like almost "anybody" sells SawStop...even Grizzly. 'Just keep emailing/dialing until you find one in the configuration you want. But don't be heck bent on a specific arrival date. While I fully appreciate and approve that you want to get in on my birthday when you move into your new home...it would be a great way to celebrate everything...that may be a tough row to hoe.
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The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...
Where are you located in the US? Grizzly has the slider in-stock for the west side of the U.S. Honestly unless you're short on space, I wouldn't bother with the SawStop or any TS. It's a quality machine, but a slider is far superior than any table saw (unless all you do is rip), but for furniture making a slider is superior. Once you use one you'll never go back. A table saw is just a blade sticking up in the middle of a box lol, but a slider has so much more capability inherently by design. The Grizzly is surprisingly compact too.
I'm in Richmond VA. Thanks for the input. My main concern with the smaller sliders is trying to figure out what my major benefit is. I like the idea a lot. But a cabinet saw with my Incra 5000 Sled seems to be about the same for crosscuts up to about 12" or so. Now obviously with large crosscuts then the slider becomes a much better tool. I'm just wondering if it's worth giving up the safety of the saw stop considering anything I want to rip over 4' or so I'll still have to use the standard fence. I'm just so torn about the whole thing. I think if I could get a full size slider for under $5000 it would be an easy choice, but with these smaller ones I worry I'll only really see the advantages with large crosscuts. Please let me know if I'm thinking about all of this incorrectly as I've never owned a slider before and thanks again for the input.
I've had the G0623 for about 10 years now. I'm very happy with it. If you think you will be cutting a lot of sheet goods don't forget about the scoring blade. It can make a huge difference.
Beranek's Law:
It has been remarked that if one selects his own components, builds his own enclosure, and is convinced he has made a wise choice of design, then his own loudspeaker sounds better to him than does anyone else's loudspeaker. In this case, the frequency response of the loudspeaker seems to play only a minor part in forming a person's opinion.
L.L. Beranek, Acoustics (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1954), p.208.
It largely depends what you're doing. For furniture making the slider opens up plenty of possibilities for jigs on the slider. Sleds on a TS are fine, but a slider is a dedicated, precision version. Especially if you start doing joinery on anything over 24" long, the slider becomes much more capable. Obviously crosscutting anything over 12" is so much easier on the slider too. Keep in mind when you start learning how to use a slider, you'll find your fingers get farther and farther away from the blade. A regular TS tends to teach us to keep our hands close to the blade because the T-slots are so close. But a slider your hands are almost always a few feet away. You can clamp your entire workpiece down to the slider and push through the cut with one finger 3 feet from the blade. You can also rip using the slider with the same principle, so you don't always need to be on the "fence" side, you can work from the slider side for ripping. On long rips though, yes you'll need to be on the fence side, but the Grizzly has a decent blade guard that should never let your fingers get close to the blade (A shark guard is an even better, safer option) and with a push stick, you shouldn't have anything to worry about. A Sawstop is really only needed to counteract the bad principles that regular TS's teach. Learn to use a slider and you'll find you'll naturally be cutting safer, and a shutoff on the blade becomes pretty irrelevant.
Also keep in mind a Sawstop ruins the blade each time, and you also have to buy a new cartridge. So yes it's great that it keeps you safe, but it's also expensive especially if you accidentally trip it. A slider keeps you safe for free by naturally keeping your hands away
That's a great point, I definitely love the idea of the scoring blade. Can you tell me how you measure your crosscuts/rip width? I've read a few people saying because the miter/crosscut fence moves that the measuring tape on the fence is kind of useless. Is that wrong or do you use a difference method? Thanks
I normally use the scales. I periodically check calibration and haven't had to readjust either scale in ten years.
I will say that they are not as easy to use as the hairline cursor on my old Biesemeyer. It takes some practice. On really critical measurements I sometimes use a short steel rule so I have markings to align rather than sighting along an edge.
Also, the flip stops may need to be adjusted to make them square to the fence. I don't think that's in the manual.
Beranek's Law:
It has been remarked that if one selects his own components, builds his own enclosure, and is convinced he has made a wise choice of design, then his own loudspeaker sounds better to him than does anyone else's loudspeaker. In this case, the frequency response of the loudspeaker seems to play only a minor part in forming a person's opinion.
L.L. Beranek, Acoustics (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1954), p.208.
I agree with everything except this. This is where the slider really shines. With a simple shop made jig To keep things parallel I can rip 8' narrow pieces perfectly. Google 'Fritz and Franz' and see what can be done. Also, as stated before, your hands are never even close to the blade if you are doing things correctly on the slider. There is a learning curve as you approach a lot of things differently but afterwards you never look back.
I had the chance to experience a Grizzly slider last year (it was the larger 3 phase) before getting my SC4e and can say the fit and finish, along with the smoothness of the slider and layout of the controls is far below a Minimax machine. It sure gets the job done and it just depends on your expectations. I'm at the point where I want to enjoy using the tools I have and most likely the saw will be the last one I ever buy. If you enjoy using a Ryobi or HF tool (and I see that as good) then the Griz is fine. If you need to have Festool stuff then it will be a let down. To each their own.
Edited to add: I waited at least 3 months for mine, before considering anything else you might check the lead times.
Last edited by Joe Hendershott; 02-16-2021 at 8:03 AM.