Grizzly G0691 Arrived

[Jeff Mackay]

Hi Everybody:

I know this doesn't count as a gloat--no pictures yet. But the Grizzly G0691 table saw that I ordered last Saturday was delivered on Thursday by UPS Freight. I asked for a lift gate, and waited most of the day for the saw to be delivered. Got tired of waiting, and decided to go down into the shop to make room for it. I heard some noise outside, and by the time I got out there, the driver had wheeled the saw into the garage. No visible damage on the crate or any of the boxes.

I called a local erecting company to see how much they would charge to move it into the basement: $1000. Yeah, right. My neighbor has an appliance dolly, so I called him over. He came with his dolly and his 13-year-old son. It took us about 15 minutes to uncrate the machine, load it on the dolly, and get it down the stairs. Nobody even broke a sweat.

I spent the last couple of days setting it up in my spare time. Here's what I found:

- The saw itself was well packaged, and there was no damage in shipping.

- I'm basically happy with the quality of the machine--with a couple of exceptions noted below. The trunnion is massive, raising and tilting the blade is smooth and easy, and it appears that the fence can be adjusted for parallel as well as a Biesemeyer.

- The riving knife is solid and both the knife and guard are super easy to install and remove. No complaints there. I can't imagine how it could be done any better. I also like the split guard.

- Off the crate, the blade was almost dead on parallel with the miter slot (within .001 inch)

- The extension wings are pretty close to dead flat, within .0015. The table however, is warped a bit. It dishes by about .003 inches in the center of the table to the right side. Not a huge problem, but enough to make me uneasy. I was able to get the left extension wing installed without much of a lip, but there was no way to install the right wing without a lip.

- The faces of the fence are not even close to flat. That made it difficult to adjust the fence to be parallel to the miter slot. I removed the face, and aligned the bare fence casting. It was extremely rough, and covered with paint. I was able to get it parallel within about .002 inches (without the face attached). But the face has both high and low spots that vary by as much as .020 inches. I'll contact customer support to see if they have any suggestions. Has anyone solved this problem?

- The overall design of the fence is good I think. I like the nylon bolts that eliminate slack. I can move the fence, and it stays parallel to the miter slot. We'll see how long they last...

- One corner of the extension table was damaged--it was obviously dropped by somebody. I already contacted Grizzly to get a replacement.

- I haven't gotten around to replacing the cord and plug yet. So I haven't started it up. Maybe tomorrow.

- I also ordered the shop fox mobile base with extension. I was able to get the saw mounted on the mobile base by building it around the saw. I haven't noticed any bending at the casters yet.

Overall, I'm happy with the purchase so far. I still have to wire it, check for runout on the arbor and flange, and saw some wood! Maybe tomorrow.

Jeff

[scott spencer]

Congrats Jeff! Nothing like that "new saw" smell! Sounds like you deserve a new saw blade!

Be safe.

[Jeff Miller]

Hi Everybody:







- The faces of the fence are not even close to flat. That made it difficult to adjust the fence to be parallel to the miter slot. I removed the face, and aligned the bare fence casting. It was extremely rough, and covered with paint. I was able to get it parallel within about .002 inches (without the face attached). But the face has both high and low spots that vary by as much as .020 inches. I'll contact customer support to see if they have any suggestions. Has anyone solved this problem?


Jeff

I fixed mine ......................see how in this thread.


http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=135278



JEFF

[Howard Klepper]

On my new 0690 the table is flat as far as the left hand T-slot; from there to the table edge it drops away a few thousandths. I was a little disappointed, but I can live with it. The saw is powerful and smooth and a big step up from the Jet contractor's saw I was using.

The fence faces are not flat on mine either. That seems to be an almost universal problem with them. I was thinking about taking them off and jointing them. Anyone done that?

