posted by: anote2chris
1/25/2007
This is a very good table saw. I'm a stickler with the rating scale or I'd have given it a 5 star rating.I've used many different table saws (Delta, Powermatic, General, etc.), and for the money, this is the best (it's a delta, by the way...). The Biesemeyer fence is AWESOME. It literally makes the saw. The cast iron top is quite flat, it'll run on 220v, and the outfeed table is very nice. However, if money were no object, I'd own the new Powermatic, but I'm not made of money (Man! I sound like my father), so I own this one. You should be able to get it for around $800 on sale.Really, the only drawback to this saw is power. It's a little under powered when cutting thick stock. Just adjust your feed rate and it can handle it.You'll probably be pleasantly surprised with this saw.
posted by: Edmond
1/5/2007
I bought this saw in October 2006, after much deliberation. It had good reviews from every source I could find, and the combination of features on this hybrid saw are a great value for the money. The HD trunnion assembly is cabinet-mounted like the 3HP cabinet saws out there for more money, but it runs on 110v making it a nice option for a basement shop. It has cast iron extension wings, a nice fold-up outfeed table, decent blade guard, and good capacity with over 13” in front of the blade, 30” right rip capacity (actually about 31.5”), 18” left rip capacity, and an AWESOME Beisemeyer Commercial Fence System, which once adjusted, you can set and forget. I can set mine on a measurement desired, rip the board, and not even have to measure as I know it’s right on. The 1.75 HP motor has plenty of power and it handles sheet stock or hardwood smoothly. The blade arbor had less than 0.001” runout and the arbor flange face runout was also less than 0.001”. It passes the “nickel” test easily (stand a nickel on edge on the table, turn on the saw, and it doesn’t fall over), and it even passes the “penny” test (sometimes). After adding a crosscut sled, I’m able to cut base cabinet side panels from ¾” sheet stock down to finish size (roughly 24” x 31”) quickly and accurately without using any other tools. The 90 and 45 degree blade stop screws are conveniently located and accessed in the table top, and the fence storage hooks and on/off buttons are nice touches also. All in all, this saw packages a lot of pricier cabinet saw value in a hybrid design with quality features for a good price. After “getting the saw up and running” and dialed in, I’m extremely happy with it’s performance.However, the “getting the saw up and running” part did not make me happy at all. From what research I’ve been able to do, this saw is manufactured in China by Orion, and even though the design of this saw is pretty solid for the most part, the quality and consistency of it’s manufacturing and assembly processes still have a lot of room for improvement. Issues I had (and in some cases still do) are as follows:1 of 4 trunnion screws loose, allowing play between blade cradle and trunnion end brackets. Once tightened, and after installing a blade, I found the mitre groove (and saw table) out of alignment to the blade by 0.010”. I’ve since adjusted to less than 0.001”. The table top had a “hump” near blade opening at about the center of the blade which I had to stone out. It’s still high in the middle on the back side of the blade by approx. 0.005-0.007”, but I haven’t worked on this because I’ve got it flat from the cutting area forward, so it’s not impacting my cuts. But I did have to do considerable work to get a crosscut square to the table. This was compounded by the fact that the worm and eccentric for adjusting the blade angle had a lot of slop, allowing the blade angle to continually change (I ordered warranty replacements which should help in the future). Once I adjusted this, I still had problems due to the Leitz blade supplied. It wouldn’t hold true, and I believe it warps as it heats up – the expansions slots are extremely small. I complained at the store and they sent me a replacement, but I haven’t tried it yet because I had to buy another brand blade to keep my cabinets going while the replacement was shipped. (The problem finally went away after all of my adjustments and the blade replacement but it cost me two nights work!)The stock miter gage is OK, but the screws that are used as positive stops don’t locate the pivoting head well enough to maintain square cuts. You can’t set them, move the gage head and then move it back and expect reliable angles. Also, the aluminum extension fence for the gage is not perfectly flat, so it mis-locates boards depending on their length. I had to remove it to get a repeatable square cut. I’ll probably just scrap it and buy an Incra or other brand precision miter gage.The dust port screws stripped out the first time I tried to install them, so I had to use oversize screws.The Beisemeyer fence is awesome, except the faces are about 0.004-6” out of flat (with no option for adjustment or shimming to make flat or square