Thanks to the kind donations of many students, we finally spent some money this year.
As you my have noticed we have a couple tablesaws the were at the point were using them required about three people just to do the height adjustments. The trunnions were fairly worn and ready to be replaced. Rather than replacing them we decided to get a new saw. The other reason we wonted to get a newer saw was to have the ability to use a riving knife. I looked at three saw before making that choice.
The SawStop - While I certainly like the idea of the obvious safety advantages of this saw. The expense of constantly having to replace the cartridge is prohibitive. Trust me we would be always replacing that cartridge. Not only would that get expense but when the cartridge goes - so goes the blade. The other reason is that if students learn they can relax on a tablesaw, and that all the normal safety precaution don’t need to be followed, then we are teaching bad habits, and someone is going to get hurt. Furthermore, for what it does it is a rather expensive saw.
The New Unisaw - I like this saw, but it is untried and still new. The only saw available at the time was the 3hp single phase. This would probably deal with everything you could throw at it, but not as well as a 3 phase motor ever will. The 5hp 3 phase won’t be available until December. Plus Delta seems to not be the company it once was. Our Delta drillpress is already having problems and is only a couple years old.
The Powermatic - I like the Powermatic we have been using. My only complaint is the fence. The HDPE on the side of the fence was so then that was never really flat. I hated using that fence. The HDPE on the new saw is about 1/8” thicker and works much better. My only complaint so far is that it didn’t come with a real riving knife, they made it a special order accessory.
The saw is installed and up and running. Pat Shannon and Terry Bridwell did a great job retro-fitting the new saw to our cabinets. This saw will be set up with the riving knife. Students won’t be using this saw for use with dado blades.
