So I finally got my new saw. Came in 2 boxes, 1 about 130lbs and the other about 160lbs. I used a handtruck to get them to my shop (after using the snow blower to clear a trail). I got them off the handtruck and opend the box with the base first. I built my Woodcraft Mobile Base and lifted the base onto it. Now before I go any farther, I should give the excuse that I had a knee replaced 5 months ago and have not been in my shop since then until now. This is also the first time I have lifted more than a grocery bag since the surgery so I expect this to go very slow and be a difficult exercise in building this saw.
Next I open the saw box and to my horror, discovered the saw was upside down. Of course the box was marked properly, but I didn't notice it. I laid the saw on it's back, got the wrapping off then stood it on it's feet. I then wrapped it in a squatting bear hug and lifted it to the top of the base. Not near as hard as I expected it to be.
The instructions were good with farily decent pictures of the assemblies. What was missing though was a decent visual chart for the hardware. As all the bolts were metric, I had to dig to find a rule with metric scale on it, but once I did, it was fairly easy to sort out the hardware. Assembly took about 4 hours including basic tuning. It is still in the single digits here and at full blast my shop heater can only get it to about 35 inside, so, I will have to wait till next weekend to get the final tuning done and make some sawdust. I will sure be happy when I am able to finish insulating and dry walling my shop this summer. No more winter breaks for me after that, as long as my other knee holds up.
From what I can see at this point, the saw looks to be of very high quality, the finish is gfreat. No issues with ANY part fit or finish. Tolerances were tight and once I got it together, I had to spin it up to see how it sounded. The stock blade (a 3/8 blade) was installed when I got it, i didn't even have to adjust tracking. The saw ran perfectly and sounded amazingly quiet. Not what I was used to in my 25 year old 12" Craftsman.
IMHO, it is a great saw at the normal price, and since I got it for 100 bucks off, got a free riser and got a 100 buck rebate, It was a fantastic deal.
Neil Larson