My Grizzly G0623X Sliding Table Saw
It’s been a bit of a drawn-out process, but yesterday my new saw was delivered into my garage.
Last friday (8 days ago), UPS was scheduled to deliver the saw between 9 and noon. I called to confirm that the truck delivering would have a pallet jack and a lift gate and was told that they would have a truck with a lift gate available in the afternoon. That didn’t work, so we rescheduled for the following Friday (yesterday). During that time, I went back and forth between Grizzly and UPS trying to figure out what went wrong – why UPS said they didn’t have a liftgate available, even though I’d paid for the service and Grizzly had communicated that need to UPS.
Nonetheless, I now have the saw in my garage. I noted that the box containing the sliding table was damaged at one end (first picture) and there were some corresponding marks on the underside of the sliding table. Cosmetic, it seems. I uncrated the saw, took a measurement of the base, and spent the rest of the day fabricating a mobile base. I was impressed with the machining on the cast iron table (picture 4).
Today, I took inventory of all the parts. Everything was accounted for and I also found a dust collection hose and two hose clamps not listed. I had a little difficulty locating the bolts and washers which were already threaded into their parts, but otherwise, everything was very straightforward. My 4″ brass caliper was very useful in identifying fastener sizes.
Currently, the saw is sitting in my garage. My shop is around back and to get to it, the saw needs to go down the grassy slope, down the twisitng concrete stairs, and across the back yard. To make moving the saw as easy and unexciting as possible, I took off the cast iron table. By the way, the saw feels a lot lighter if you first unscrew the brackets holding the saw to the pallet you are standing on! Right now, I am waiting for the second coat of paint on the mobile base to dry. Recreational White is the colour of Tremclad paint that best matches the saw’s cabinet. Time for another coat of paint.
Replies
Get that thing running! I expect to hear some serious gloating once you've actually made some cuts with it.
Bret
Yeah! Time for some cutting and gloating! Go buy a panel just to break it down!
Why Move?
The garage looks like a fine place for the saw Chris. hehehe.... Time to get you brother, your mom and any stray neighbor kids in line and get this thing moved! Sweet saw and I will look forward to hearing more about it.
weight
"By the way, the saw feels a lot lighter if you first unscrew the brackets holding the saw to the pallet you are standing on!"
LOL.
Thanks for allowing us to share in the excitement, Chris. I'm looking forward to the future installments of this adventure.
Moving & Assembly
Well, yesterday I had a chance to move my saw down to the shop. The weather had warmed up enough to dry up the ground sufficiently to allow the 5" diameter casters of my mobile base to roll over the grass. I spent an hour building a ramp over the stairs leading down to my shop using a 4' skid, two 7' skids, two solid stools and scraps of plywood. The scraps of plywood screwed to the sides of the ramp were an insurance measure - last week I helped a friend move a jointer/planer and we had a corner roll of the ramp a few times. Fortunately in my case, the move went so smoothly, that insurance measure was not necessary. I was able to slowly move the tablesaw onto the mobile base myself and had my brother help me guide is slowly down the ramp and into the shop. Twice, the mobile base dug itself into the ground and I needed to wrap moving straps around the front corners of the mobile base and pull upwards/forwards while my brother pushed. It worked fine.
I spent about 3-1/2 hours assembling the saw step by step by myself and had no issues. The steel extension wings are secured to the cast iron table with bolts and setscrews to level them. I found out that the trick is to have the set screws protruding more than required, so the far end of the extension wing is angled upwards. Then, gradually back of the set screw while tightening the mounting bolt until it sits level.
The third picture shows how the saw will accept a dado stack - at left is the outside arbor flange; in the middle is a spacer; and at right is the fixed inside arbor flange (the arbor nut is not shown).
The next step is to wire in the cord, attach the plug, and plug it in and do a test run.
progress!
That ramp looks pretty slick, Chris.
Tuning
Yesterday, I continued setting up my saw. First, I had a 7' power cord installed. With power to the saw, I performed the test run, ensuring that the saw started and ran smoothly in the right direction and stopped, and checking that the three off switches worked. There is one mushroom off switch under the fence rail, one in the magnetic switch below the slider facing the front (in the manual, the front of the saw is actually what I normally think of as the side), and one microswitch in the blade cover that is opened when changing the blades or adjusting the riving knife. Everything worked smoothly and the saw sounds powerful. Very nice.
Using a dial indicator, I checked the sliding table for parallelism with the blade. Finding it to be within a few thou(sandths of an inch), I checked the fence for parallelism with the slider. I found it to be out by over a tenth of an inch, so I spent about half an hour aligning the fence parallel to the blade (actually toed out by a few thou). Unfortunately with this fence system, there is not adjustment for parallel within the fence body. Adjustments are made by adjusting three sets of nuts that hold the fence rail to the front of the table saw. It took about half a dozen adjustments to get the fence where I wanted it. Next, I squared the miter gauge on the slider to the blade. That was an easy task, involving a square. I set the stop - a set screw and a nut that locks it in place.
Next, I installed and set the riving knife. I set it at a height that would allow the blade guard to sit almost above the teeth - the Freud reps advised me that they recommend setting their blades 1/2 a tooth above the stock. I checked that the riving knife was aligned with the right side of the blade and it was. One thing I had noticed when I had a look at the saw in the showroom was that the front of the blade guard rested on the table and caught on the miter gauge - it would stop dead until the blade guard was manually lifted. I solved that problem by simply tightening down the bolt that locks the blade guard to the riving knife. The other thing that I didn't really like was that a pin through the guard behind the mounting bolt prevented the blade guard from pivoted back out of the way, as is necessary when changing blades. I drove out the pin with a punch, then lengthened the slot that fits over the riving knife with a hand saw. With the modifications, the blade guard now swings up about 100 degrees.
Some scoring blades are two pieces and, like a dado blade, their width is set by adding shims between the blades. The scoring blade provided with my saw however, is one piece. The single blade has tapered teeth, so raising the scoring blade increases the width of cut. The other adjustment is lateral alignment with the main blade. I set the lateral position using a straight edge, referencing off the left side of the saw plates and avoiding contact with the teeth which would effect the alignment. To set the blade height (and thus, the width of cut) of the scoring blade, I started by lowering it further than I though would be necessary so that it would take too narrow of a cut, the end result being tearout at the bottom side of the stock. I did a test cut and found exactly that. I raised the blade a little and tested again, finding that one adjustment to be all that was needed. It sure is a pleasure seeing clean cuts, top and bottom.
Awesome Chronicle of Events!
Thanks for sharing your experiences with the saw set up (and moving of the saw)!
One question is your set up of the fence to parallel with the sliding table and the blade. Why move the fence rails? I actually just shimmed the fence at the fence body. I towed it out just a bit as well which gives much better results with the Forrest WW2.
Have you tried the eccentric hold down yet? Have you gotten the ripping shoe? I may have to order those too.
Adjustments
I didn't see any provision for adjusting the relationship between the fence body and rail as many other fences do. I did not want to shim between the fence body and rail because I know I will be moving the rail along the body and did didn't want anything that might interfere. It took some testing, but I got the fence set up the way I wanted.
I have tried the eccentric hold down, though I forgot to order a grub screw and the second locking handle. It works without them though, but is more clumsy. It works well. They were out of stock of the ripping shoe and I currently use the crosscut fence at the front end and the eccentric hold down at the back. By the way, the hold down required no modification to fit into the slot as I had originally thought. I may order the ripping shoe, or I may make my own.
The saw is a joy to use.
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