New Delta Unisaw

I recently retired from Air National Guard, after spending 26.5 years on, active duty, reserve or guard. My wife suggested I treat myself to a retirement gift. I suggested a new Delta Unisaw and she said, “Yes”. My reply was “What”? It took me about a month to get over sticker shock and order the saw.

So it was delivered to my garage. Now how to get it into my walk out basement? The big box weighs around 450 pounds. How to get it to my shop in the basement? My wife called a moving company to move it for us. Two young healthy looking guys show up in a Toyota Corolla, between jobs and no other equipment than a pair of gloves. These two guys pick it up and carried it to my shop in the basement. We paid them $100. It was well worth it and my back fells fine. So it sits for a week while I go skiing at Winter Park, CO.

Using both the DVD, video on line and instruction manual, setting it up was quite easy. You can see in one picture, I made a lever to lift it up onto the mobile base. Used my legs and not my back! Had a friend help wire the shop for 220 (actually he did most of the work, I just paid him). Turn it on. Wow! This saw is rock solid. Very smooth compared to my past Rigid and Delta contractor saws. It is, also, a lot quieter. After a few fine adjustments on the fence and riving knife, I am cutting wood. Cross cuts and rips well with the stock Delta blade that comes with the saw.

The saw is connected to a JDS single stage dust collector, also wired to 220. A little more dust than I want to see is escaping the dust collector. You can see in one of the pictures I use aluminum HVAC tape between the cabinet and cast iron top to seal off any open spaces that dust can escape. I, also, tape all the joints inside the cabinet at the base. This greatly helps mitigate the amount of dust that is released into the air.

Except for a few things this saw is great. The speed-o-meter does not give me the precision I want. You can be off by a few tenths of degree. So I purchase a Wixey digital angle gauge. The storage draw will probably be removed to install a router table. It’s either that or install one into my Festool MTF. Just have not decided which one will work best for me. Since I use the miter gauge from the left side of the saw and have installed a 24” extension, the storage slot on the right side is not functional.

Since setting it up, I have made a cross cut sled and an out feed table. These greatly help me with my wood working projects.

-- Eric "That's all very well and human, but when will you stop having to apologize and start doing your very best you can? When will you begin?"