Craftsman Professional Table Saw Review

Introduction

For many woodworkers a table saw represents the most important tool in their shop. The significance of this purchase is magnified by its permanence. Potentially you can own it for the rest of you life. The saw I needed to replace was a craftsman benchtop saw, after 60 years it had ripped its last board. Now if the replacement saw lasts half as long it will be hanging around for quite awhile.

Before looking for a saw it is important to determine your requirements. How will you use the saw? Do you need lots of power? If you primarily make small projects a large cabinet saw might be overkill. Another important consideration is your shop. How much space do you have? What type of power is available? In my case environment was the primary driver. I have very little space, so the saw needed to be mobile, and I lack 220v power. Adding 220v was not an option, so I limited my search to 110v. As far as space goes, I wanted a good sized table, as large as I can fit in my garage. Table width is ok, but depth presents a problem.  Most contractor type saw have the motor protruding from the rear of the saw, that takes up space. Looking over my requirements I determined that the saw that best suited my needs was a Hybrid.

Hybrid Saws

Hybrid are considered a mix between a contractor saw and cabinet saw. Thus the name hybrid. Hybrids borrow the 110v motor, and the 30" rip capacity from a contractor saw. A left tilting blade and a motor mounted inside the saw are featured from the cabinet saw. Another cabinet saw feature that some hybrids have are base mounted trunnions. Contractor saws generally mount the trunnions to the table top.  The big benefit to mounting the trunnions to the cabinet and not the top is ease of alignment. Typically you can loosen four bolts that are easily accessible to align the top to the blade.

Most manufacturers offers some type of hybrid saw today. Although Dewalt is generally credited with creating the hybrid with their model. With so many saws to choose from I took some advice from Workbench Magazine, they reviewed four saws in the February 2005 issue. The Craftsman received the editors choice, so I bought one. Overall I give the saw 4 stars and recommend it. Here are my thoughts on the Craftsman Professional 922124.

Pros

The Fence

I consider the fence to be the single most important feature on a saw. One of the best features of this saw is the fence. The Biesemeyer fence is a commercial grade product that will take all the abuse you can throw at it. I am sure that the fences on the other models perform well, but I have a certain confidence that the Biesemeyer fence will perform well over the life of the saw.

Cabinet Mounted Trunnions

Aligning the saw blade is an occasional task. Cabinet mounted trunnions make this occasional task fairly simple. The bolts for the top are easily accessible on the left side of the saw. The bolts on the right require you to open the access panel.  Overall adjusting the saw is a simple process. In FWW issue no. 177 they considered the trunnions the most impressive part of the saw, I would have to agree.

Customer Service

My original table top had unacceptable warping and it lacked the proper machining for the 0 and 45 degree stops. I called Customer service and they gave me suggestions to deal with the warping, those suggestions did not resolve the problem so they sent me a new top, no questions asked. I believe that the manufacture, not Sears, handles the service.  Whoever handles it they are doing a great job.

Size

Size does matter. My workshop is a two car garage, where I park two cars. The extra space I gain because this saw is a hybrid is critical. If the motor for the saw hangs off the back I can loose enough space to prevent a car from fitting in the garage. This saw also has a collapsible out feed table. This is another space saving feature. Admittedly this is not the best out feed table, it suffers from some stability issues on the corners, but it does the job.

The Little Extras

Dust collection, flat poly belt drive, upgraded miter gauge, out feed table, and the Leitz blade. All of these features add up. Along side those features is the smooth operation of the saw. The saw is adjusted effortlessly. One more item of note is the large on/off switch, its placement is ideal for stopping the saw hands free. It also has comes with a padlock to secure the saw when not in use.

Cons

Quality

My first cast iron top visibly dished and lacked proper machining for stops. My second top was flat, but it had two sets of machined stops, the correct ones and a second set of "mistakes". The factory milled the saw stops in the wrong place. It took about a month to get my replacement top. Customer service informed me that they were out of stock, but a shipment would arrive soon from the manufacturer. When customer service received the tops they sent the tops out locally to get the proper stops milled. Both of the tops had the problem. A quick review of the owners manual does not picture the extras stops. I now have two unnecessary holes in my saw top. Perhaps this is an opportunity for me to use them for some type of jig. :) 

Polish

The saw lacks a certain polish in its functional design. I found the splitter assembly difficult to properly adjust, I was not able to get everything to line up to perfect 90 degree angles. Maintenance on the saw requires six allen keys, three of them are required to adjust and lock the table insert, yet another is required to adjust the splitter. I think that number could have been cut down to two, three at the most. I know this is nitpicking, but I don't want to keep track of six allen keys to adjust everything on my saw. That complaint is also a reflection on the saw, there is not much to complain about. One more small item is the cradle for the miter gauge, the saw does not have one. Someone took the time to design a cradle for the crosscut fence, but ignored the miter gauge. I think this saw could benefit from some subtle design and manufacturing refinements.

Conclusion

The saw has a tremendous feature set, and I think it is a real value. Although the saw lists at $950 it can be had for less than $800 after sales and certain discounts. I opened a Sears charge to get an additional 10% off a sale price of $850. Considering the cost, I am forgiving of the minor shortcomings. The saw is a real pleasure to use. I have talked about the need for polish on this saw, if you want to get the polish look carefully at the Delta 36-716.  I have not seen the Delta in person, but browsing the owners manual I get a sense this is the polished version of the saw. Orion, the Craftsman manufacturer was started by ex Delta employees, this article indicates that they still do some design work for Delta. The 36-716 looks to be nearly the same saw. Overall I consider this to be a solid machine that will perform well in my shop. I can recommend the saw to you without hesitation, if you are considering a hybrid saw this one is worth a look. *Update* after a WoodNet Forum post It was brought to my attention that the Delta actually has different trunnions. Several other differences and similarities were noted, but I think the trunnions are the most significant. The Delta trunnions are mounted to the table not the base.