Grizzly - 1023RL (Rating: 4)

I discovered Lumberjocks while researching my new saw purchase, so I thought it only right to make my first post a review of my new saw. As you can see it is a Grizzly 1023RL. I have been using it for five weeks and am ready to give my opinion.

Assembly was straight forward. The manual is very good with no confusing translations. The only hassle was getting the extension wings perfectly flat to the table. It probably would have been a little easier with some assistance, but I was working alone. I eventually did get them aligned to within .002" of flat as measured with a straight edge and feeler gauges. Everything else went together easily and accurately. After assembly I checked everything for parallel and perpendicular and all measures were within the same .002" without adjustment. The only other thing that needed adjusting was the throat plate which needed to be leveled. No big deal. In the five weeks that I have been using it, I have ripped and crosscut 2" thick red oak and a 3" thick plywood glue-up with dead-on accurate results and no struggle, and that was with the included blade! Most people call the included blade junk, but I figured I would test it out and haven't found any need to change it yet, except for dadoing.

So why no fifth star. Well that is the "but…" The ShopFox fence, while sturdy and accurate, came with what they call a "magnifying cursor." I call it a distorting cursor. The parallax effect of the magnifier was so great that I had to replace quickly. I made a new cursor based on the structure of the original but with the cursor mark as close to the surface of the rail as possible to eliminate the parallax. Now I use the rail to set the fence with no hesitation.

I was also very frustrated by the miter gauge. I don't think it is junk as others have said. It aligned to 90 and 45 degrees very accurately right out of the box. But there were no holes or slots in the face for attachment of a fence! There are holes on the tops and the sides. I thought there might be some accessory available from Grizzly that attached there, but tech support knew of none and seemed genuinely surprised to hear that there were no holes in the face. So you can see my solution for that problem. This hold-down system is not as secure as I would like. I'll have to come up with something better, but that is working for now. But I do want to keep using this miter gauge because it rides perfectly in the slot with no wobble and did not require any adjustment.

The placement of the switch is also rather awkward on the left, so I will be working on an improvement for that.

So now with my modifications I am able to work more accurately than I ever have before. I am even using the blade guard on this one since it operates much more appropriately than the pieces of junk on all other saws that I have owned. I am a weekend hobyist woodworker so this saw should be more than adequate for me. I can't comment on how well it might work out for a more professional shop. I still have to make some zero clearance inserts for it, too. But even with its minor flaws, I am happy to have this as an addition to my shop.