I'm looking for a secondary table saw to go with my 15-year-old Unisaw. Want to spend the minimum but every inexpensive (under $600) saw I've looked at has a crappy looking trunion and is driven by a single belt. What's the least expensive quality (cast trunion--3-belt drive) saw on the market today. Any suggestions appreciated.
Joe.
What you want is the features of a Unisaw but only want to spend $600. The Chinese and WalMart will just love you.
What about that new Craftsman saw that is getting good reviews?
Have a look at the General International 50-185
-Brian
Used.
Barry
If you can raise your price range a bit, take a look at the Grizzly 1023s. It will be a lot like owning a second Unisaw for about $830 plus shipping. If that is too much, look at some of the Grizzly contractor's saws. All good solid machines and Griz offers great customer support.
RonB
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Depends on what you plan on using that secondary saw for...and it also sounds like you want another Cabinet Saw that is ewqual to your Unisaw?
I run a Jet Cabinet saw as my primary saw...BUT picked up an older (labeled Delta/Rockwell...so it ain't new by any means) contractor saw ...
Paid a whopping ten (read 10) bucks for it a few years ago at an auction where my wife and everyone else were bidding on household items and knick-knacks.etc...
The saw was complete BUT honest to God...had a MASORARY installed.......but for 10 bucks....... what the heck.. !!!! Actually I said only 3 words to myself and those were Not the 3 ... last word was different, but still only had 4 letters... !
Anyway a few evenings later and with an old WW blade on the saw it it was running fine...and true..!!!
I mounted a sled on the saw and now use it for cross cutting 99 percent of the time...at other times MY Dado blade is on the saw and ready to use
It is my secondary saw...and no it is not an industrial class Cabinet saw but it does what I need ...
Bob Griffiths
Well, since they (the Taiwanese) now own Powermatic and most old-line U.S. manufacturers are producing a large part of what they sell here over there I don't see that it makes much difference. Everything now comes from Asia. I heard that Wallmart buys 18 billion (that's billion) dollars worth of goods annually in China. We went over there looking for cheap labor, provided them with our technology, and now they are making everything we buy. I am just waiting for them to start producing passenger planes that compete with Boeing.
Nobody really gives a crap about America any more. If they did our country would not be flooded with illegal immigrants. Politicians on both sides avoid the issue like the plague because they are afraid of losing a few votes. Meanwhile the American people clamor that something be done. They've been clamoring for years and the number of illegals just keeps mounting. I know I'm off topic but your remark about the Chinese just got me started thinking.
Joe
Funny. I thought WMH (Powermatic's owner) was European--Swiss IIRC.
Charlie Self "Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to." Mark Twain
Chance are the same people who are clamoring for something to be done are the same ones who like paying less for their produce in the grocery store, like getting cheaper clothing made in a sweatshop (either overseas or here), and maybe hire an illegal alien to clean their house or work in their garden.
Illegal aliens are here because they are filling a need. They are taking jobs that few Americans are willing to do at the price that the employers are paying. It's a problem, but it's not one with an easy answer.
1) Don't confuse me with facts when my mind's made up. 2) I read this somewhere. Ok, first I wrote it and then I read it. 3) I took Geography from an American Public School.
patrick conroy responds:
snip of first 2
So did I. But I still insist that the majority of the Swiss in the world do NOT live just north of Marin County. :)
Charlie Self "He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire." Sir Winston Churchill
It's not legal vs illegal that's the problem. It's immigration, period. We keep insisting on the same attitudes today as we had when the country needed people to fill all the empty spaces.
I just saw an article that estimates the US population will reach 376 million by 2030. That's three times what it was when I was a young child.
And it's not from natural increase. Birth rates keep going down so the politicians keep upping immigration so they can keep the Ponzi game going.
I know I've posted something similar to this before. I'll keep posting it every time the subject comes to my attention.
And BTW, studies have shown that the people most hurt financially by new immigrants are the preceding group of immigrants.
Second Unisaw. Obviously.
I would really like to know who really does own PM. A dealer told me they had been bought by a Far Eastern consortium. Perhaps he was only trying to disparage the product. Interesting, though. I had an old Model 66 cabinet saw years ago and loved it. About 15 years ago when I decided to buy an 8-inch long-bed joiner I ordered a Powermatic. It came and I immediately returned it. It was indeed a piece of crap. I bought, instead, a Delta. I believed it's called a J-20. It has never given me a moment's trouble. I love it. After the experience with the joiner when the time came to get another table saw I opted for the Unisaw, given my experience with the PM joiner and I really have no complaints about the Unisaw though I recognize that it it not as well built as the old Mod. 66. I haven't seen a new 66 but I seem to recall someone telling me that they are making them a lot lighter than the old ones.. Now I need another cabinet saw or contractor's saw and the ones I've looked at the Borgs all have a single belt and poor trunions, hence my post.
Check out the web site.
Dealer in what? He's trying to sell you something else, right?
The Powermatic of 15 years ago was an American company.
Cabinet saws don't have single belts, to my knowledge. The newest Craftsman is close to a cabinet saw (large trunnions, cabinet mounted), and uses a single belt, but it's a multi groove poly belt, very thin but about 1" wide.
Someone mentioned Bridgewood as the heaviest duty saw recently, and sent me some photos with the top popped the present the case very strongly. You might want to check Wilke Machinery for that
Charlie Self "He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire." Sir Winston Churchill
What, this little wussy thing?
That ain't a heavy duty saw.
Well hell. I was going to dig up a picture of a REAL industrial saw, and I can't find one. I know they exist, because I've played with one, but I have no idea what brand it was. I tried some really complicated google searches to weed out all the wussy crap from Delta and JET and such, and still got nowhere.
The fence on the thing I have in my head is a hunk of cast iron about 8" wide. 16" blade. Probably 10 HP 3-phase power.
Something like the biggest/most expensive machine spec'd out here:
Oh well. The thing I have in mind is way out of everyone's league anyway, so I was only going to offer it as a curiosity; like that gigantic bandsaw someone posts pictures of from time to time.
Silvan asks:
Yeah, but I think the OP is asking about a 10". You got 3 phase in your shed?
Charlie Self "He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire." Sir Winston Churchill
Powermatic is now part of the same company which owns Jet. I have a PM66. It says Made in McMinnville, TN. As far as I know the plant still makes them there. It was my first (and probably last) table saw purchase.
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