Delta's New Unisaw information

[Leon]

Strange looking!

Tilt and height adjustment wheels on front and a riving knife.

[Lee Michaels]

"Leon" wrote

I watched the little video. One feature I liked was that it has 16" between the blade and the front of the saw. Thus giving a little more support for cutting long stock.

One problem is that it won't be available for another year.

[Leon]

Yeah I'd love to see it althought I'm not in the market and if I were I would still look strongly at the SawStop. I can however appreciate the cranks on the front and the fact that the elevation adjustment wheel does not raise as the bevel is adjusted towards the 45 degree setting. Additionally Delta is claiming that the bevel scale is accurate to with in .5 degrees. I use an electronic Tilt Block and can get to with in .1 degrees IIRC. The new Delta scale may be more accurate than they are claiming, perhaps it is easier to see the .5 degree settings.

Actually it is 15" when the blade is raised to 1.25". I know that 15" is probably going to be an improvement for many but my Jet has 13.5" so that would be just a little better for me. IMHO the greatest advantage here is when cross cutting wide panels and using a sled or miter gauge. I believe that a fence that would extend farther out past the front of the saw would help more with longer stick. My biggest problem when ripping a sheet of plywood is with the stock pivoting at the front of the fence. The Unifence has the capability of letting you slide the fence forward towards the operator.

Early 09 according to the video.

[Frank Boettcher]

My biggest problem when ripping a sheet of

Made me think about looking for something I've misplaced. I have a plate with a screw clamp that slides into the lowest channel of the fence extrusion and locks the plate up to the bottom of the fence providing a lip for up and down support. It was a prototype, I think, that never made it into production.

Problem is that you have to be careful not to overload it with the fence extended too far out, so that it doesn't overload the fence body clamp. But with the fence extended out about a foot or so, really provides a nice bit of support.

Easy to rig one up I think.

Frank

[Lew Hodgett]

SFWIW.

Glued 2 pieces of 13 ply (3/4 thick), cabinet ply together to form a

7"-8" wide, 1-1/2" thick x length of Unifence extrusion piece.

Then installed a 3/4" wide T-Slot extrusion, about 2" from top edge.

Thru drilled ply and extrusion for 1/4-20, flat head bolts.

Bolted ply to UniFence extrusion with narrow edge up.

Since the ply is 1-1/2", can use the narrow edge marker on side scale marker directly, (no offset req'd).

Now have several ways to clamp featherboard to fence to provide a hold down.

Make up another 3/4 ply piece using same bolt holes, to serve as a sacrificial fence for dado work.

WFM

YMMV

Lew

[Leon]

Actually Rockler sells clamps $15, which I have, to hold a sacrificial fence in place on a rip fence. The sacrificial fence could be adjusted forward or made longer. Just remember to add the width of the sacrificial fence to the width setting. Hummmm....

[dayvo]

I like that Delta started over and re-engineered the saw. The riving knife and its adjustability look great.

Is that it? The other features like an integrated nut/washer on the arbor and a storage drawer are sad offerings. Given the chance to completly re-engineer the saw, Delta has really fallen short. With all the technology and innovative products on the market, they could have done much better.

How about:

• Electronic indicators of blade height and angle (accurate to MORE than 1/2 degree)

• Integral jig and fixture system (ala Woodpeck, Rockler and the like)

• Re-designed fence with micro adjustability and digital readout

• Self cleaning and lubrication

• Integrating a saw-stop style safety feature

• Independent testing to prove reliability

Delta should have looked at all the aftermarket add on's for inspiration. With todays tech, you should be able to adjust a saw using buttons/dials and have digital readouts to tell you precisely where you're at. It should also remember a certain number of settings and return to them at the push of a button. You should at least be able to write down precise settings and reset the machine manually. Then I wouldn't need 7 tablesaws in the shop. Is it still 1950?

[Leon]

Agreed, the nut with built in flange washer may actually cause you to drop the nut more often. I think a rare earth magnet on the end of the arbor would help prevent dropping the nut/washer in to the saw dust.

With respect to all above features cost has to be factored in to prevent out pricing the market. IIRC Delta turned down the opportunity to add the SawStop capability.

Craftsman saws/RAS's at one time offered this feature in the mid 80's IIRC, apparently it did not go over too well. Execution may have been a factor.

[J. Clarke]

How much extra are you willing to pay for all this?

[Max]

Whoa, Hoss, I want to be able to buy one of those jewels. If I want all that digital stuff and lasers, etc. I'll look at *accessories* but if they're part of the package I'm pretty sure I won't be able to afford one. Either that or I won't be able to justify the expense.

Max

[LEGEND65]

The tilt handle on the front is pretty nice, and I can tell you from my Ridgid that hooking up DC directly to a shroud around the blade works very well.

It's interesting, either Delta doesn't think too highly of this, the patent on it is air-tight, or it would be too costly. In either case Delta must not think this technology is going to become mandatory anytime soon.

[dayvo]

I hear ya.. My point is, though, what should a newly designed table saw look like. Is it still just a basic mechanical hunk of iron or should we have some accuracy and other niceties built right in? This is, after all 2008. Why do we still have to measure every saw adjustment with another tool? Why do woodworkers have to retrofit their saws for special jig or alignment systems? We've seen quite a few innovative after market products that have great advantages. While I'm sure they might add to the cost, I also believe they could be "extras" or that through volume the cost would go down. If this new saw came configured to use a system of clamps, jigs, hold downs, etc. then you can bet I'd be doing follow on business with Delta.

What would you do with the analog tilt gauge on the front of that saw? I'll bet you that everyone in my shop would use it to roughly set the angle or just ignore it altogether. Then they'd pick up an angle gauge to set/check it accurately.

Further more...why do I see Wixey selling digital planer gauges but I don't see vendors integrating them into their planers? I just bought a 20" from Laguna and guess what it has on the front - a tiny analog gauge. Not real accurate when you have to size matching stock 3 days later. Instead we have to pull out a micrometer...