Thread: Qld Trade tools table saw

Dear Billy,

Although this wont really matter to Damian because he's going to graft the full-on Incra Fence onto his Saw, it's nonetheless worth pointing out that going by the photo you posted, the Fences are substantially different between the Cabinet version, and Damian & Russ' Contractor version. The Cabinet version appears to have an excellent looking steel Rail and Clamp, compared to the Contractor version's aluminium extrusions. Aluminium can quite often be up to the job, but perhaps not in this particular case. Even my 12" Site Saw has got a better Rail/Clamp setup on it than the horror fitted to the TTD Contractor version...

Russ - if you're still tuned-in, what do you think about the fence on yours?

Best Wishes,
Batpig.

I haven't had a chance to really try it out yet. I have been laid up with a bad back since the 11th.

It appears to be solid enough but in saying that anything would beat the Triton setup I used before and the table saw for the Ryobi 9 inch saw I had before that.

I want to check the adjustment of it all before I get to far into it.

Overall I think for the price I am happy with what I got. I really did not want to pay (nor could afford) the money for the more expensive saws. Yes it has got a few features that you could improve on (2 HP as an example) but it does have a 305 mm blade and cuts 100 mm. It is all swings and roundabouts. If I used it fulltime for Business I may have made a different selection.

I guess there will be more to come.

Russ

Batpig

Yep the cabinet version had substantial steel rails for fence attachment. I did not look closely at the contractor version when I was there and had assumed they would have been the same but I guess not.

Billy

Dear Russ and Billy - thanks for the replies.

Russ - it's definitely a lot of saw for the money, that's for sure.

Originally Posted by Brisruss

I haven't had a chance to really try it out yet. I have been laid up with a bad back since the 11th.

I don't suppose that was the day that the saw arrived by any chance?..
(That's why I'm trying to get by without having to go Cast-Iron...)
Hope you're up and about again soon

Best Wishes,
Batpig.

As you know I fiddled with the fence briefly in the shop and it was awful, but 2 things:

1. The fences on the under $1k saws at H&F and carbatec were equally awful.

2. Much to my surprise the book talks about sorting the rip fence during assembly and setup. There is a more than slight possibility that the fence would improve with a setup. I'm not saying it would, but I for one would not collapse in shock to learn the display machines were just cobbled together by someone who really didn't care very much or didn't have time to put into it.

Anyway I may never know, so we're relying on Russ to expand the repository of human knowledge. Which brings me to:

Terribly sorry to hear about the back Russ! Best wishes on your recovery. I do know how you feel.

Originally Posted by Batpig

I don't suppose that was the day that the saw arrived by any chance?..
(That's why I'm trying to get by without having to go Cast-Iron...)
Hope you're up and about again soon

Nah it was not that same day. I picked it up on the Saturday. It was on the Monday night I did it. We went out for my birthday and I went to get up from the table and nothing would move. Had three days off work. It is starting to come good now so I am hoping to do something on the weekend.
Actually i think the cast iron is great. It gives it a degree of solidness. Being heavy it means that it less prone to vibration than the Triton was.
Cheers,
Russ

You can never tell when they are going to go. I can drag around a 200 kg lathe and be fine, but a bit of a twist the wrong way with a tiny bag of shopping and I'm buggered.

BTW I'm not a fan of hippie medicine, but I found a lady at Albany creek that does something akin to acupressure. Completely non invasive or dangerous, and she's a no BS woman. Revolutionised my back. 6 years ago I could barely mow the lawn and digging a ditch was out of the question. I'm not 100% but I'm a lot better. If your interested email me and I'll give you details.

Had a great day today, which makes me nervous. You know terrible terrible disaster is always preceded by tremendous success.

I fitted the mobile base. Haven't fitted all the bolts yet but it's on and working.

Had another carbatec disappointment. Went in there yesterday to buy some ubeut polish and of course they were out of stock of natural, so I had to pay an extra $ for something I didn't want, the walnut tinted one. I wonder how my tabletop will look with a walnut tint ?

Cleaned off the grease today. Also fired it up with a 9 1/4 60T chinese blade in it. After a minute or something of free running it built up a harmonic howl. Might be the blade. At least the beast runs.

Put my incra origional positioner on the table with a base and fence from bits of the reject hardwood. Felt a bit guilty using lovely bluegum for jigs but I'm in the odd position of MDF being are scarcer material in my shed than hardwood. I bought this positioner on ebay NOS for about $55 landed. It has an 8" throat and is very light being plastic. I'd thought it might be interesting experimenting with hand held tools. Anyway it's a temporary fit up to make the mounts for the LS25. This was one of those jobs that went smoothly. Ok all I did was mark out and drill 6 holes, but it all just went together. I'm always a bit nervous about jobs like that. It's quite stiff. Should make a good rip fence.

