DEWALT DW746X Woodworker 10-Inch Left Tilt Intermediate Saw with 30-Inch Fence, 115-Volt 1-Phase

Comment: First of all, Amazon.com lied about the shipping. The saw didn't arrive until two weeks after they said it would. Since the shipping was free, I can't complain too much, but it was aggravating having to constantly revise my personal schedule to accommodate proposed receiving dates that passed into oblivion without happiness.

The saw itself came mostly as advertised. There were a couple of small problems with it (the plastic insert for holding the hook for the blade wrenches had been placed in the wrong leg and one of the bolts holding the rip fence face to the body was stripped out), but I was able to work around those problems. The one major design flaw I found is the dust collection port. It comes with a 90º elbow on it. The manual says to use that elbow or else don't tip the saw beyond 37º. But the elbow conflicts with a brace bar and I can't hook up my shop vacuum with it on. I had to take it off to make the dust collection work.

The blade guard system is not the best in the business. It's tough to look through it to line up a measurement with the blade. It's a piece of plastic that was bent in a heat mold and the stress distorted the material so that a straight line looks crooked when seen through the top of the guard. Right now, the saw needs to be mobile due to the size of my shop but once I get a bigger shop and can permanently site the saw I'll probably go with a better guard system. I'm trying to be good and work with the guard on, but it's hard.

Other than these few problems, the saw went together easily and so far works as advertised. Just don't use the cheapo blade that comes with it. Buy a real blade either from Freud or Forrest and you'll be the happiest.

Comment: First off let me tell you why I bought this saw, I was trying to decide between the JET 110V Woodworkers saw (don't remember the model) and this one at Woodcraft. I came in looking to buy the JET saw at 1299.00 but the salesman started talking about this saw. There was a couple of reasons why I switched to the DeWalt. First, dust collection, my wife HATES saw dust, now everyone knows tablesaws by nature do not collect dust well, but this one does because of the enclosed blade and ducting it does a tremendous job (for a tablesaw) collecting dust. Second, the sliding table is wonderful for doing multiple cuts that are the same size on crosscutting. Third price, I bought this system on sale (except for the outfeed table it was 1300.00, including the sliding table, 52" extention, mobile base, and upgraded mitre. Now granted it was on sale but it is a well made saw that is quiet and durable (I have thousands of cuts on mine).

Three little details, I recommend a second person for putting the sliding table on, as it is close to 150 pounds and is almost impossible to do by yourself. Second the base MDF board the the main saw is attached to works great when you attach it below the extension table as a shelf for all of the assorted accessorizes. Finally you need to add additional feet height to the extension table legs to get it even if you use the mobile base, mine required about 1/2" of wood under each foot.

Comment: I have used this saw for over 4 years now and it still works great! I'm happy with my purchase and am glad i made the decision to buy this saw.

MOTOR:
The motor is plenty powerful enough to cut everything I've thrown at it over the years. In fact, I just completed laying 1000 sq. feet of 3/4" thick Brazillian Walnut hardwood flooring and used this saw to do the rip cuts where I needed thinner pieces near the walls. This saw cut through it like a hot knife through butter. I was surprised at how easy this saw plowed through it as Brazillian Walnut is almost 3 times harder than oak, so I know that I put this saw through its paces.

The trick is to use a good quality thin kerf blade. The blade that came with the saw is junk - get something better. I recommend the Rigid blade sold at home depot (excellent blade that stays really sharp).

FENCE:
The fence is easy to get parallel to the miter slots once you figure out the trick. The trick is to let the auxillary aluminum fence fall into the miter slot and then snug the auxillary fence face up to the edge of the slots and then tighten down the fence adjustment nuts (the three bolts on top of the fence). This gets the fence almost exactly parallel to the miter slots.

Once you get the fence parallel - just don't overtighten the bolts holding the auxillary fence on - its just aluminum and can warp if you apply too much pressure via. the bolts. Just snug it tight.

The fence locks down as solid as I've ever seen - never had it move on me even a little. It's easy to get it set accurately so that you can rely on reading the fence setting and not having to use a tape measure to set the fence.

