Probably the last person in the world who should buy a table saw is me, given my lack of eyesight, but I did...
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| My new table saw - a Ridgid 10-inch Portable Table Saw Model R4513 |
I need to do some resawing to make some book-matched panels and I couldn't find a bandsaw with enough oomph to do it in the size or price range I was hoping for, so I settled for this.
It is a Ridgid 10-Inch Portable Table Saw, Model R4513, which I bought from Home Depot for $425 plus applicable taxes. American readers will note that is a lot more than what they would pay for this same saw. Welcome to our world, here in Canada. The regular price on this saw is $499, but one of the tool guys that I'm friendly with offered to drop the price to close the deal. I didn't argue.
This Ridgid is the heaviest of the "Portable" saws, coming in at around 100 pounds, but I don't know how, given the amount of plastic in it. While I was putting it together I was pretty unimpressed with its lack of metal bracing underneath...
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| The plastic base is severely lacking metal. |
It has a single centre control cluster on the front of the saw for blade height and angle, which struck me as a tad odd. It is no big deal, but I'd prefer to see the usual angle crank on the side...
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| The oversized On/Off switch is on the left of the saw's face. You adjust the blade's angle by releasing the cam-lock located above the centre control cluster, then set the angle by turning the outer ring of the cluster. You use the spinner handle to adjust the blade height and the centre knob to lock it in place. |
The machine stores all its parts quite intelligently, if your in to that sort of thing. I'm not, because if you change accessories for some reason, or buy more of them, the fancy storage solutions suddenly no longer work...
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| There is built-in storage on the left end of the saw; places to hold an extra two blades, the wrenches for swapping the blades, and a mount for the Anti-Kickback Pawls and the Blade Guard. |
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| The right side has storage for the Mitre Gauge (even with an extension board added), the Rip Fence (without a sacrificial fence attached) and one Push Stick. There will be no place for the second Push Stick, the two Push Blocks and the two Feather Boards I plan to add next week. As far as I'm concerned, Ridgid should have just added a couple of Cup-Holders to the thing and be done with it. (kidding) |
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| The fence actually locks and doesn't move even when smacked with a hunk of wood. A nice surprise for this type of saw. |
The incorporated stand doesn't seem to rack too much, it seems heavy enough to hold the saw, it folds up easily and it makes moving and storing the saw a whole lot easier than a fixed stand...
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| Cool, no? |
I'll make a couple of "cross-cut sleds", one small and one large, to handle the different sized stock I'll be cutting. I am hoping the stock fence will do, but I won't hesitate to swap it out for a good after-market unit if it proves to be poor. For resawing, I can mount a wider and longer board to the fence to help the stock stand parallel to the blade.
As a so-called "Galoot", I feel guilty buying this thing, but I'm just getting too old and way too damned lazy to do a lot of hand sawing these days.
Peace,
Mitchell