Happy Fathers Day to me!

[Locutus]

Wife and kids woke me up this AM telling me to come outside, I was greeted by a brand new Ridgid TS3650 in the back of the truck. :)

Guess I better go make something.

[Leon]

Too bad it was not setting in your garage. :~) Good catch.

[cselby]

Give me your phone #. I'm going to ask your wife to come run away with me.

Pete

[Locutus]

Tell me about it, damn that thing is heavy. And it appears you need a mechanical engineering degree to put it together...

[Hedley]

My first and current TS is a 3650. My dad happened to be here when I bought it and he helped me put it together. Took the better part of a very enjoyable day.

The woodworking purists around here may call it less than professional grade, but I'm amazed at how well it works. Slices through anything I've fed it, and makes excellent, square cuts. Plus' you can't beat the life-time parts and labor guarantee.

Your first order of business should be to make a cross-cut sled. Then a mitre sled. Then add a router table extension (home-made, of course). Then you need a dado blade...

Enjoy.

--Hedley

--Binge in Moderation

[Jim Stuyck]

A DAY? Curious; why? How come?

On the Home Depot web site, for the Ridgid TS3650, the warranty info reads thusly: "Warranty (Parts) 90-Day Satisfaction; 3 Yr Limited Service"

How did you come upon "life-time?"

Jim Stuyck

[Upscale]

Very easy to do. Talk, unpack everything, talk some more, read instructions, make sure everything is included that's supposed to be there, break for lunch, talk some more, start putting saw together, talk some more, break for a beer, finish putting saw together, do some preliminary cuts, discuss proper alignment, dig out a straight edge, adjust blade and fence alignment, do some more test cuts, talk some more, etcetera.

Hell, if my dad was still alive and he was over helping me put a table saw together, I'd make damned sure it would take longer than a day just so I could talk him into coming over for more than a day.

[Locutus]

I did quite a bit of research on tablesaws, and I had settled on this saw about 3 months ago. I have not been able to find a bad review on the saw. Everytime we would go to Home Depot my wife would see me drooling over it. I could never bring myself to pull the trigger, I have always had a problem purchasing large ticket items for myself as it makes me feel guilty.

After getting it unpacked, I realized I didn't have the time to put it together, it definitely appears to be an all day job. I will tackle that this weekend.

[Leuf]

The stand/mobile base is quite an affair to get together.

I found it impossible to get the mobile base into the stand while assembled. I believe I had to get help to tip the saw and even then I had to take it apart into two halves. I am not sure if it is a good idea to install the mobile base before getting the saw onto the stand, as you need to tip the stand over to attach the saw and then tip it up, I'm not sure what the mobile base will do when tipped over, but I would try that first.

And at a certain point the instructions are going to tell you to attach the front rail with "X" number of bolts and you will have "X+1" bolts and "X+1" holes. You will then scan through the rest of the instructions looking to see if this "extra" bolt goes somewhere else. It doesn't, use it on the rail. Mine is sitting in a drawer because I couldn't be bothered to take the rail off again.

I think it took me about 8-10 hours to get it all assembled and aligned.

-Leuf

[Leuf]

There are about 8 billion bolts to put together the stand and mobile base. And while they are all packed in a very organized manner in a big blister pack, the person who labeled the blister pack and the person who wrote the instructions never talked to each other.

-Leuf

[Jim Stuyck]

Aha! Y'know, when you spend those kinds of bucks, sometimes it makes you feel good to have a "project" from the get-go. Used to be, I'd buy a new car and spend the better part of a day with screwdrivers and wrenches, tightening the thing up. Nowadays, it's "no fun" for the guy that used to "tighten things up." ;-)

Jim Stuyck

[Tim Taylor]

Does your all's, the 3650, have the cast iron wings?

[Locutus]

Yes it does.

[Tim Taylor]

Any way you would do me a huge favor? Would you look in your owners manual, or count the bolts it takes to mount it to the table. I don't remember my model number, but I have the stamped wings. I'd like to see if the cast would work. If they do, I'm going to get a set. I would really appreciate it. I get funny looks when I try to take pictures at Home Depot.

[Leuf]

4 on each side. The outer holes are about 1" in from the outside, the middle holes are about 9 1/4" in. Cast iron is supposed to be easy to drill if you need to make new holes. Keep in mind the Ridgid cast iron extensions have 3 large holes to let you get clamps in to make assembly easier. You might want to look around (ebay, etc) to see if anyone is getting rid of any as people tend to replace the right extension with a table.

-Leuf

[Tim Taylor]

Thanks ever so much Leuf. I went out and checked before I went to bed this morning, my stamped wings bolt on with 4 also. Looks like cast ones will work. I did look at the exploded parts view of your saw online, but it wasn't real clear how many bolts it took. Now, one other thing, is the 2 sides different sizes? My stamped ones are exactly the same. Once again, the parts view looks to my like the cast ones are too. I'll check around and see if I can't find a couple people getting rid of some. And thank you once again.

[Leuf]

The two sides are exactly the same.

-Leuf

[Tim Taylor]

Once again, thank you so much!

[Hedley]

See Below...

Another poster got it right. Dad's almost 70, so it was work alittle, talk a lot, with a lunch break, and towards the end a couple of beer breaks. That was definitely fun.

They had the lifetime parts and service on all Rigid power tools for a few months before I bought the saw last winter. It was still going on the last time I looked (last weekend?). Unbelievable deal. Also included batteries for cordless tools. Lifetime.

They never said how long it would go on. Perhaps in your region it ended already. I'm in the Chicago area. I'll post again if it's still happening.

[Locutus]

Thanks for the heads up!