Delta vs Steel City Table Saw

[J. Clarke]

To learn from those who have something to teach, to help when I can.

[Maxwell Lol]

......to flame when I cannot.

[toolman946 via CraftKB.com]

No... it certainly didn't. And there are many more expensive saws out there. I bought my Delta Unisaw about 9 years ago and paid almost $2,800.00. If either of the 2 saws you're considering were available back then, I'd not have purchased the Unisaw. It was the popularity of the Delta Unisaw, General and Powermatic industrial saws amongst serious woodworking hobbiests like you and me (and many other people in this forum) that drove the development of these "little brothers" to the industrial machines. And they perform wonderfully.

I don't think you're too much worried about drivel like that in poopi's post (he seems prone to spewing crap). There will always be bottom feeders slithering in the mud who try to lure others down to their level. Bit of a shallow gene pool there...wot!

Come back after you've made your purchase and let us know what you decided.

Cheers

[The Davenport's]

$900 is a lot? Let's see...you bought your saw 25ish years ago...for $275 which is about $620usd in 2007 dollars. In the grand scheme of things, not a whole lot of difference.

Oh...and $900 today was only $400 in 1982.

Again, not a lot of difference.

Mike

[DonkeyHody]

Raises hand . . .Uh mine did. When my blade was at 90 degrees to the table, it was perfectly parallel to the miter slots and also perfectly parallel to my carefully calibrated fence. But when I tilted the blade to 45 degrees, the resulting burn marks showed me right away that I had a problem. I ran Ed Bennett's TS-Aligner Jr. along the blade while tilted and found that it was no longer parallel to the miter slot. I'm an engineer, but still the answer to the problem didn't come to me. Finally I checked the literature and video that came with Ed's gadget. He explained what the problem was and how to fix it. The table top was tilted front-to-back relative to the plane of the blade tilt. A couple of shims under the low end of the table top and the problem was solved.

I suspect a great many saws have this problem. It's just difficult to diagnose and repair without sophisticated tools and the time and desire to fix it.

DonkeyHody "Even an old blind hog finds an acorn every now and then."

[B A R R Y]

The _required_ tools aren't all that sophisticated. Some purpose-made tools will make it easier than others, and it's apparent that the video might have been a very valuable part of your tool kit.

I have seen the techniques laid out in several books for finding and repairing most alignment issues, including aligning cabinet saws at both ends of the blade tilt travel.

[Father Haskell]

Wood cuts clean with the blade at 90 degrees, but burns when you tilt the blade, and burns worst at 45. Easy to diagnose, IF you know.

Miter gage, bar peened at 2" intervals to ride smooth with no play. C-clamp. Piece of narrow cutoff. Feeler gage set. Socket wrench. Anti-seize or white grease.

I expect my saw to produce glue joint quality surfaces. I hate sanding. I need no other motivation.