I need a new table saw...

[les chicken]

My workshop is 9ft wide and I have the sip 10" set against one wall there is just enough room to get by. It does not have the sliding carriage as I use a circular saw to rough cut sheets.

It is a very good piece of equipment for the money as other forum members will vouch for it.

With the blade wound down it also makes a nice flat assembly table.

Les

 

[seaco]

That's my suggestion out then...

 

[martlewis]

That's my suggestion out then...

Why Seaco?

Les, can I ask how wide the table saw is then? My shop is only 8ft wide and I usually have the saw against the right wall leaving me a good 4ft clearance to the left (I don't have ny fixtures on the left wall because of the table saw

 

[seaco]

A Unisaw is close to £2,000... I'm guessing it's about six feet wide in all.

 

[Slim]

The SIP is fantastic. I've had it for almost a year now. It has performed flawlessly. You would have to replace the mitre gauge as the one it comes with is rubbish. This is the only thing that lets it down though. I replaced it with the Incra 1000SE. Now it is a supremely accurate bit of kit.

The axminster, sip and fox are all clones. Get the axminster as it is on offer.

Having said that if you don't want a sliding table, I think the SIP is the only one that has it as an optional extra. Without the sliding table, the SIP is approx £150 cheaper than the other two.

PS. This is a short review I did of the SIP

 

[martlewis]

I'm not going to bother with a sliding table, never needed it before now. A couple of questions tho, your review mentions something about a short fence, whats that all about? And I noticed your table was on wheels. Was that as standard? And how do the wheels handle the weight, still worried about my wooden floor in the shop?

 

[Slim]

I only really used the short fence when making stopped crosscuts. eg, cutting multiple pieces to the same length. The short fence is placed against the main fence infront of the blade. If you butt your workpiece up against the short fence, when you move it through the blade there will be a space between it and the main fence. This prevents the workpice getteing jammed between the blade and fence which could throw the piece back in your direction.

I hope that makes sense.

I purchased the wheels seperatly. They were about £40. They are rated up to 250kg i think. So no problem with the weight. The saw moves very easily. A godsend in a smalll workshop though. I can move my saw out of the way when I am assembling something large for example.

The wheels are completely adjustable for leveling the saw, and I found that the extra 2" in height was a good thing.

Hope this has helped.

 

[Scrit]

Still not sure if I need a sliding table. The saw I have has a 4ft table which I've always managed with until not but I want a cast iron top

Does anyone on here use sliding tables and if so what do you think of them please? I'll be using it soon to build my new kitchen cabinets, mostly 8x4 ply but I can make initial cuts with circular saw if necessary.

In general a table saw with a sliding carraige is simply too small and unstable to cut an 8 x 4 sheet down to size (unless you build enormous run-on anmd run-off support tables - roller supports aren't stable enough). This means that initial breaking-down will need to be done in another way, such a hand circular saw and straight edge, before using the table saw. Remember that to rip an 8 ft long sheet you'd need a 20 foot long workshop to accommodate both yourself and the sheet....... and there isn't a single small table saw/carraige combination out there which can handle more than about a 30in wide crosscut, and even then the width of your workshop will restrict the length of material you can handle. It's for this reason that anyone doing kitchens for a living goes out and buys a panel saw with an 8ft plus rip/crosscut capacity - and gets a scoring unit (which prevents chipping out) in the package.

As for the dado head argument - well housed shelves and rebated end panels weaken the structure of MDF and MFC (melamine faced chipboard = kitchen carcassing material) and so really have no place there.

A Unisaw is close to £2,000... I'm guessing it's about six feet wide in all.

And it doesn't have a riving knife, brake or even a decent fence (unless you buy a Unifence) with it.....

I only really used the short fence when making stopped crosscuts. eg, cutting multiple pieces to the same length. The short fence is placed against the main fence infront of the blade.

The main use for a short rip fence is actually as a rip fence - the short rip fence allows timber in tension to deflect away from the blade when ripping and not become trapped between the fence and the rising teeth at the back of the blade - a cause of kickback and one reason I detest the inadequate Biesmeyer design.

Scrit
(Altendorf user)

 

[seaco]

A Unisaw is close to £2,000... I'm guessing it's about six feet wide in all.

And it doesn't have a riving knife, brake or even a decent fence (unless you buy a Unifence) with it.....

the short rip fence allows timber in tension to deflect away from the blade when ripping and not become trapped between the fence and the rising teeth at the back of the blade - a cause of kickback and one reason I detest the inadequate Biesmeyer design.

