After a couple of days trying to square the blade to the miter slot on my ShopFox contractors saw, I decided to ask for help before I bled to death trying to access the trunnion bolts. Joe Scharle - to the rescue. After several hours of frustrating work (actually I did more watching - Joe did more working) we came to a solution. Here it is - a Grizzly 1053RL.
In case anyone is thinking of a new Grizzly tablesaw, I thought I would briefly describe my first few days with this saw. I ordered it online on Friday the 12th and was surprised to learn it would be delivered on Wednesday the 17th. It actually arrived a day early on the 16th on a huge truck equipped with a lift gate. The UPS driver was a cheerful guy who volunteered to get the 510 pound crate into my shop. After a hearty handshake, and a healthy tip, he somehow managed to turn his battleship of a truck around on our dead end street and continue his deliveries. Nice guy!
The next morning, two of my buddies came over to help me uncrate the saw and set it up. We put together 3 sides of the ShopFox mobile base and shimmied the saw off of its pallet and onto the mobile base. Adding the 4th side of the base was easy and the saw was now mobile. Putting the rest of the saw together was easy as well. The two wings went on perfectly without the need for shims to get them level with the main table. The rails for the ShopFox Classic Fence lined up perfectly with the holes in the table and the fence needed no adjustment as it was perfectly parallel to the miter slot right out of the box. The blade was .004" out of parallel, which was probably good enough, but loosening the 4 table bolts and a light tap on the table got the blade to within .0005" - more than good enough. The only hiccup in the setup was the electrical connection. The saw comes with a G-15 plug which I'm told is widely used in Europe. My 220 line requires an L6-30 locking plug, so a quick trip to Lowes was necessary and replacing the plug was no problem at all.
And now for the negatives. So far, there are only two and they both have to do with dust collection. My old saw had two modes of dust collection - non existent, and terrible. This saw has a shroud surrounding the blade which empties into a small hose which appears to be about 1 1/2" in diameter. The hose is attached to the 4" dust collection port. I have my reservations about how effective this is, as there is still a lot of dust on the floor of the cabinet. I suppose that's better than the dust dropping onto the shop floor, but it's disappointing nonetheless. The real annoyance is the amount of dust that is thrown above the table and straight at me, especially during a rip cut. The amount of dust thrown above the table is really quite unacceptable and I'll have to find a way to eliminate it. Some people have removed the dust shroud and small hose and report an improvement. By far the biggest annoyance is the location of the 4" dust port on the bottom rear of the cabinet.
For those of us who have to move the dust collection hose from machine to machine and have an outfeed table at the back of the saw, this port couldn't be in a worse place. I will have to rig up some kind of elbow to allow me to connect the hose that doesn't require me moving the outfeed table every time.
Aside from these two minor annoyances, I'm thrilled with the saw - I'm thrilled with Grizzly - and I'm thrilled with the delivery. I've never had the luxury of a table saw that was set up this well. In fact, I made a new crosscut sled with it and using the 5 cut method, the 5th cut was .075 at the rear and .074 at the front - on the first try. Since I knew the blade and fence were parallel to the miter slots, I used the factory edges of a piece of 1/2" mdf and aligned the mdf up against the fence before screwing the base to the runner. I never could have done that with my old saw.
Thanks to my new saw and the help and advice from the jig guru, Joe Scharle, I am one happy harpsichord builder. Thanks again, Joe.
In case anyone is thinking of a new Grizzly tablesaw, I thought I would briefly describe my first few days with this saw. I ordered it online on Friday the 12th and was surprised to learn it would be delivered on Wednesday the 17th. It actually arrived a day early on the 16th on a huge truck equipped with a lift gate. The UPS driver was a cheerful guy who volunteered to get the 510 pound crate into my shop. After a hearty handshake, and a healthy tip, he somehow managed to turn his battleship of a truck around on our dead end street and continue his deliveries. Nice guy!
The next morning, two of my buddies came over to help me uncrate the saw and set it up. We put together 3 sides of the ShopFox mobile base and shimmied the saw off of its pallet and onto the mobile base. Adding the 4th side of the base was easy and the saw was now mobile. Putting the rest of the saw together was easy as well. The two wings went on perfectly without the need for shims to get them level with the main table. The rails for the ShopFox Classic Fence lined up perfectly with the holes in the table and the fence needed no adjustment as it was perfectly parallel to the miter slot right out of the box. The blade was .004" out of parallel, which was probably good enough, but loosening the 4 table bolts and a light tap on the table got the blade to within .0005" - more than good enough. The only hiccup in the setup was the electrical connection. The saw comes with a G-15 plug which I'm told is widely used in Europe. My 220 line requires an L6-30 locking plug, so a quick trip to Lowes was necessary and replacing the plug was no problem at all.
And now for the negatives. So far, there are only two and they both have to do with dust collection. My old saw had two modes of dust collection - non existent, and terrible. This saw has a shroud surrounding the blade which empties into a small hose which appears to be about 1 1/2" in diameter. The hose is attached to the 4" dust collection port. I have my reservations about how effective this is, as there is still a lot of dust on the floor of the cabinet. I suppose that's better than the dust dropping onto the shop floor, but it's disappointing nonetheless. The real annoyance is the amount of dust that is thrown above the table and straight at me, especially during a rip cut. The amount of dust thrown above the table is really quite unacceptable and I'll have to find a way to eliminate it. Some people have removed the dust shroud and small hose and report an improvement. By far the biggest annoyance is the location of the 4" dust port on the bottom rear of the cabinet.
For those of us who have to move the dust collection hose from machine to machine and have an outfeed table at the back of the saw, this port couldn't be in a worse place. I will have to rig up some kind of elbow to allow me to connect the hose that doesn't require me moving the outfeed table every time.
Aside from these two minor annoyances, I'm thrilled with the saw - I'm thrilled with Grizzly - and I'm thrilled with the delivery. I've never had the luxury of a table saw that was set up this well. In fact, I made a new crosscut sled with it and using the 5 cut method, the 5th cut was .075 at the rear and .074 at the front - on the first try. Since I knew the blade and fence were parallel to the miter slots, I used the factory edges of a piece of 1/2" mdf and aligned the mdf up against the fence before screwing the base to the runner. I never could have done that with my old saw.
Thanks to my new saw and the help and advice from the jig guru, Joe Scharle, I am one happy harpsichord builder. Thanks again, Joe.