Craftsman - 10" Table Saw with Laser Trac® (21807) (Rating: 2)
Craftsman 10" Table Saw with Laser Trac® (21807) (In Canada - CRAFTSMAN®/MD Limited Edition 10'' Table Saw with Stand - item 097 827 835 10)
I've been meaning to type this up for a while but haven't gotten around to it. After seeing another forum inquiring about a problem with the tablesaw I decided to stop slacking and get this done.
The saw itself has decent power and will cut through 2 inches of hard maple without too much trouble as long as you go slow. It comes with a stand which was nice for what I needed. It has a blade guard that is big and clunky and I removed it because it mostly just got in the way, as well as a riving knife and anti-kickback pawls (I removed the pawls because they got in the way and were so stiff they frequently scratched or gouged wood being cut). It was a birthday present and was relatively cheap. For rough carpentry work or outdoor rough work it is probably good enough but for finer woodworking or furniture making I would not recommend it for a bunch of reasons - basically though, all of the primary features woodworkers use are substandard.
The mitre slots are non-standard 5/8" rather than ¾" which makes it pretty much impossible to buy any after-market jigs or mitre runners. The worst part is the mitre slots have four tabs that stick out into the slot. There's several forum topics on this problem (http://lumberjocks.com/topics/14991; http://lumberjocks.com/projects/26395; http://lumberjocks.com/topics/57136). I've seen tablesaws with mitre slots that were a "T" shape and that works because you could still make your own runners for sleds. This one is not a "T" shape. It's a normal rectangle 5/8 wide by 3/8 deep with four little tabs sticking into it. Each tab is only a half inch wide and juts into the slot by a little less than an 1/8. The tabs made it very hard to make runners and serve no purpose. I used an angle grinder to remove mine.
The mitre gauge is just terrible. It's so loose in the slot it probably has 5-10 degrees of error in it with the movement back and forth. I've never bothered using it. It's utterly useless. On top of that Sears sells no after-market accessories for it so you can't upgrade.
The design pretty much makes it impossible to make a zero clearance insert for it. I have not found any after-market ones that will work on this saw and I have not been able to make one although I've heard some people say they did. I just use an auxiliary top instead.
The extension wings are really flimsy and sag. The table (excluding side extensions) is pretty flat though. The fence is mediocre, finicky to set parallel to the blade and pretty much never 90 degrees to the table. Dust goes everywhere, which is not unexpected for a portable saw. I built a box and enclosed the entire thing other than a few small holes for air to flow through and the dust collection is great now. It was very easy to do.
I've been using it for two years now and would not recommend this saw. It cuts well enough and was cheap, especially on sale. That's all it has going for it. I get by with it but it causes frequent annoyances. Every "feature" you look for in a saw (mitre gauge, fence, extension tables, safety add-ons, accessories, etc.) are all below par. The blade it comes with is cheap and needed to be replaced pretty fast. I noticed a definite improvement once I got a high quality thin kerf blade. I'd recommend that if you have this saw. Now that I have bit more experience and know what to look for I can say that there are definitely better portable saws out there in the same price range.
Craftsman 10" Table Saw with Laser Trac® (21807) (In Canada - CRAFTSMAN®/MD Limited Edition 10'' Table Saw with Stand - item 097 827 835 10)
I've been meaning to type this up for a while but haven't gotten around to it. After seeing another forum inquiring about a problem with the tablesaw I decided to stop slacking and get this done.
The saw itself has decent power and will cut through 2 inches of hard maple without too much trouble as long as you go slow. It comes with a stand which was nice for what I needed. It has a blade guard that is big and clunky and I removed it because it mostly just got in the way, as well as a riving knife and anti-kickback pawls (I removed the pawls because they got in the way and were so stiff they frequently scratched or gouged wood being cut). It was a birthday present and was relatively cheap. For rough carpentry work or outdoor rough work it is probably good enough but for finer woodworking or furniture making I would not recommend it for a bunch of reasons - basically though, all of the primary features woodworkers use are substandard.
The mitre slots are non-standard 5/8" rather than ¾" which makes it pretty much impossible to buy any after-market jigs or mitre runners. The worst part is the mitre slots have four tabs that stick out into the slot. There's several forum topics on this problem (http://lumberjocks.com/topics/14991; http://lumberjocks.com/projects/26395; http://lumberjocks.com/topics/57136). I've seen tablesaws with mitre slots that were a "T" shape and that works because you could still make your own runners for sleds. This one is not a "T" shape. It's a normal rectangle 5/8 wide by 3/8 deep with four little tabs sticking into it. Each tab is only a half inch wide and juts into the slot by a little less than an 1/8. The tabs made it very hard to make runners and serve no purpose. I used an angle grinder to remove mine.
The mitre gauge is just terrible. It's so loose in the slot it probably has 5-10 degrees of error in it with the movement back and forth. I've never bothered using it. It's utterly useless. On top of that Sears sells no after-market accessories for it so you can't upgrade.
The design pretty much makes it impossible to make a zero clearance insert for it. I have not found any after-market ones that will work on this saw and I have not been able to make one although I've heard some people say they did. I just use an auxiliary top instead.
The extension wings are really flimsy and sag. The table (excluding side extensions) is pretty flat though. The fence is mediocre, finicky to set parallel to the blade and pretty much never 90 degrees to the table. Dust goes everywhere, which is not unexpected for a portable saw. I built a box and enclosed the entire thing other than a few small holes for air to flow through and the dust collection is great now. It was very easy to do.
I've been using it for two years now and would not recommend this saw. It cuts well enough and was cheap, especially on sale. That's all it has going for it. I get by with it but it causes frequent annoyances. Every "feature" you look for in a saw (mitre gauge, fence, extension tables, safety add-ons, accessories, etc.) are all below par. The blade it comes with is cheap and needed to be replaced pretty fast. I noticed a definite improvement once I got a high quality thin kerf blade. I'd recommend that if you have this saw. Now that I have bit more experience and know what to look for I can say that there are definitely better portable saws out there in the same price range.