Scrit
(Altendorf user)

The Unisaw does come with a riving knife and the Biesmeyer fence is a lovely bit of kit no problems at all... if your worried about tension all you do is add a short piece of wood to the side of the fence 'sorted' don't be put off by some on here :wink:

 

[Scrit]

The Unisaw does come with a riving knife and the Biesmeyer fence is a lovely bit of kit no problems at all... if your worried about tension all you do is add a short piece of wood to the side of the fence 'sorted' don't be put off by some on here :wink:

The only American saws I know of with a proper riving knife as opposed to a splitter are the latest Powermatic PM66 and the SawStop. The Unisaw still comes with a splitter as shown on the Delta web site - a device dropped in Europe during the 1960s in favour of the much safer riving knife......

Having used a Unisaw with a Biesmeyer fence in the States a few years back I can say it really isn't a patch on the Wadkin sliding rip saw fitted to the post 1980 AGSs, etc. and which in turn is a sort of generic European saw fence design. But then I was trained to rip timber using the short rip fence on a proper rip saw. Having to fix a piece of timber onto a long through fence create a short rip fence means, by its' nature, that the task will become onerous and be overlooked. That's just human nature. The Delta Unifence is a far better design, as it can be used either as a long fence or pulled back into the short rip position, but seems to be more often than not overlooked. "If you're worried by tension...."- methinks you've never sawn enough material to have had a serious kickback. Could be a surprise when you do have one, then :shock:

Scrit

 

[seaco]

Scrit I knew you'd reply with you scientific reasons to get a Wadkin and yes your right it is a splitter but you see mate not all of us want to use the same saw as you because if we did all saws would be made exactly the same all I know is I've been using mine now for two years and it's a fine accurate saw you stick with Wadkin and I'll stick with my Unisaw... :wink:

 

[martlewis]

I'm now 90% sold on the SIP.

SlimJim81, are you running the wheels of your saw cabinet on a wooden floor? Mines made of chipboard loft flooring and I don't want to find my saw sinking into the floor :?

 

[Scrit]

Actually I use an Altendorf and a White (neither makes particularly well known). The White replaced a Sedgwick LK, although I have owned or used a variety of Wadkins (and other makes) over the years. The reason for choosing the Wadkin example was because it was potentially a known make with an acknowledged good fence design, whereas the first two makes quoted in this reply aren't. I could equally have proferred the later Startrites such as the TA1250, which had a similar fence design, as examples, or something such as the Scheppach TS4010ci or Rojek PK315

Scrit

 

[Slim]

Hey marty.

Yes I have the same, chipboard panels. As long as you joists arn't spaced too far apart then it will be absolutely fine.

You will definately not be disapointed with the SIP. It's a hell of a lot of saw for the money.

 

[martlewis]

Brilliant mate. my joists are 12" centres, and fully supported along the length of every joist to a solid foundation. It was just a concern more if the wheels would damage the floor rather than the joists moving.

Can I ask where you got the mobile base from and does it lock solidly in position?

 

[Philly]

Mart
Don't forget you won't be using a dado in the SIP....
Philly

 

[Waka]

Mart
Don't forget you won't be using a dado in the SIP....
Philly

Not that word again

 

[Slim]

I got my base from my local machine shop DBKeighley. But I don't think they do mail order.

Have a look here here

 

[Mike.C]

Philly

Mart
Don't forget you won't be using a dado in the SIP....
Philly

Yeah but for the money he will have an excellent saw, so IMHO the lack of a dado is a very small price to pay.

Philly, it has probably already been looked into, but just incase it hasn't, what do you think the chances are of having a longer arbor made up, so that anyone who already has a table saw and wants to run a dado, could do so without having to replace their saw?

As some of you will know I live in the back end of no where and getting a tradesman is twice as hard as anywhere else, but at long last I have got a sparky coming on Thursday to run a 16 amp circuit, and so I will be playing with the SIP all weekend in my own shop.
I say in my own workshop, because after getting fed up of waiting, I wheeled the saw over to a friends workshop yesterday and had a little mess around with it, and I can tell you it is worth every penny.

Martlewis I am sure you will be well pleased with the 10 inch model. If you do go for it, make sure you shop around, because there are some good deals about. Look around Ebay.

Cheers

Mike

 

[martlewis]

Ebay seems to be the best prices I have found.

I would have thought that changing an arbor to fit a dado would cause other problems. What about the table opening for the blade, would there be enough clearance?

And out of curiousity can the SIP 10" be used with a zero clearance insert or is the cast iron solid right upto the blade slot?

Martin.