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Tablesaw which one to buy?

2K views 7 replies 4 participants last post by  TheOldMan 
#1 ·
My company is looking to purchase a TS. It will not be used to cut anything thicker then 1", the sheets are 4x12 with a aluminum honeycomb core. They listed the craftsman pro, model 22116, jet models 708483k and 708482k, or the steel city 35925.
 
#3 · (Edited)
The Craftsman 22116 and Steel City 35925 are nearly the same saw, and both are made by Steel City's Orion subsidiary. Both have large yoke style cabinet mounted trunnions that are easy to reach and easy to align. Both also have granite tops and are very heavy, which is a performance advantage. The granite top is a mixed bag...it has advantages in flatness, weight, and won't rust or warp, but breaks more easily than cast iron which could prove a bit of a hazard in a commercial environment. The fence on the 22116 is better than the one on the 35925 IMO, so between those two saws the advantage goes to the 22116 on that point.

The Jet is a nice saw with a good fence, but has not yet been updated with a riving knife, and has table mounted trunnions which are harder to reach, thus harder to align.

Those are all good home duty saws that will run on standard 120v residential circuit or 240v, and all are in the range 1-3/4hp. Of those 3 saws, I'd likely go with the 22116, but you should consider whether the granite is a liability in your application.

If you've got 240v at work, I'd strongly encourage them to go with a more industrial saw like a Grizzly G1023RL or G0690, or a version with a bigger table and wider rip capacity (G1023RLX). They're considerably more robust, more powerful, and are better suited for commercial volumes, and best of all they're priced pretty close to what the Jet costs, and not much more than the Cman.

I'd suggest using a blade with triple chip grind (TCG) for best durability.
 
#5 ·
In case they need some coaxing about going with an industrial saw, show them these pics...there's far more to the differences than just horsepower. :thumbsup:

Here are the underpinnings of the former Grizzly G0478 hybrid...pretty typical:


Here are the guts of the G1023RL 3hp cabinet saw:
 
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