Checked out the well-travelled prototype granite SC TS at the local WS today and spoke to the rep. He told me that the revised date for the Granite model with riving knife is late March, with the cast-iron version to follow soon after, probably early April. I guess those of us who have been patiently waiting will have to hold our horses a little longer.
Jim
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"I guess those of us who have been patiently waiting will have to hold our horses a little longer." Particularly appropriate metaphor for your's truly here. Damn! I want a new saw!!!
Did they give you a price? Wondering if it's changed from the info last year.
No, but I'll ask tomorrow. I have to go back to pick up a planer. Apparently when the original announcement was made in Vegas, the head honcho said November, the engineer muttered February, and reality overtook both of them. I hope it doesn't overtake the price.
I asked about using aftermarket miter gauges on the granite (mine's an oldish Osborne) and got an answer that made no sense at all. I'll try to get that clarified too. The gauge on the prototype has washers on the bottom that slide in a t-slot, but the rep also mentioned that there would inevitably be changes as production goes ahead.
Jim
Jim, Sarge has brought us information direct from Steel City about the miter gauge issues, and the answer was "No." I'll try and find the thread, post a link. For that reason, and the fact that I like have the option of using magnetic gizmos, I'll wait for the cast iron option should this saw be my chosen one.
Off to do a search......forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Jim, click here for Sarge's post about the miter slot issue.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Thanks FG. I actually read that thread, but it must have gone in the left side of my brain and out the right. Not much in there to impede its progress. I guess the die is cast for me too, then. I can't see SC bothering to come up with their own "Incra," -- too small a market. Incidentally, I was surprised to see that they make their own drill-press mortising attachment. When I asked why they would stoop so low, I was told because people buy them. I couldn't give mine away.
Jim
"Not much in there to impede its progress." ROFL!
Maybe SC can get Incra to make a granite-top compatible version. forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
If the miter slot on the SC granite top is 3/8" x 3/4" just remove the washer on the EB-2.
Life is what happens to you when you're making other plans .
Jerry, I guess you didn't read Sarge's info from the link above. OK, the essential sentence: "The normal tab roller at the end of most standard miter gauges has been replaced with a black granite tab approximately 2" wide. Instead of the wear being concentrated at two small points as the standard tab, the SC granite version was made much larger to distribute normal wear over a much larger area. "forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Unfortunately, that leaves only their gauge. Not that I am knocking the company. From what I have heard and seen in showrooms, they are fine products indeed.Is the opening a standard width to accommodate a crosscut sled for instance?I am still waiting to put the $$ together for a SawStop.Cheers,Peter
Better life through Zoodles and poutine...
I did read Sarge's post. I took it that the tab roller was actually the washer or ears at the end of the miter gauge bar. If you remove the washer or tabs can you then use a regular miter guage on the SC granite top saw?
Life is what happens to you when you're making other plans .
I thought I read somewhere that the new design was a quasi-dovetail rather than a T slot.
"There are some minor differences in a granite top. You cannot tap it. So there are special stainless steel insets epoxied into the rock. The wing of the table saw weighs about 50 pounds so there is additional bracing below (and a micro-adjust system). And the T-slot for the miter gauge is more like a dovetailed way – with a slightly different design for the bar that keeps the gauge from tipping (though the bar is still a true 3/4” x 3/8”).We’re impressed. We think you will be, too. Steel City Tools impressed us last year with its new offerings of tools, and this innovation proves that the company is moving fast."Christopher Schwarz
The bar is still the standard size so if you remove the miter gauge ears or washer on your standard gauge it will work on the SC granite top saw.
Life is what happens to you when you're making other plans .
Hi,
Spoke to the SC guy again, and the good news (for you) is that the stock is already on site for the US but not for Canada (chee, what a surprise). That means that for you the saws will be available "a couple of weeks" before the dates I gave earlier.
Re. price. The earlier announcement applied only to the States. The Canadian rep has been telling everyone "under 2K" so that he'll look good if it's much less.
I had a good look at the prototype, and spoke to the rep again re aftermarket miter gauges. All SC saws have t-slot miter slots. The gauges on their conventional saws have a steel washer on the far end that fits into the bottom of the tee. That washer exerts too much leverage and pressure for the granite top if the gauge is pulled too far back towards you and tries to tip off the table. You can solve that problem by just removing the washer and letting the gauge tip off the table if you pull it too far back. That's what happens anyway if you have a saw with no t-shaped slot. What SC has done for the granite top is replace the washer with a lozenge about 2" long, which distributes the pressure more evenly. It screws on, and on the prototype, which has been making the rounds since June, it is made of steel, not granite. The steel lozenge is showing signs of wear, the granite is not.
As I see it then, you could use any aftermarket miter gauge as long as you removed the washer that rides in the miter slot, or replaced it with something less damaging. Since its only function is to keep the gauge from tipping off the table, I don't see why you couldn't replace it with a hardwood lozenge. My present saw doesn't have a t-slot, so I've learned just to be careful about pulling the gauge too far back.
Hope this makes sense,
Jim
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