Best Quality 10" Cabinet Saw

[Steve Mathews]

Safety features aside, what is the best quality 10" cabinet saw made today and why?

[Chris Hachet]

Safety features aside, what is the best quality 10" cabinet saw made today and why?

This will open up a hornets next for sure....but I woudl say Saw Stop.

That being said, I would buy a Grizzly 1023 before I woudl buy a saw stop. 3 HP, decent customer service...

And if we are allowed to go used, One can pick up a Unisaw or PM 66 for 1/6 or 1/5 the cost of a new saw stop. A cabinet saw will run virtually forever taken care of. One of my woodworking friends has a 1940's era Unisaw his father bought during WWII, it still sees regular use and still is going strong.

[Jerry Wright]

You need to specify desired price point when you talk about "best".

[Patrick Irish]

Used Unisaw for me was $700 with excalibur dust system I can easily sell for $250. Had to add a front rail, mobile base. For christmas I got a Sharguard riving knife setup as older saws dont have them.

I appreciate the safety features of the sawstop and if you have $3200 for a 3hp 52" fence go for it. If not, a used 3hp Unisaw or Grizz is a good deal. That Grizz 1023 is close to Unisaw you can get, good deal! Left tilt, riving knife, 500lbs.

[Ray Newman]

"You need to specify a desired price point when you talk about the 'best.' " --Jerry Wright

BINGO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Ben Rivel]

OP, whats your price range?

[Chris Hachet]

OP, whats your price range?

I think he was looking at best quality at whatever price. The oversized trunions and oversized table on the Sawstop are nice, but not worth an additional $2500 IMHO

[scott spencer]

Depends on your needs, your budget, and your definition of quality....build quality, most powerful, user features, largest, most precise, longest lasting?

$1400 - new Grizzly G1023RL
$500-$1800 used Uni/PM66/General 650, etc., if you're willing to forego a riving knife and warranty, and accept prior usage....possibly heavy usage.
$3900 - new Saw Stop ICS


Best quality overall is subjective to a large degree, and I'm just not very familiar with much beyond the $3000-$4000 range.

The Saw Stop ICS is pretty robust under the hood, even without consideration for the safety feature, but also in part because of it....likely the most robust of the currently available standard "cabinet saws", excluding sliders and specialized commercial saws. The PM2000 is very substantial also, but I suspect the ICS has the edge. The Unisaw is close too, but issues with foreign ownership and manufacture, and recent stories of poor service and parts availability would scratch it off the list considering other solid choices. The SS PCS 3hp isn't quite in that league, but is a very solid saw with the T-Glide fence upgrade. Grizzly has some heavier duty saws beyond the G1023 and G0690, but I'm just not very familiar with them.

[Chris Hachet]

Depends on your needs, your budget, and your definition of quality....build quality, most powerful, user features, largest, most precise, longest lasting?

$1400 - new Grizzly G1023RL
$500-$1800 used Uni/PM66/General 650, etc., if you're willing to forego a riving knife and warranty, and accept prior usage....possibly heavy usage.
$3900 - new Saw Stop ICS


Best quality overall is subjective to a large degree, and I'm just not very familiar with much beyond the $3000-$4000 range.

The Saw Stop ICS is pretty robust under the hood, even without consideration for the safety feature, but also in part because of it....likely the most robust of the currently available standard "cabinet saws", excluding sliders and specialized commercial saws. The PM2000 is very substantial also, but I suspect the ICS has the edge. The Unisaw is close too, but issues with foreign ownership and manufacture, and recent stories of poor service and parts availability would scratch it off the list considering other solid choices. The SS PCS 3hp isn't quite in that league, but is a very solid saw with the T-Glide fence upgrade. Grizzly has some heavier duty saws beyond the G1023 and G0690, but I'm just not very familiar with them.

From what little I know of the heavier saws they also seem like clones of Delta equipment.

[Van Huskey]

From what little I know of the heavier saws they also seem like clones of Delta equipment.

What are you considering "heavier saws" and which Delta do you think they copy. I can't quite make the jump. In their "day" Delta and Powermatic were both light duty machine manufacturers and I don't see any direct cloning from them in the TS market, even within Delta and Powermatic the move to riving knife saws caused both to completely redesign their saws so there isn't much direct links from the PM 66 to the PM2000 nor the old to the new Uni.

On the electronics issue it begs the question of how long "we" expect the service life for these machines to be. You can easily find Chiwanese machines that are 15-20 years old that have been scrapped due to mechanical parts availability. I think we may be fooling ourselves if we think the average Chinese made TS is a heirloom that will be handed down from generation to generation.

[Chris Hachet]

What are you considering "heavier saws" and which Delta do you think they copy. I can't quite make the jump. In their "day" Delta and Powermatic were both light duty machine manufacturers and I don't see any direct cloning from them in the TS market, even within Delta and Powermatic the move to riving knife saws caused both to completely redesign their saws so there isn't much direct links from the PM 66 to the PM2000 nor the old to the new Uni.

On the electronics issue it begs the question of how long "we" expect the service life for these machines to be. You can easily find Chiwanese machines that are 15-20 years old that have been scrapped due to mechanical parts availability. I think we may be fooling ourselves if we think the average Chinese made TS is a heirloom that will be handed down from generation to generation.

I was thinking that maybe they took some inspiration from the 1214 series of Table saws. In terms of service life, the outright majority of the older American machines have been scrapped as well. I would assume most of these machines died from neglect and abuse rather than actually fully wearing out. Probably the same thing with modern Chiwanese machines. Personally, I like older American iron but am under no illusion that it is perfect.

[David Kumm]

If you go back 10-15 years, some of the Asian clones were pretty close to the original unisaw or Delta 12-14 late model. I know that Grizzly parts were ordered for old Delta 12-14 machines as they were often a direct replacement. Planers looked similar but had different speeds and I suspect more differences than were obvious. The early 14" bandsaws were direct clones although badly done. I keep remembering Elephant or a similar animal name for early Taiwan machines that were pretty close copies. The machining and castings were pretty horrible back then so not all that much was a direct fit. Dave

[Chris Hachet]

"You need to specify a desired price point when you talk about the 'best.' " --Jerry Wright

BINGO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Best is whatever fits the individuals subjective desires best. Some guys like Old iron, some people like new machines. Some people would not live without the Saw Stop feature, some guys would scrap a brand new 3HP Sawstop out of spite just because they don't like Mr Gass. You might as well talk about the color of the machine....by that criteria, my vote would be 1960's Powermatic Green.

[Mike Henderson]

Assuming you value your fingers, I'll suggest SawStop.

Mike

[Chris Hachet]

Assuming you value your fingers, I'll suggest SawStop.

Mike

Depends, every other machine in the shop can be just as dangerous. For me, the table saw is a dedicated ripping machine-almost every other function I do with hand tools or routers.