Replies

1. 
   hammer1 | May 17, 2006 06:03am | #1

   I can only speak about Unisaws. The heavy trunions mount to the cabinet and you move the table top for alignment. This is a totally different arrangement than contractor saws. It's unlikely you will have to worry about things going out of line. The tilt and depth adjustments stay true throughout their range. You won't believe the difference when going from a Craftsman contractor to a professional cabinet saw.

   Beat it to fit / Paint it to match

1. 
   SteveSchoene | May 17, 2006 06:09am | #2

   The other cabinet saws differ from the Unisaw only in the details.  They all use virtually the same basic design. 

1. 
   John_D | May 17, 2006 08:51am | #3

   Funny enough, the well-regarded SawStop has an arrangement more like a contractor saw.  But I've seen no report that it's inaccurate in any way; precision seems the match of or better than competitors.My goal is for my work to outlast me.  Expect my joinery to get simpler as time goes by.

1. 
   JohnWW | May 17, 2006 04:59pm | #4

   From an engineering point of view, having the trunnions mounted directly on the table top is the best design for a saw, and some of the finest saws ever made had the trunnions mounted that way.  The design got a bad reputation because of contractors saws, but contractor's saws were just very poorly designed overall, the fault wasn't with the mounting of the trunnions. 

   In fact, Ridgid corrected the basic flaws in the contractor's saw in their model 3650 and produced a saw that is in many ways as good as, or better than, a cabinet saw when it comes to precision alignment.

   John White, Shop Manager, Fine Woodworking Magazine 

1. 
   Knotscott | May 17, 2006 09:59pm | #5

   Isn't the 3650 design an evolution of the older Emerson made Craftsman and Ridgid saws?

2. 
   JohnWW | May 17, 2006 11:27pm | #6

   Definitely, Emerson made the Craftsman line of power tools for years, and the Craftsman benchtop saw had the same basic construction as the Delta contractor's saw. 

   Prior to that, most of the power tools were made by King Seeley, and even earlier by Walker Turner.  In addition to those companies they also purchased tools badged Craftsman from several other manufacturers.  The King Seeley version of a benchtop/contractor's saw, The Model 100, was a pretty lame machine, I owned one.   

   When they had a falling out with Sears, Emerson's parent company which already owned the Ridgid line of plumbing tools, started selling basically the same tools under the Ridgid name.  Over the years they have been modifying and improving the tools. 

   I never saw the Ridgid saw that was sold previous to the 3650 so I don't know if the details on the 3650's design are recent or have been around for a while.  In any case, the improvements they made in the way the trunnions are designed in the current model, along with drive belt and fence design, make it a much better machine than the typical contractor's saw. 

   I wrote a review of the Ridgid saw a year or so ago for the magazine.  It wasn't included in our large review of contractor's saws because it wasn't available at the time.

   John White, Shop Manager, Fine Woodworking Magazine