Table saw resolution

[John Borger]

Is my couple days up?
I purchased a 35951C Steel City 10”
hybrid cabinet saw from Sumner Woodworking in Sumner, WA on Dec 4, 2012.
All required assembly was performed by by Sumner
Woodworking.

Both miter gage slots were out of whack
– the left tapered .021” front to back – the right was so sloppy as to be
useless. The table is a 3 piece affair with a narrow center section and 2
outboard sections that join at the miter slots.

The left table section “drooped” .030” (
1/32”-) at the outboard edge.

The blade was dead on parallel to the
center table section at 90 degrees.

At 45 degrees the blade was .031” out of
parallel.

The rip fence was not parallel to the
miter gage slots. Not hard to adjust but wouldn’t you
think........................?

The saw comes with a built in mobile
base which didn’t seem very stable – upon jacking up the saw in order to view
the wheel assembly I discovered the bolt (axle) for the right front wheel had
backed out or was never screwed in. The wheels and adjustable feet are hard
plastic and on a slick concrete floor the unit tends to slid around – I resolved
this by rolling it onto a square of corrugated cardboard.

It took hours of work with the help of
Steel City’s tech department to resolve the issues with the table – a shimming
nightmare to adjust the center table section to fix the 45 degree cut
discrepancy. Once the center section is loosened you have 2 battles going on –
keeping it parallel to the blade @ 90 and shimming to get it parallel @
45.

This machine was not useable when it
went out the door and it was a little discouraging to be told by the dealer to
call the Steel City technical department and “it wasn’t meant to be
perfect”.

I really haven’t had enough time using
it to give an evaluation, I think it will please me after I finish being pissed
off. Remains to be seen.



Regards, John Borger

[Ron Kellison]

I have a 5 HP Unisaw that has required a lot of tweaking/shimming to get right. It's a good saw but it took a fair bit of time, thinking and ingenuity to get it dialed in. This is why I'm developing a fondness for finding the old stuff and rebuilding it. The process is enjoyable and, when you're finished, you know the machine inside and out. Once they're set up they tend to hold their adjustments and you can take some pride in saving something useful from the scrap dealer. And some of them are just beautiful, almost works of art. A gentleman recently featured in FWW lives near me and I've had the luxury of watching him work on my old R/I motor while I drooled over several of the machines he has restored and put to use in his shop. He should issue bibs at the door!

1950s-wadkin-pk-tablesaw_xl.jpg

Ron

[Jim O'Dell]

John, I think that can be said of most tools...they require a little work to get them "right". I love my G0691, but I had some issues at first too. I ended up having to take the top off and ream out the mounting holes in the base. Not a big deal, and in the end I'm glad I did it because I learned a lot about the saw that I would otherwise not know. And if a problem ever crops up, I know how to go about getting to it to fix it rather than come here and moan, which I guarantee you I would do. So keep your chin up. You will get it where it needs to be, and you will be better off for it. Jim.

[John Borger]

Jim, I totally agree - I think my upset came from the fact they said I couldn't buy it in the box because they liked to make sure eary thing was just right before it went out the door. I agree with you on the learning curve in doing your own set up. John

[John Borger]

Ronald, No it's 3 piece cast iron and called seamless as the seams are in the miter slots. The center section is the key to it all and had that been dialed in at the factory all the rest would have been cake. The rest of the table is very adjustable. Thx, John

[John Borger]

John, My 30 year 1.5 hp Delta contractors saw with a few upgrades served me well. If I had to spend 3500+ to replace it I'd still be using it. I was looking for a riving blade and better dust collection at a price I could afford. A Saw Stop is a beautiful machine. John B

[Rod Sheridan]

When I received my saw, it was properly adjusted, I checked it against the test sheet supplied and it was as accurate as they stated..........Rod.

[johnny means]

+1 on the Sawstop factory set up. Got my ICS about 5 years ago and every adjustment was spot on out the box and they still are. Except for the cheesy plywood fence face. But I suppose I paid for the technician who fiddled with my saw for a couple of hours.

[Brett Robson]

Sounds like my experience with my band saw. It was assembled by the store when I bought it. I had all sorts of problems with alignment from the pulles to the wheels and the roller guides. I basically had to disassemble the saw and put it all back together correctly to get it working properly.

[Jim Andrew]

When I bought my Unisaw 8 years ago, it was adjusted correct right out of the box. Went and bought a dial indicator with magnetic base so I could check everything, and didn't really need to. Have found most of my tools to be good right out of the box, most are Grizzly, the jointer was adjusted right, as was the planer. However, I had another brand of jointer before getting the Grizzly, and never could get it exactly right.

[Ryan Hellmer]

Tools that are ready to go out of the box are certainly availabe. You buy a $14,620 Northfiel No. 4 and you can bet your @$$ that it will come from the factory ready to go with no need for tweaking. I'm a firm believer in getting what you pay for (I buy things in delapidated condition for pennies on the dollar expecting a lot of work).

Ryan

[Derek Arita]

All I can say is, if I were a manufacturer putting out a machine, I'd want to send it out with everything dead on to start with, rather than leaving it to the customer to tweak my machine to get it right. It may cost more, but it seems only right and if it costs way more, then something is def wrong in the manufacturing process and it's time to fix it...IMHO.

[John Borger]

Kinda like leaving your reputation in the hands of someone who may or my not have the ability to make things right.

[Lornie McCullough]

John, I think that can be said of most tools...they require a little work to get them "right". I love my G0691, but I had some issues at first too. I ended up having to take the top off and ream out the mounting holes in the base. Not a big deal, and in the end I'm glad I did it because I learned a lot about the saw that I would otherwise not know. And if a problem ever crops up, I know how to go about getting to it to fix it rather than come here and moan, which I guarantee you I would do. So keep your chin up. You will get it where it needs to be, and you will be better off for it. Jim.

This is one of the best statements I've read here.....

Lornie

[Ole Anderson]

Is it possible that in shipping and installing the machine that some adjustments could get out of whack? I don't know, just asking.