With the recent router upgrade I knew a table saw upgrade was next. A table saw is one of those tools that pretty much any shop needs to have... and the ones I have owned have - well - have left something to be desired. Which has made it hard to either do some projects or - maybe worse - do them well.
Enter - Exhibit A... the first table saw I bought at a garage sale when I first moved into this little house probably for twenty bucks or something and that was more or less completely one-hundred-percent useless (the fence was basically just for decoration cos I don't think it really even secured to the table top - and, umm, note the lack of even a rail along the table... ) -
A 7" Black & Decker. Oddly - with less cut capacity on the right then the left... maybe this was the left-handed model?
Umm - yeah anyway... I ended up selling that on the ol' Craigslist and - uhh - 'upgraded' (note the use of quotation marks) to this next one - also found at a garage sale but for $40 - which I remember being really excited about although after using it for the past few years I'm not sure exactly why... maybe cos it was 10" instead of 7" and had a 'fence' that at least tightened down to the table??? -
Ahh yes... Central Machinery. A fine tool indeed.
But yeah - that's actually a pretty typical 'portable' or 'benchtop' table saw sans a stand (I - umm - just used saw horses)... plastic base, aluminum top, etc. etc. Light enough to toss around one-handed. Juggle. That kind of thing... I actually have used it to make some stuff - but I think more often than not I ended up using my circ saw and a sweet straightedge to cut down any sort of panel sheets because this plastic table saw was - again - more for decoration...
So then enter... (hopefully... ) my third and final table saw...
Umm - yeah... the motor alone on this bad boy weighs probably two times as much as that plastic toy above...
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Rewind though a bit...
A month or two ago I spent some quality time on the internets researching table saws. Basically - there are the portable kind (like my #2 saw) that are made from a combination of plastic and aluminum (or maybe stamped steel on the more expensive ones), the cast iron cabinet kind that are expensive ($1k is a cheap one and they sky rocket up from there) and immobile (they weigh 500 lbs or more so once they're set in position it is there that they remain forever), and the 'hybrid' (or 'contractor') kind - mobile bases but heavy, legit cast iron table tops and heavy-duty trunnions and such.
The main difference between cabinet and hybrid saws is that hybrids still have their trunnions mounted to the table top (like the portables) vs. the cabinet or base (hence - the name 'cabinet' saw - which means the hybrid style can be more prone to vibration). But the ability to be able to move around the shop since my - uhh, 'shop' - is my garage had to trump that so a hybrid it would have to be .
I then researched hybrids... and landed on a model that's no longer being made (it's current version - two iterations later - has been cheapened with stamped steel vs. the better but costlier cast iron which is a little disappointing but no worries thanks to being able to find outmoded things on Craiglist): the Ridgid TS3650.
According to Fine Woodworking - this saw is 'a furniture maker's saw' which I know is saying a lot (and - well - I plan on using this to build furniture). True - the trunnions are mounted to the table-top - but nevertheless they're one-hundred-percent solid cast iron and pretty dang legit -
Reviews on it were stellar. I actually didn't read a single negative one... the thing weighs in I think at close to 300 pounds, has a poly-V belt just like cabinet saws (which lasts longer and induces less vibration), a whopping 36" of rip capacity to the right of the blade (and 12" to the left) - which can even be extended by adjusting the rails (and which I may do I'm not sure... thirty-six inches seems pretty reasonable at least to start).
So it was just a matter of watching Craigslist for someone selling one...
A few came up but they either looked like the cast iron was in too bad of shape or priced too high. Until last week... one popped up way north in Marysville for the right price and looked to be in excellent shape. The family apparently used it to build their deck years ago and then it sat in their garage.
I hauled up there the other day in between morning and evening traffic to pick it up - which involved having to have the wife help me disassemble it just to get it in the bed of Stuart. Sheesh - it was heavy!
Once home I had to clean and reassemble it - which I thoroughly enjoyed since it gave me the chance to tighten some nuts and bolts and make all the fine adjustments for which this saw actually allows.
Some Scotchbrite pads, mineral oil and Johnson's paste wax were in order for the cast iron - and with the help of my random orbital sander and the pads I was able to shine the top right up!
Putting on the cast iron wings required K's help to flip the saw upside down while I lined them up and hand-tightened the bolts -
Then flipped it back rightside up. Umm - did I say this thing is heavy!? After making lots of adjustments - squaring the blade to the miter slots by adjusting the front and rear trunnions, dialing in the fence gauge (wow it'll be so awesome being able to use the ruler on the rail to set the width of a cut vs. always having to use a tape measure cos that little toy saw didn't have an accurate ruler... ), truing the fence to the miter slots, and setting the stops for the miter gauge and bevel - I finally got to turn it on...
Ahh... it was sweet music to my ears... so quiet and just... 'solid'-sounding. Like the difference between the new Porter Cable router vs. the Ryobi one I had used all those years before.
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So then - besides making some feather boards - what will be the first project for this thing... ?
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ps - I plan on building some portable infeed and outfeed tables for handling sheet goods and being able to accurately guide them along the fence... along with a thin plywood cover to keep the cast iron dust- and rust-free...