to the table), and the extension table supplied was warped about 1/16” in the middle. I had a replacement shipped via warranty and the replacement was even worse.The table wings were not flat. One is about 0.005” low in the center, the other about 1/32”. I had warranty send a replacement, and when I received the new one, it had a 1/8” sag or bow in the middle – completely scrap. I’m living with the originals for now, but I’m not done pursuing this one to my satisfaction yet. I’ve read other reviews talking about dead flat tables and extensions but I’ve certainly not seen them. Surface grinding cast iron isn’t rocket science and it should be easy to produce flat surfaces, unless the metal isn’t allowed to fully cool or cure or it warps during or after grinding. At any rate, it should never be allowed to ship out in such a condition. This is a very basic manufacturing quality control practice that obviously is lacking in many cases.The fold-up outfeed table is nice, but the holes were not in the right location on the support bracket, causing it to sit ¼” below the table top. I re-drilled the pivot hole in the proper location and then shimmed up the hinges with washers and now it works great.Bottom line – this is a great saw by design with its combination of features, and it’s working quite well now, not at all due to as shipped factory quality, but due entirely to the days I’ve spent (and 3 trips back to Sears to order warranty replacement parts) getting it working right – and I’m still not done. I gave it a 3 overall, splitting the difference between a 5 for design and a 1 for delivered quality. Even though I now love the saw and it’s working well, I’m not sure I’d go through it again.
posted by: okstatefan
9/13/2006
Having owned the saw for over a year, I decided to put it through its paces before I jumped in and gave a rash review. Like many owners of this quality saw, I am a hobbyist. However, I worked my way through high school and part of college in a cabinet shop. I'm quite familiar with the Unisaw and PM66. When it came time to outfit my own home woodworking shop, I was on a budget. I started out with the typical bench top saw, and swapped and traded my way up. When I finally started making furniture, I gave up my beloved Ryobi BT3000 and moved to a Delta contractor saw. It was a fine tool, but it took up too much room in the garage with the motor hanging out the back. I was able to part it out for a little bit of profit and moved straight to a 3hp cabinet saw with a 50" Biesemeyer fence. That particular saw was a Dayton, and the design is still used by Craftsman Professional and Delta. Although it was a fine saw, it had a non-standard plate insert and was way to large for my small home-shop. I also found it inconvenient to have to place it close to my only 220v outlet. I needed something else....So then the hybrids hit the market. I was initially underwhelmed, as I saw the offerings from DeWalt, Hitachi, and JET. They had all of the same same weaknesses of a contractor saw (table mounted trunions and difficult alignment), and only the benefit of a smaller footprint. There was no way I was going to give up my cabinet saw for anything I was seeing on the market. Woodnet turned me on to the Craftsman/Orion, and I went to take a look. I liked what I saw, but was still not convinced. Several months went by, and the huge cabinet saw was just not working out well in my shop (220v and mobility). I suddenly found the 22124 on discount and decided to make the change. I was able to sell my used cabinet saw for the same price as the new Craftsman, so I didn't get hit in the pocket to "downgrade". After a year of use, it is one of the wisest decisions I've made. The 22124 has never failed to make an accurate cut, even in 8/4 hard maple and 4/4 Ipe. The fit and finish are top notch, and it was almost nuts on out of the box. I only had to shim the left table extension less than .005" with aluminum foil to get a totally flat table across the length. The blade runout is less than .001" on the supplies Leitz blade. The only real change I've made is going from standard (1/8") kerf blades to thin kerf. I should have done that anyway, as the newer high quality blades have great tooling and no deflection. The stock miter gauge is great, I use it on my band saw and oscillating belt sander all the time. I prefer a Jessem Mite-r-excel on the table saw though. The outfeed table is pretty nice for stock, but not quite large enough. The stock splitter/guard is average. I'm still wanting to get a Shark Guard, but haven't done so yet. All-in-all, this saw can't be beat. I don't think there is a better saw on the market for less than the usually sell price, and no other hybrid comes close. It cuts straight, clean and accurate; and I have never come close to bogging it down. I had one incident of "kick-back", when I had the guard off and was being unsafe. It shot the board back just as hard as my old cabinet saw would have......
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