posted by: retiredguy
5/15/2008

I have a small garage shop. The Bosch's quick folding stand works great, in fact, so easily that I do not hesitate to use the saw for small jobs. I have been happy with the saw's accuracy and its ability to make smooth cuts in oak, walnut and maple.

posted by: DrDaveishere
5/14/2008

I bought one a few months ago and love it: * it has plenty of power* a very accurite rip fence* wonderful safety features such as paws and an adjustable splitter, two piece blade guard* It has a real miter T slot* it has a unique dust collection system that works very wellThe fold up roll stand is a work of art.

posted by: Sherpadog
5/14/2008

I love my DeWalt - especially its trick fence that works well for cutting big pieces of plywood. The one negative about the DeWalt is its support legs. You have to carry the machine and hope that the mounting tabs (front side) are lined up with the slots in the support.I looked long and hard at the Bosch. The saw itself was lighter, but the fancy rolling stand added a little weight. And you better have a tall enough vehicle to allow for the vertical space taken up by the dolly. Still, Im getting to that part of my life where I need to invent (o rfind product with) the wheel.)My testing was pretty cursive. I came away with a true liking for both saws.

posted by: tevo
5/13/2008

The Bosch 4100 does exactly what it's supposed to do: provide stability, accuracy and function in a more convenient form than a contractor saw, and at a more affordable price. The motor never bogs down under any kind of normal use, the fence is simple to adjust and very stable, and the stand should win awards for it's simplicity and effectiveness.I put a new Infinity ComboMax blade on, to replace the original, and could not be happier with the overall performance. I then put on a Dadonator dado set (also from Infinity) and found I'm able to cut 1/2 or 3/4" dados in hardwood without trouble, and with flawless results.My only complaints are these:1. The lens in the fence can be hard to read precisely in less than great lighting or when cold (and therefore prone to fogging).2. The Power Switch is located quite close to the fence storage slot. When using a crosscut sled, which can block easy sight lines to the front of the machine, it can be tricky to quickly locate the power switch. A larger paddle would be nice.3. The table surface really does want a good coat of paste wax to aid in sliding of material.None of these issues is a deal breaker by any means, and they are all over-shadowed by the sheer performance and accuracy.

posted by: sportster
5/10/2008

posted by: Pat Larkin
5/10/2008

We used this saw for installations and it always did a good job. Better than the competition. The gravity rise was very handy and the good wheels made moving it over any terrain a breeze. The wheels were so good they were stolen off the saw at a job site. You may have noticed the past tense review. The one big negative is that just after the warranty expired we turned it on and it was running slow and humming. We turned it off and restarted it and it was then running slow in reverse. We haven't had it fixed yet and are using the Dewalt we had before the Bosch. It was a good saw when it was running.

posted by: dkerfoot
5/9/2008

The Bosch 4100 is a good saw, but it pales in nearly every comparison to the Craftsman 21829 (the successor to the venerable Ryobi BT3000 & BT3100 line).Both have mobile carts and can be folded away into a corner, but the 21829's cart requires mush less effort to fold and unfold.They both feature a 15 Amp motor, riving knife and anti-kickback pawls, but the 21829 has a deeper depth of cut (3 & 9/16th") that can cut a 4x4 in a single pass, a built-in sliding miter table, much wider (and adjustable) rails for handling wide boards. Sears says it can handle 30 inch right side rips and 33 inch left side rips, but because you can easily slide the rails to either side, it you can actually make much wider cuts than that. Both saws stow away easily, but the 21829 is a much larger saw in use with a much greater capacity.The 21829 also comes with a built-in router table with fence. As a router table it is mediocre, but it is plenty good for starters and I occasionally use it when I don't want to disturb the setup of my primary router table. Also, with the 21829's wide rails, you can do very deep dados that would be impossible on ANY other router table.Finally, the 21829 when on sale, sells for roughly 1/2 as much as the Bosch. Give it a fair test and I think you will amazed.

posted by: froe
5/9/2008

We have been using the older model of this saw with the gravity rise stand for over a year almost every day in the performance of our fence and deck building company. It is an amazing unit and has held up being bounced around from job site to job site. We have used many different saws over the years and this is by far a great tool.