[Jim O'Dell]

Rather than jointing them, I'd use some shims behind the mounting screws to get it flat. Even tape in multiple layers if need be will work. On my 691, the right side is like a roller coaster, but the left side is perfectly flat. Since I NEVER use the fence to the left of the blade, I'm fine. It's not worth messing with for me. It's possible that just backing the screws for the low spots off a little may fix the problem, but I'd want to shim behind to make sure it doesn't move.
Jeff, I'm not sure I understand what type of lip you are talking about. Are you saying the wing won't drop far enough to sit level with the saw top, or won't go up far enough to keep from the saw's top from forming a lip? Or you can't get the wing parallel to the top? If the latter, use some tape on the edge of the saw's edge to push the wing the right direction. If the former, then I'd think something is not drilled right. Easiest thing, if otherwise happy with the wings, would be to elongate the holes with a drill. Otherwise contact Griz customer service for help. Jim.

[Jeff Mackay]

Rather than jointing them, I'd use some shims behind the mounting screws to get it flat. Even tape in multiple layers if need be will work.

I tried backing off the screws, but it really didn't do anything. I'll give shimming a try, but I don't think it will work since it has both high and low spots. It's really uneven. I'm thinking I might replace it with some waxed baltic birch. But first, I think I'll ask Grizzly for a replacement face.

Jeff, I'm not sure I understand what type of lip you are talking about. Are you saying the wing won't drop far enough to sit level with the saw top, or won't go up far enough to keep from the saw's top from forming a lip? Or you can't get the wing parallel to the top?

Since the table is warped (dished), but the extension wing is not, if I line up the front and back of the right extension wing to be on the same plane as the table top, the center of the wing sits about .003 higher than the center of the table. I can align the center of the wing with the table, but then the two ends of the table stick up by .003 (or either the front or back sticks up more than .003, if I tilt the extension wing a bit).

When tightened, the left wing sits almost perfectly level with the table top. The far left edge is about .0015 low, but not enough to worry about--and too small of a difference to use paper as a shim. I guess I could try to use some feeler guage stock to shim the table and get it perfectly level on the left. Because the right side is already off, I didn't check level on that side yet.

[Ryan Welch]

I fixed mine ......................see how in this thread.


http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=135278



JEFF

I replaced my fence faces with corian as well......It works great. Flat and easy to align and shim (if necessary)

[Jim O'Dell]

On the fence, you'd have to shim to the highest point. Depending on how much it has to be shimmed as to whether it is feasible to try or not. Jim.

[Rob Hough]

I would ask for a new top. I would tolerate a warped wing before I'd tolerate a warped main table surface. Just my opinion on that one.

[Shiraz Balolia]

I would ask for a new top. I would tolerate a warped wing before I'd tolerate a warped main table surface. Just my opinion on that one.

For .003" ?

I hope you can find a tool company that will guarantee a table top with less than .003" (three thousandths of an inch) of flatness on a whole table.

[Rob Hough]

Maybe I should have stated more clearly. I could see it not being a problem if it didn't affect the wings, but that doesn't seem to be the case here. I doubt mine is dead flat - but it also doesn't cause an issue when trying to align the wings.

[Jeff Mackay]

I called tech support to talk about both the table top and the fence. They're sending me a new face for the fence. The table top, not surprisingly, is within spec. So I'd rather not risk getting a replacement. Who knows, the replacement could be worse than the original... I'll live with it.

[Neil Brooks]

Congrats on the new saw!!!

It should be a big, heavy heap of joy to use!!

[Dave Mura]

Congrats on the purchase!!

[Jeff Mackay]

I did get the saw rewired yesterday--needed a longer cord. Started it up today with an old Tenryu blade and took some test cuts. As expected, it works great. The motor is relatively quiet, and it didn't have any trouble cutting through 4/4 cherry or cumaru (all I had handy). The miter gauge is pretty close at 90 degrees, it looks like it's just slightly off. Come to think of it, I messed a little bit with the adjusters on the bar to eliminate a slight bit of play, and that might account for the difference. It'll do for now, I'm waiting for a couple more weeks for the sliding table attachment before I worry too much about accuracy on crosscuts.

Jeff