Thread: MJ2325DS Carba-Tec 10" Cabinet Saw with Sliding Table - Done

G’day folks,
First off I’d like to thankyou all for a great forum with a huge amount of information. It has helped me immensely in making decisions on purchases of machinery over the last few months that have been a pleasure to use.

A little over three months ago I was asked by a good friend if I would like to build a wall unit for a couple that she works for. She knows that I am a qualified cabinet maker and also knew that I’d been out of the trade for a number of years. I explained that at the time I was not setup to do large cabinets but would contact the customer to see what they wanted.

After meeting with the couple and finding out what they were after, a wall unit 4.5 x 2.4 x 0.5 metres in size and made from select Victorian ash and matching veneered board, I explained that as I was not setup to do the job and would have to outsource the cutting and would do the assembly and finishing of the cabinet.

I contacted a friend who started his cabinet making apprenticeship at the same time as I did and who had stayed in the industry and explained what I was after. While his quote for the job was very reasonable, I felt that maybe there was another way. I contacted the couple and explained that I had obtained a quote but felt that I could better the price and make it a win win situation for both of us. This led me to finding a source for the materials and the necessary tools to do the job. I did it this way because I’d had this nagging urge to get back into cabinet making for a number of years and if the customer was agreeable, this job would allow me to set up a small cabinet making shop.

The customer was very obliging in that we worked out a deposit, progress payment arrangement that allowed me to purchase both the materials and the tools to build the cabinet in my garage and carport.

So off to Carbatec one morning with a friend and his truck in toe to pick up a table saw, bandsaw, thicknesses, jointer, dust extractor, thicknesser and a number of other bits and pieces.

We got everything home, unpacked and started setting up the table. The one I ended up purchasing was the Carba-Tec 10" Cabinet Saw w/ Sliding Table, model number MJ2325DS.

The prerequisites for purchasing the table saw were as follows, I needed something that would handle 2400 x 1200 sheets and be also able to cut solid timber. It needed to have a sliding table that would hold the weight of a sheet 2400 x 1200 x 19mm and have a fence that would allow square docking, allow accurate measuring and also be repeatable.

The rip fence needed to be able to be setup so that I could rip parallel to the blade, be accurate and like the docking fence, be repeatable.

The table saw also needed to be mobile and to stay accurate with that mobility. It also needed to fit into the budget that I’d set for myself.

The table saw comes in four boxes. The first holds the main table, motor assembly and top cabinet. It comes in the box upside down so that the bottom of the cabinet can be assembled to it. The saw is then tipped onto its base and in my case lifted onto a mobile base purchased from Carbatec. This gave me the mobility that I needed as the saw had to be moved from the garage to the carport each morning at the start of work to give me enough room to work, not ideal but with limited room it was the best option. The rest of the saw went together reasonably easy with the main struggle being the sliding table support. It has to line up with two slots and is on about a 30 degree angle from vertical and would have been a lot easier to fit if another pair of hands had been available.

The sliding table comes pre assembled and simply slides onto the end of the support, a stop at either end prohibits the table from sliding too far. Two extra cast iron table are then fitted to the right of the main table and then all that’s left to fit is the rip fence assembly, the docking fence assembly and the riving knife with saw guard.

After assembly, I checked the saw for accuracy. Neither the rip fence or docking fence was right but the little inaccuracies were not a problem. I was amazed at the amount of adjustment the saw has to obtain an accurate and constant cut. The rip fence has four Allen key bolts that when undone allow the fence to be moved so that it is parallel to the blade and so that it marries up with the measuring tape.

After setting the rip fence and checking it again, it cut perfectly and has not moved at all in two solid months of use.

Next the docking fence was checked and adjusted. It too has not moved in the last two months and as been on and off the sliding table numerous times. It goes back in exactly the same place and cross cuts just as well as the rip fence.

The saw comes with a very small diameter hose for the dust extraction at the saw guard. It goes from the guard to an inlet that attaches where the four inch outlet is at the base of the cabinet. Sorry Carbatec but it was absolutely useless. I traded the small hose for a 2 and a half inch hose and it worked much better but I felt it could be even better. The saw guard came down only so far onto the riving knife so I cut the slot where the fiving knife attaches to the saw body and made it about three inches longer. The riving knife now sits just below the top of the blade and with the guard attached, the blade is well covered and the dust extraction is excellent.

Next comes the actual use of the saw.

The blade that came with the table saw is your run of the mill, multi purpose saw that is great for ripping sheets and the three quarter inch timber I used for the job but it chipped the veneered board and solid timber too much to be of use as a docking blade. To that end I also purchased a fine cut off blade model 285-080-10M that as a rip blade was great for board, ok for solid timber if not pushed to fast and excellent as a docking blade. It gave a cross cut with minimal chipping cutting both the board and solid timber.

Roughing out the sheets for the cabinet worked out very easy with this table saw. After choosing the straightest edge of each sheet, I set the fence ten millimeters oversize and maneuvered one end of the sheet onto the edge of the table. With the mobile base locked in place, the sheets were ripped to size. I was abit worried as to how solid the fence would be when a full sheet was pushed against it but not once did it move once locked in place.

After all the material was rough cut and the solid timber panels glued together, I then had to cut all the pieces to finished size. The cabinet was made in modules for ease of transport and because of the limits on the space I had to work in so while a number of the lengths were the same for different parts of the cabinet, they had to be cut at different times and I can honestly say that after checking the first dozen or so cuts for size, the fences gave me the confidence to set them up and not worry whether they were cutting the same sizes each time.

Overall I am very happy with this purchase and with the other tools bought from Carbatec. All the tools have performed as I’d hoped they would and would recommend this table saw and the other tools to anyone just starting out or like myself getting back into cabinet making or general woodworking.

I hope this review, while being long can help someone else make a decision on purchasing a table saw as much as this forum and you folk helped me.

Regards to you all,
Ross.