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What caught my eye was not only the price of this saw, but also that it was a left-tilting model with a 2hp motor. I was missing a couple tiny parts, and they handled my call with complete thoroughness and professionalism. By the way, Grizzly's customer service was absolutely outstanding. The owner's guide is detailed enough to get you through the process without too much head scratching. Now, I will admit, there is not enough table vibration to shake or shimmy a coin, so I may be a bit hypersensitive to this issue. The extension wings are also cast iron as opposed to stamped steel or aluminum that you find on some cheaper contractor saws.
The missing parts arrived two days later. This is my first purchase of wood working equipment from Grizzly. I am a home improvement contractor, so for my purposes, a decent contractor-style saw was all I needed. I spent a great deal of time to make sure that the belt was in perfect alignment.
Once again, I had to settle for "good enough." The saw performs well, however there is more vibration from the motor than I would like to see. The tab seats for the blade inserts I believe are slightly off, since every insert I try rocks, even as I spent an hour with the set screws to level the inserts off. Overall, this table saw is a great bargain. That goes a long way in my book.
No, but you won't be paying anywhere near the money a Powermatic costs with similar features. During the assembly process, however, is when you notice that the fit and finish of the saw is only average. Is it a Powermatic. I don't make fine furniture, therefore, I didn't need a high performance cabinet saw.
Keep in mind that this saw is completely open in the rear and underneath, so dust containment is somewhat difficult. If I was making fine furniture, it would be unacceptable. Assembly went fairly smooth. The extension wings only line up to the point where you can say "good enough." No amount of shimming seemed to be able to get them totally true.
After assembly, my wife and I had a "First Sawdust" ceremony. I arranged to meet the carrier at a local shopping center where we scooted the cartons from his tailgate onto my utility trailer. Finally, I ran out of patience trying to get them perfect and settled for close. I had some difficulty with the guard and splitter because the picture in the manual was too dark to see clearly.
The table saw comes in two boxes. After cutting a piece of wood and taking pictures we popped a cork on a bottle of champaign and toasted the new saw.The quality of this saw is top of the line. I may go back some day and try again if it causes a problem. The saw in one and the fence and rails in the other.
The only other problem I had was getting the wings dead flat with the saw table. I highly recommend it. Both boxes were well packed and showed just a few scuff marks that were noted on the invoice, just in case. I was able to slide the heavy box from the trailer onto a dolly without any help.Assembly was well documentated in the instruction manual and was not difficult.
The box was a little tattered (be warned that all grizzly saws come poorly packaged) but everything was in perfect shape.As for assembly. I think it took me 1.5 hours. I ordered this saw on monday evening and by thursday it was at my door. I recommend plugging the saw in to 220v. I have spent the last year reviewing table saws online and finally settled on this contractor style saw - mostly for financial reasons.
Great company to work with.I have to mention the Shop Fox Classic Fence. I hope there are a lot of grizzly tools under my xmas tree this year. It seems to like it better.Clean the saw off and double check the alignemnts and you are up and running. I couldn't be more pleased with my purchase. I suggest you have an extra set of hands around for setting the motor alignment and installing the cast iron wings. 2hp seems like more than enough power with a good blade. I had help from my 17 year old son. I'm glad I kept the extra money for other tools and got this saw.
I had my eye on the cabinet saw grizzly makes but couldn't come up with the cash for all of my other tools if I bought the bigger saw. My first cut was with a Freud glue line rip blade and it cut through 2" of oak like butter - smooth as a jointed rip. It's dead on, easy to adjust and as good as any bies clone I have ever tried. the instructions were so easy that even I managed to put it together. Put the legs on, the dust shute, the motor, the wings and the fence and you are up and running.
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