TS Accessory Suggestions

[Edward Hennessey]

The owner of a Rigid contractor's saw has been generous in allowing its use. In appreciation, my thought is to add some accessories for the season.

For my own purposes, I've already equipped it with a digital height gauge, Rockler featherboard and miter-slot caliper mount. It has the factory miter guage and fence and the table is a durable plastic.

A trip to Rockler gave a clue to the wealth of items available but decision making would benefit from your experienced analysis of possible complements. Cost remains less an issue than value.

Thanks,

EH

[Lew Hodgett]

--------------------------------------------- Does he have any sleds?

If not, a couple of sheets of 1/2" Baltic Birch plywood to make some would be helpful.

Below are couple of pdf files for sleds from WoodSmithShop for starters.

Lew

[SonomaProducts.com]

Cost remains

A nice Freud saw blade or two.

[Larry Blanchard]

You'll probably get lots of suggestions, but since it still has the factory miter gauge I'd go with:

I've had one for a year or two now and I'm very satisfied with it.

[Larry Jaques]

I picked up a 7-1/4" Freud combo blade about 6 months ago and am finding it a very good value. It is the slim li'l guy but it has outlasted the HF blades by about 3x so far, and it's still sharp. It was ten bucks vs. the $1.50-$3 HF blades.

I was angle-ripping some sopping wet DF tubasixes this morning and had some trouble with the thin blade, but it still cut the crap like butter. My illustrious lumber supplier left my order, including two sheets of CDX ply, out in the rain last night. (at 4:30am, the rain was heavy enough to overflow my leaf-filled gutters) Not only was my plywood soaked, all the lumber was at least ten pounds heavier per stick.

-- Know how to listen, and you will profit even from those who talk badly. -- Plutarch

[Leon]

A little pricey but a valuable tool, the Dubby cross cut sled, does all 0-45 angles very accurately

[CW]

I second this.

[Edward Hennessey]

to sort out the good ones from the bad ones.

Regards,

EH

[Edward Hennessey]

Thanks to SP, LJ and CW for the acclamation of the blades. I've been running a Frued Diablo on the unit for general purposes. A trip to Amazon showed a real spread of blades across differing configurations and prices. It was a bit bewildering. I have heard the saw will be involved in fabricating some built ins. Any particular suggestions for that application?

Regards,

EH

[Edward Hennessey]

LB:

It looks good. So does the 1000SE. It's like deciding between two neckties and a few dollars. Thank you.

Regards,

EH

[Edward Hennessey]

it superior to more familiar alternatives. If you have a moment for that it would be appreciated. It does appear good for panel cutting. Thank you for the pointer.

Regards,

EH

[Larry Blanchard]

The V120 has a notch every degree. The 1000SE does have the fancy fence but it uses the V27 which only has notches every 5 degrees plus 22.5. For example, a 5 sided figure is 36 degrees 10 sides are 18 15 sides are 12. The V27 does have a fine adjustment that the V120 lacks.

I noticed someone else mentioned a sled. Great tool but most woodworkers I know wind up making their own. Make one with a slot for that V120, add a plywood fence to the V120, and you've got somethings as good as anything on the market IMNSHO.

[SonomaProducts.com]

Well built-ins indicates likely lots of plywood but also possibly stick wood for edging and doors. I usually buy decidated blades but I think the Freud P410 Premier Fusion is a good blend of plywood and stick cutting both rip and cross cut.

Otherwise, if you want dedicated blades I have found the regular or thin rip Freud LU87R010 better than the glue-line rip. I actually took my first glueline rip back thinking there must be a bad tooth but the replacemnt was just as dissapointing. Their dedicated cross cut and plywood\melamine blades are also good at one thing each (as named).

If you look at the graphic one each blades page (on Amazon) that shows what a blade is good at the 87 shows "excellent" for rip, cross and ply. I tend to believe them. The 87 is maybe not quite as good as the dedicated blades but lots better than any stock blade the guy might have and three for the price of one.

[RonB]

Can't argue with the saw blade suggestions, especially the Freud.

Along similar lines when I need consistent, smooth dados, the Freud set is great. I have a wobbler too but multi-blade sets are much smoother.

RonB

[Edward Hennessey]

Can't argue with the saw blade suggestions, especially the Freud.

Along similar lines when I need consistent, smooth dados, the Freud set is great. I have a wobbler too but multi-blade sets are much smoother.

RB:

You read my mind on that notion. Having actually read the manual--which had one glaring blooper of an illustration on blade changing--it was told that wobblers are banned. But a stacked set would work fine.

By the by, the Rigid contractor's saw is not a bad unit save the problematic guard and splitter. It could have more power but they had to keep the amps down for 110. Thank you.

Regards,

EH

[RonB]

Hmmm. I wonder why they are banned. Vibration?

I have had the wobbler (Craftsman) for 20-30 years and it did seem to vibrate when used on my old Craftsman contractor-styled saw. Don't notice it much on the current saw. My first thought was maybe the arbor wasn't long enough but the stack set uses a lot of threads too.

RonB

[Larry Blanchard]

The Fusion is a great blade for cross cutting, and darn good on plywood, but I'm not impressed with it's ripping ability. It might do fine on a cabinet saw with lots of HP, but on my contractor saw it bogged down. I put in my Freud thin kerf rip blade and it cut the same wood (8/4 alder) with no problem.