Okay, here's the rundown on this saw from my perspective. I'm not at all skilled with precision woodworking, but as an engineer I have a pretty good sense about how things should be built.
I had initially ordered the G0444 with 1/2 HP motor and stamped wings, which was on backorder and expected to ship early February. During the wait, I decided to cough up the extra $90 for the upgrade. The G0444Z has a 2HP motor and cast iron wings. I called Grizzly to change the order to the "Z", and lo and behold, they had one in stock. WOOHOO!! I had the boxes in my garage in less than 48 hours from that call! Amazing! I was prepared to go fetch the saw from the freight terminal because I live on a Cul de Sac and a semi couldn't turn around, but when I called the trucking company they volunteered to send it out on a bobtail with a tailgate lift. The driver was very nice and dollied everything into the garage for me. He says he delivers a lot of Grizzy gear to homes.
The saw went together pretty easily, and the instructions are very good, with one or two small exceptions. Anyone who has assembled any kind of equipment before will catch the errors, like where to put the lock washers etc. The finish and paint on the internal parts could be better. The edges of the casting still had burrs and sharp edges and the flat black paint was not evenly applied. The outside finish was much better, but there are some minor imperfections that you wouldn't notice unless you're really looking, and those will soon be covered with sawdust .
My saw arrived with one of the strain relief grommets (where the wire feeds through the case) broken. A replacement is already on the way and it will be easy to install.
The top of the saw and wings fit together perfectly without any shiimming and the flatness seems perfect, but I did not use any sophisticated method to measure it. I laid a straight edge on it and didn't see any gaps. The finish of the top is excellent, but the wings are a mess. On one, it seems that the "earwax" somehow stained the metal and no amount of scrubbing will clean it up. Both wings have a bunch of overspray on the work surface from when the edges were painted. I'm going to ask Grizzly what I should use to remove that so if it messes up the surface, they'll be responsible.
Measuring with a machinists ruler with 1/64" gradations, the blade was perfectly parallel out of the box. I am really tickled about this because I have never adjusted a table saw and was not looking forward to it.
The fence is worlds better than those on the $600 Deltas and Ridgids that I looked at at HD & Lowe's. I was amazed that it could be so simple to install, and be so precise. It was dead on out of the box,with the 1/64" "heel" that the instructions recommended. It's a front clamping fence which will go off alignment as you slide it along the rail, but this can be avoided if you apply a small amount of pressure towards the operator as you move it. The motion is silky smooth and it clamps consistently right on the money. It has longitudinal slots down both sides for attaching featherboards or sacrificail material. The finish is perfect as well. There's no micro adjust, however.
There's some slop in the way the handwheels attach to the shafts. There's a slot in the handwheel that fits over a roll pin which protrudes from both sides of the shaft, and the slot in the handwheel is too big. This won't affect the accuracy of the saw, it just "feels" a little imprecise when you reverse directions. This could probably be fixed with some ingenuity.
My biggest concern is the motion of the carriage when raising and lowering the blade. As it comes up, the carriage rocks forward and backward slightly. Once set, it seems rock solid. I've grabbed onto the carriage from underneath and given it a good shake and can't discern any slop. This may be a characteristic of the mechanism, but it seems strange. If there's slop, I'm sure it will show up when I start cutting, and I'm sure that would be BAD.
The Mitre guage is a piece of crap. I may be able to tweak it to make it usable, but in it's current state it will gouge the table if I use it.
I don't think it's clear from the catalog, but the motor CAN be wired for
110V according to the instructions, but it draws 25A. It comes pre-wired for
220V, but does not come with a plug. You'll have to install the type that you need.
Overall, I thinks it's an excellent machine, and the fit of the parts indicates good engineering. It's made of economical, but solid and quality materials. It's interesting to note that the hardware kit includes the exact number of parts required for the assembly. Most manufacturers would include extra nuts, bolts, washers etc. as a low cost way to avoid customer service calls. This indicates that the factory has good process and quality control, which reflects well on the entire product.
For those of you who are still reading, I have a couple of questions:
- Is the straightedge measurement for flatness adequate, or should I do something different before "accepting" the saw?
- Any comments about the odd motion of the carriage as the blade is being raised?
- The manual suggested a citrus based solvent to remove the earwax, so I used Goo-Gone. Any suggestion on how to get rid of that "stain" on the wing?
So, I'm off to get the plug so I can fire this baby up!
Tom