Well I was home for 1 day. Right back up to MD early tomorrow for the week. But I spent a few hours (about 4 actually) putting my new saw together. Thought I'd do a quick write-up for anyone contemplating the purchase.
Heaviest box was 425 lbs but the way it's packed, along with my son, we were able to slide it off the back of a pickup on to the floor. Hint - lay it on it's side in the truck when you pick it up - the packaging handles it fine and it's real easy to unload that way - just slide it and tip it down to the floor.
The banded box top lifts right off. 2 bolts in a wooden skid release it from the skid - two of us lifted it - swmbo slid the skid out - I might very well regret that tomorrow. I elected to leave the plastic cover and table preservative on while assembling the extensions and rails - no particular reason except I wanted to make only 1 mess when I cleaned and treated the table later.
No scratches, dents etc. to be found. Followed the direction and found most of setup to be uneventful. Small issues hardly worth mentioning:
- The tapped holes (6) in the actual fence guide weren't real easy to get started at first - I turned it over and sort of eased the bolts into and out of the threads a few time to be sure I wouldn't snap them off. If I'd had a tap, I would have been tempted to run it through there to clean them up a little.
- You will have to drill holes (wood only) to mount the side table. No big deal. BUT - the directions show the legs for the ext table in such a fashion that you can't quite tell where they mount - be sure to mount them on the side that will NOT interfere with the last bolt in the guide rail - it's easy to do !
- Have a set of metric allen wrenches handy - they send you a couple but not all you need.
- If I had it to do again, I'd replace all the 1/4 20 HW they sent with better quality - every time I tightened one, I kept feeling like I needed to be really careful.
- Once you've figured out the hole pattern in the rout lift - it goes together easily as well.
I have to say, after messing about with probably half a dozen router tables over the years, I shocked at the complexity of this router lift. Man, we've come a long way. This is quite a piece of machinery - I only hope the mdf table extension it sits in is up to the task. I think I'm going to put a layer of something (suggestions ?) under the router plate for the leveling screws to sit on though.
All in all, I'm extremely happy. Those few things I mentioned above don't amount to a hill of beans. The quality and fit/finish of this tool really is very nice - first class. I didn't see a reason to shim/trim anything right now.
I'm ready to start cutting but I don't have my 22o circuit over to it yet. I did put a coat of Boeshield on the table though - check out the tests on this (and other cleaner/preserve products) in the latest Wood mag.
More later.
jim bailey