Sliding Table Saw Upgrade?

[Dave Keating]

Hello everyone, first post for me. I have always had a traditional cabinet style table saws over the years. Powermatic 66, Oliver 270, Tannewitz, Wadkin, etc. I have been thinking about making the jump to a full-size sliding table saw. For example, a Grizzly Industrial G0699. Its seems that they can do anything a traditional cabinet saw can do and can handle larger panels much easier. I have the room in my shop, so that is not an issue.....Any reason why I shouldn't do it?

[Jim Becker]

Lots of us own and love true sliders. I'd never go back to a traditional north American cabinet saw...I had to do that temporarily while my new shop was being built due to space and it was "painful" in some respects. Note, it's not that cabinet saws are bad; it's because I've been using a true slider since about 2005 and my work habits became ingrained over the years. Now that I'm back to it, I'm a happy camper.

I'm not overly familiar with the Grizzly offering, but do note that the unit you mention is 3 phase for power so that's a cost consideration if you do not already have 3 phase in your shop. I believe that April Wilkerson has that saw in her large commercial shop, if I'm not mistaken.

[Josh Baldwin]

Hello everyone, first post for me. I have always had a traditional cabinet style table saws over the years. Powermatic 66, Oliver 270, Tannewitz, Wadkin, etc. I have been thinking about making the jump to a full-size sliding table saw. For example, a Grizzly Industrial G0699. Its seems that they can do anything a traditional cabinet saw can do and can handle larger panels much easier. I have the room in my shop, so that is not an issue.....Any reason why I shouldn't do it?

Hey Dave I'm actually awaiting my slider right now. I've wanted one for years, but didn't have the budget. I'm not an expert on them, but I did research the hell out of them before ordering mine. I would HIGHLY recommend a Felder or an SCM machine. I ended up with the Felder K500s, because I got a crazy deal on it. Just keep in mind with those 2 companies you can usually get a minimum of 10% off the list price if not closer to 20% with some haggling. This puts them usually cheaper than far inferior products like the Grizzly.

[Aaron Inami]

I spent 20 years with cabinet saws before I migrated to a full size slider. The sliding table saw was just significantly better to work with. There is so much that is easier to do on the slider. That being said, the Grizzly line is generally a compromise on quality and design. You can buy them if you want, but the Felder and SCM/Minimax products are going to be engineered better with higher manufacturing quality. Felder has an extremely large amount of add-on options to the saw. Both Felder and Minimax have after-market DRO flip-stops for the cross-cut fence. Etc.

Here's a review on the Grizzly:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIOGCeLsBlU

I think April Wilkerson is half-sponsored by Grizzly as her whole shop is Grizzly. I bet she got a massive discount and her videos are essentially Grizzly marketing. I'm sure the Grizzly stuff works fine, though. Some people are happy with their Grizzly stuff, but some are not.

[Christopher Stahl]

I also moved to a sliding saw about 3 years ago, the SCM Minimax SC4e. I don't know the Grizzly offerings either so I can't comment on their sliding saw. However, I've never regretted moving to a full slider. FYI, there will be a learning curve since using a sliding saw as it's quite different. In most cases, much simpler but you'll find it to be quite different in a good way.