posted by: sharonlev
5/9/2008

I have been researching table saws for a VERY long time, and with a budget plan of $400-$700 I was contemplating between a Hybrid saw (leaning towards the Jet Proshop), or a used Hybrid saw, OR the Bosch 4100. I live in a small house with a 1 tiny car garage that must be used to keep the car in -so space was my main issue. I would have liked to have a full size Hybrid table saw - but because of the size limitations I ended up going with the Bosch 4100. it folds easily, and stands up in the corner and hardly takes space when not in use. Assembly: was easy - instructions were clear and easy to follow. table was flat (as far as it goes), blade was 90 to miter on the money. fence was square - dead-on. Operations: I really wish the button was larger on the OFF side to make it easier to turn the saw off without fumbling for the button if an emergency was to occur - but it IS bigger then other buttons in a similar style saw. The saw is actually quieter then I expected, and from what I've experienced with other portable saws. I did not use a hybrid/cabinet saw - so I really cannot compare it to a belt driven saw, but I assume those would be much quieter. The table is very large for a portable saw, but I wish it had a bit more clearance in front of the blade for cross cutting larger pieces. Other than that- the saw works very smooth, I have yet to change the blade and AM using the factory supplied blade, it cuts very easily and smooth, but it will be upgraded eventually when the budget allows. miter gauge was ok at 90 but was out of alignment at 45 - I use a 3rd party miter gauge so it made no difference to me anyways.Here's the deal breaker for me - as much as I want a more powerful hybrid saw, with a larger cast iron table - I don't think I will be able to switch to such a table saw if it means losing the riving knife and blade guard system that the Bosch 4100 has - this is just such a remarkable feature - having the riving knife ALWAYS behind the blade, knowing that binding against the blade is reduced to minimal chances is just a really big thing for me. and this saw does perform remarkably. If you're tight on space - I'd highly recommend checking this one out - it's an excellent saw package for the money. If you have the space for a full sized Hybrid, and want the extra power - go for the hybrid as they are at about the same price range.

posted by: hippyengineer
5/9/2008

I have the 4000 model of this saw that has a few less features but is essentially the same saw. While I still have not ventured into "Fine" woodworking yet, I have begun to make some furniture pieces and some jigs that require accuracy. Maybe my techniques are lacking in accuracy but there are some times I want for a larger cabinet saw so I have greater accuracy and a fence travel greater than 24.5". Mostly the saw needs adjustment often for square cuts to be accurate and this task is not too difficult. The power on hardwoods and with a dado is more than sufficient although the motor shaft was too short for a full dado while using both washers. The features like the locking arbor, on-board storage, full cast aluminum top, and portability make this a great starter saw for a woodworker or a great contractor saw.

posted by: abincv
5/3/2008

I've had this saw (well, I don't have the digital-readout fence) for about six months and am quite pleased with it.I bought it mostly for the safety features, especially the riving knife. The knife, the guard and the anti-kickback pawls are so easy to use that I actually use them, as was predicted in some of the early reviews in FWW and elsewhere.The only thing I really dislike is the blade bevel adjustment. As mentioned in the editorial review, the locking lever is stiff and somewhat awkward, and when you manage to release it, the whole blade-motor assembly flops around freely--you just push it to the angle you want and lock the lever. I would have preferred a wheel adjustment.Other than that, the saw impresses me as being quite cleverly designed. The fence and miter gauge are OK, and the on-board storage for fence, miter gauge, blade guard, kickback pawls, cord, blade wrench and extra blade (!), and push stick (!!) are clever and easy to use.The gravity stand is excellent. I don't transport the saw (I'm a hobbyist woodworker), but I have to work in my garage and need to store my machines against the wall. The stand is a little fussy to assemble, but is easy to use, and allows the saw to be stored in remarkably little space.A possible problem is that the riving knife is .091" thick and may prevent the use of some thin-kerf blades. I bought a Forrest Woodworker II thin-kerf, and it works fine. Perhaps after a resharpening or two the stock might bind on the riving knife. We'll see.

posted by: sbuoncristiani
2/14/2008

The Bosch 4100DG-09 table saw was the best job site portable table saw I found when searching for a highly compact saw. It was much more substantial than most of the similar models. It is however still just a job site saw. It vibrates quite a bit and the fence seems more flimsy than a woodworker would desire. The table itself is light weight metal rather than ground flat steel which most likely was intentional to cut down on weight. The stand is awesome, easy fold up onto two beefy wheels and can store the saw on its side. All in all, the it is the highest quality of its class only lacking features not intended for job site type table saws.