Thread: Tablesaw Manufacturers

I owned a Laguna fusion and upgraded to a Sawstop for safety reasons.

I think given with what you said Harvey is the best choice and best value and if possible get the 5/8 bore as it allows a bigger choice of saw blades. BTW Grizzly is a well respected brand in USA

Putting aside the obvious bonus of the safety system on the SawStop, you cannot fault the build quality on them...there is just nothing else that comes close. They look identical on the outside, but under the covers, they are better designed, better made, and with well thought out features. And with a basic cast iron unit coming in at just over $2500... are they really that much out of the ball park?....really? What the price of a finger on the black market these days?

Originally Posted by dohboy

Putting aside the obvious bonus of the safety system on the SawStop, you cannot fault the build quality on them...there is just nothing else that comes close. They look identical on the outside, but under the covers, they are better designed, better made, and with well thought out features. And with a basic cast iron unit coming in at just over $2500... are they really that much out of the ball park?....really? What the price of a finger on the black market these days?

+1

Also the fence is rock solid and perfectly parallel straight out of the box and getting the blade parallel to the slots is done through micro adjusting not banging with a mallet. I got it to under 0.001" in under 30 minutes and most of that time is loosening the bolts. Nice touches like providing a home for the miter gauge just adds to the quality. When I bought the Laguna fusion I was tossing up between it and the sawstop and the price difference was too high and I ended up regretting buying the Laguna however it was a great saw but absolutely no regrets trading up to a sawstop

Anyway if your budget is very tight then the Harvey is a great machine. A couple of videos to help

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2wuHGvG2GY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ye8z1eBtBvg

Just in case Australia didn't have the most stringent electrical regulations in the world already, they are about to get more in depth next year. Powermatic's table saw has been pulled off the market for months now, there mightbe e a few in warehouses around the place but no more are coming down under.

I think you'll see a lot of current products go the way of the dodo next year, it simply isn't viable for manufacturers to keep up with the ever changing regs here and throwing money at re jigging products to suit and continual certification testing.

Originally Posted by socratous

Just in case Australia didn't have the most stringent electrical regulations in the world already, they are about to get more in depth next year.

Any information on the proposed changes?

Effective end of May next year, every vac/extractor on the market that has the ability to plug a tool into will require an on board circuit breaker. As most vacs hover around the 1200W mark, that leaves 1200W headroom before you hit 10A. Basically you won't be running big grinders or drop saws through the vac for auto on convenience. I'm not yet sure of what this will bring about for on site compliance, but will not be legal to sell a vac without the breaker after the implementation.

There is a lot of stuff changing regarding portable 'static' tools, router tables, portable table saws etc etc. Compliance on switching mechanisms to be more in depth, wheels mandatory for items over a certain weight, that kind of stuff.

I can't name specific models for confidentiality reasons, but can say I know of at least 13 popular tools from.various manufacturers that won't be available in Oz once current stock holdings sell through.

After my little tangent venture, I'll get back to the OPs question. The other brands don't/won't bring stuff here as it is simply too expensive for the few extra sales they'd get. Electrical compliance on a tool is a minimum $12k, plus the cost of the item as it will be destroyed during the testing. That only lasts for 3 years, even if the tool hasn't been updated it still needs to be re tested. Similar cost and time frames for mechanical safety of use testing.

The Powermatic table saws sales were averaging less than 50 a year from what I've heard. Look at best case scenario of $24k for testing and compliance every 3 years plus the costs of two saws for those sales figures, I'm suprised it was on the market for as long as it was.

This is something else that needs to be kept in mind when complaining about the 'Australia Tax', it isn't just GST and higher wages here, but all the back of house stuff that needs to be paid for just to legally sell something here, or why not all tools from a range or manufacturer make it here.

I have been in the industry long enough to know that a testing estimate of circa $24,000 is excessive and the importer/distributor should look for an alternate.

Typically the timeframe of a certificate is 5 years and generally (though not all the time) full testing is not required for a renewal.

Wowsers, that's pretty interesting information! I'm a chippy by day, so I'm sure I have quite a few of these tools you're talking about, would love to know how these changes will knock onto other products. Especially with vacs/extractors as I have noticed that America has recently undergone some OHS changes regarding Silica exposure pumping up the requirement to have vacs attached to drills/grinders/saws, so this will naturally become a standard in Australia soon. I Often run 2x vac onsite hooked up to dropsaws, grinders, sanders, etc. so I'll be pis#$d if they get anymore expensive to replace!!

Any ideas on when this info will be published for jo blow public to digest?

Might be getting that tablesaw this year instead of next....

Without trying to go too off topic... next year worksafe will standardise extraction requirements across the country as currently each state is to their own. M class is looking to be the minimum standard for concrete work. Bags/liners will have to be used, no more up ending the drum and copping a face full of dust on site.

In Australia we are far too over regulated. People don't seem to realise how significant the cost is and the fact that cost is passed on to the Aussie consumer.

I tend to support the electrical regulations but even these have got out of hand.

For example, I used to have my registration but it wasn't worth paying the renewal because I don't need it for work any more. Now I need to replace a ceiling fan with a new one that draws less current. Yet I have to pay an electrician to do this. Money for nothing.

The electrical regulations tend to be made after someone dies or a house burns down so these ones are not too bad. However we have all sorts of other regulations which are excessive.

For example non invasive beauty treatment equipment must be tested and certified which makes it 10+ times more expensive than otherwise and 10 times less choice. This achieves no real useful purpose that I can see.

People complain about the Australia tax but when one points out the over regulation, excess levies and high costs of business in Australia one finds that Aussies can't be bothered to object to it.

All too often I see that Aussies think a problem can and should be solved by laws and regulations. It's not the way to solve most problems due to unintended consequences and due to the cost it places on everyone. We need a different attitude to all these regulations.

Sorry about the rant.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

Yet in America one can completely wire up their own house with no qualms, but children with Kinder Suprise toys are a safety risk!

Agree to over regulation BUT on the other hand, a person can do a 3-5 day course and then inject Botox and wield lasers on a persons body - that’s under regulation on a grand scale.

Here we are in 2018 and the latest round of silicosis has arrived.
Workers polishing concrete, dry and no extraction.
Last time I remember was in Sydney during excavation of sandstone for hi rise.
When I was an apprentice the storeman was a Moulder with silicosis from the parting sand used in the foundry.
Rember the Romans with the blue death their slaves who mined Aspestos died from.
That wouldn’t happen in our society would it?
H.