I've pulled 3 lengths of timber to saw up tomorrow to make side rails.

Anyway I've uploaded more pics, including some upshots into the guts of the beast. Hopefully I've captured what you want.

The back is feeling a bit better now so I have finally got around to giving it a run. What are my first impressions?
So far I have been really quite impressed with what I can do with it. I have been making a couple of trestles for my SCM saw stand. I put some 70 x 38 hardwood through it and it was quite impressive.
The blade that came with it gives a really smooth finish. I think I will need to get a rip blade some time soon if I do a lot of ripping.
It cut plywood beautifully.
The fence is better than I expected it to be after reading a few comments by others. It is rock solid. I got a dial gauge from Trade Tools yesterday so I can now check out the setup of the blade.
The only complaint I can come up with so far is the mitre gauge has a bit of play in the slot. There is room for improvement there.
I haven't used the router table yet.

Cheers,
Russ

Originally Posted by damian

Had a great day today, which makes me nervous. You know terrible terrible disaster is always preceded by tremendous success.

Ahhh... A kindred spirit in matters of optimism...

Sounds "the goods" alright Damian and Russ. Might even topple my current reigning Cast-Iron Bang-for-Buck "Fave" - the Jet JWTS 10 - on the strength of the TTD running a 12" blade versus the Jet's 10", especially if the fence turns out to be not as bad as I thought. Great photos again Damian, as usual...

Best Wishes,
Batpig.

They are a bit big, but I'm hopeless with that stuff and just don't have time to fiddle at the moment.

I did a solid 5 1/2 hours on the saw sunday. The motor gota bit warm, and I was only cutting the flooring so not loading it up that much. I was grooving and ripping with a 9 1/4 60T chinese blade, so the tooth count was high but the diameter much less. I heard it loading up but it didn't slow down or anything.

The height adjustment is pretty fine. I'm going to map turns to change when I have a moment. I can get my cuts withing about 10 thou without any real effort. I'm going to mkae a seperate thread about using a digital caliper for setting stuff. It occurres to me some may not have thought how to use one effectively on the saw.

Pushing it around on carpet isn't tivial.

Glad to hear the back is recovering Russ!

I'm REALLY nervous now. Won $33 on lotto last week and have had 2 days where everything went right. Had dinner at Brett's Wharf last night, drove past suncorp twice while a soccer match was on. Never hit any traffic, hardly even a red light. My one consolation is the tailpipe on my car has broken off. Still if I'm killed in the next few days you know why.

My mate Murphy:

The magnitude of the disaster is directly proportional to the size and durationof the sucess that precedes it.

Used to have that on a big sign on my office door at CSIRO. Never truer. And while I'm sprouting:

The likelyhood of an experiment's sucess is directly proportional to the amount of sticky tape used in it's construction. No sticky tape, no chance.

Just a mini update. I wasn't as well as I could be on the weekend so didn't get much done. I've made the nil clearance throat plate.

I was unhappy with the cuts I was getting so changed 2 things at once, which doesn't make a good experiment, but the result is undeniable. I bolted a bit of timber to the left end of the saw and fixed my LS25 to it with just 2 bolts. I also fitted the 12" blade that came with the saw. I'm now getting jointing cuts within 5 thou all over and I think I can tune that down further. Even with only 2 bolts the LS25 is remarkably rigid. I'd need to put my whole body into shaking it to get decent deflection. The quality of the incra stuff is remarkably good.

I also mounted the tra001. Utterly trivial. I just removed the 2 coach bolts, springs and plastic knobs and slipped the T nuts into the holes along with the long nuts that came with the saw. Then I just slipped the T nuts into the slots in the underside of the table. Ok it's only a 2 point mounting but that's what triton use with their routers and tables. The table insert ring is a bit tight.

Anyway next weekend I'm going to hook into the dust extraction and hopefully finish the rails and support table. I'd like to rig a microsplitter aswell.

Life is returning more to normal so if I get time I'll redo that web page properly.

http://home.exetel.com.au/guzzi/tablesaw.html

note the addition of html at the end. My isp reconfigured their server so it doesn't auto add anymore.

Anyone know if this is still available and the same price? Their web site has nothing, they're not replying to my email, and it's hard for me to call them during the day due to work.

I need something better than my old dodgy Triton MkII to start making small boxes, and this like it might fit the bill.

Thanks. Russell