Here’s my thoughts. Having moved to a place with sufficient room to build a large shed/workshop, I bought and put up with/used a dewalt flip saw for a few years whilst converting the house etc. On completion, I decided to look for a ‘proper’ saw and, not knowing that much about what was out there, started researching the web. I quickly realised that the price difference between very basic diy machines and a cast iron TS was somewhat out of my manager’s budget (ie her indoors). Anyway, I came across the tspp250 and watched, for a fair few months, a few on eBay/gumtree etc going for around £600ish.....I eventually found one advertised relatively locally for £400 (including the sliding table) but, on viewing, not only found it in bits but in a very poor state.....after a lot of bartering I got it for £280. The lad selling it had given up on it and had not only dismantled it but had lost parts etc etc. To be fair to him he told me that he’d never got very good results from it and that the alignment was horrendous and the ‘pull’ cut mechanism was a waste of time.
Being a tinkerer and someone loving a challenge and not wanting to miss out on a cheap cast saw I took a load of parts away in a pile and, over the next few days slowly put it back together, learning obviously, as I did it, how it worked.......having said that I was still very green, had no manual, and failed to get the ‘pull’ mechanism aligned as there did not seem to be any way to do it at all.
The seller had also, some how, managed to significantly damage the furthest end of the locking fence which meant that it was somewhat unusable without additional clamping but I eventually solved this with the use of some ‘magic plastic’ (mouldable thermoplastic beads)....this solution turned the whole thing into a working saw that I have now used regularly for years.
Skip back a year or two and my decision to upgrade my dust extraction meant that, due to my shed’s limited width, the TS had to be partly dismantled to completely move it out of the way (weighs about 28 stone!).....this gave me an excuse/opportunity to completely strip the machine and clean/lubricate every thing AND allow me to take another look at the ‘pull’ system. This time I finally found an alignment mechanism for the blade!!! Someone more experienced may have realised where to look but, for the life of me, I couldn’t locate it until that moment. Bit of tinkering and, VOILA, got it working a treat!!!!
I now have a machine that does everything I need and cuts accurately. There are always going to be people/professionals who dislike it but unless you want to spend much more (or get an eBay bargain) I can’t see how you can go wrong. Ok, took a little tinkering but nothing crazy.
Happy to share what I can if you want to discuss/pm me