Dust control is adequate, but not stunning. The miter gauge is satisfactory. pretty generic miter gauge.

The stamped steel wings were not hard to level to the table. The wings are held onto the main table by five bolts. Hand tighten all of these bolts so that the wing is stable, but still adjustable. Then you can get the wing perfectly level and then tighten it down so it cannot move. The steel wings are adequate and help increase the table size. That being said I did upgrade one of them to the cast iron wing.

The Cons:
1.) the blade guard is disgustingly hard to attach and remove. Once its on it works fine, but it takes 10 minutes to get the thing on/off.
2.) throat plate that is standard seems flimsy. The dado insert that I bought seems beefier and thicker steel than the standard throat plate - a little weird.
3.) The blade included is junk - get a better blade.

all in all an excellent saw. Mine was Made in USA as well - a bonus for me.

Comment: So many features about this saw impress me but I will try to be brief.
- Power: This saw has all the power you need in a small shop and more to spare. Nothing seems to slow it down, not even for a brief moment.
- Smooth: This goes for the saw itself (no vibration) and for the cuts it makes. I use the blade that came with it for most of my cuts and I never have to sand or plane any of the cut faces. I made a zero clearance insert for it and now it even cuts the cheapest, thin plyood without chipping or noticable marks. I bought a Freud blade for the cross cuts but have not had to use it yet.
- The fence: Smooth-sliding as other reviews mention, very accurate, extremely easy to operate and calibrate.
- The table: Solid and smooth table. The wings should probably be upgraded since they are not as smooth as the main table (made out of sheet steel rather than the cast iron as the rest of the table.
- The controls: just what you need and right where you need them. Large power switch that is easy to bump off with your knee in an emergency. Smooth solid controls for the blade height and angle.
- Solid machine: This is a very solid and heavy machine that will serve you for a long time if you take care of it. Make sure you get the deal with the mobile base (see heavy above) which is so smooth and easy to operate.
There are some features that I would like to see improved. These are few and none of them diminish the value of this saw but I wanted to include them for completeness.
- The splitter and guard assembly is one piece that has to be removed by using wrenches. This is inconvenient and time consuming when you need to remove them for dado cuts (or other non through cuts.) There are splitters that you can buy which do not require tools for removal and installation and DeWalt should learn fron them. Also, the splitter should be seperate from the blade guard so the latter can remain in place for non-through cuts.
- The wings that come with the saw are made of sheet steel and not cast. There are optional ones that you can buy from DeWalt but they should be part of the saw to begin with.

Comment: So after using this saw for three years, I've finally gotten around to writing a review.

The pros:
It has good bones. The cast iron surface is as flat as could be expected. The motor is strong enough to deal with anything I throw at it. Its pretty heavy, and definitely stable. The dust collection works fairly well. Once adjusted properly, things stay locked down. The fence rail system is definitely stiff enough for my needs. These attributes alone make it worth buying, provided you're willing to deal with setting it up properly.

The cons:
The fence: Its a complete pain to align. I can't count how many torn up pieces of paper I had to use as shims. The aluminum extrusion used on the face is noodly enough that if the clamps are overtightened, it will deflect locally around each bolt. During use, it can deflect slightly under pressure. Not enough to cause binding, but it will leave burn marks or a rough finish on your cut (just to note, I use a Forrest Woodworker II blade)

The Miter slots:
They just arent machined well. I had a lot of trouble getting an aftermarket miter gauge to slide without binding. after checking it with a block of wood and some shims, I noticed that the slot width varies greatly. some careful work with a file corrected the issues, but I shouldn't have had to do that.

The Miter gage:
Looked like junk. Feels like junk. Got a Woodhaven around the same time as a gift, so I've never used the one that came with the saw.

The Extension wings:
Stamped steel junk slapped on to cut costs. I knew they were junk going in, and as soon as I could afford to, I replaced them with the cast iron ones. Much, much better.

So there you have it. I love the saw, and now that its set up properly, I wouldn't trade it for anything.