The Delta Unisaw is considered
the granddaddy of all cabinet saws. They were the first company to
build a cabinet saw back in the 1930's. Personally, I don't put
too much emphasis in how long a company has been making cabinet
saws. If they've been doing it for 10 years they've probably had
enough revisions in their design to catch up to somebody who has been
doing it for 70 years.
This is the Delta 36-842 limited edition Unisaw. It's a 3 horse
power left tilt model that comes with a mobile base, a 52"
unifence, a decent blade, a shelf, and an extension table.
I assembled it by myself in about 5 hours. The only thing that
was tricky was installing the legs for the mobile base. If I had
followed the instructions it would have gone more smoothly.
However, after I installed the screws I thought to myself, "This
doesn't look right, the legs aren't at the edge of the mobile
base."
So I moved them. When it became time to install the shelf I saw
why the legs didn't go on the edge of the table. The shelf didn't
reach it. I moved the legs back and the problem was solved. Fortunately,
nobody looks under the table at my extra screw holes.
Using this saw
is a pleasure. It never runs out of power, it comes perfectly
aligned, and I can feel the quality every time I use it. Having said
that, all table saws are dangerous. If the
SawStop ever
becomes available for sale I'm going to look at it closely.
When
choosing a saw people often ask themselves whether or not they need a
cabinet saw. When I choose the unisaw, I did so because I wanted to
get a saw that was good enough to prevent me from ever wishing I had
bought something better. In short, I wanted to buy my last saw first
(although this is actually my second saw). It has done a good job
and I have no feelings of remorse. I guess I don't *need* the power
of a cabinet saw. However, I cut a lot of 8/4 maple when I made my
workbench and the extra power was
really nice to have. When I ripped about 400 linear feet in one day
during the construction of the cherry
bed, I was happy to have a production quality saw. I do need a
52" fence. Large projects seem to appeal to me more than jewelry
boxes, humidors, etc. so I find myself working using the fence past 32"
all the time.
