Fantastic saw and worth every penny
Written: Feb 19 '04 (Updated Mar 01 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Fantastic saw, lots of power, great warranty, made in USA
Cons: Tight space for micro-adjusting tension, Dust port could work better.
The Bottom Line: A great saw for the small shop. Combined with the height attachment, it can't be beat.
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| lizard2806's Full Review: Delta X5 14" Band Saw with Enclosed Stand 28-475X |
I hope to add to this review in the future, but for now I will base it on my owning this machine for one month.
ARRIVAL
The machine arrives in a single (big) box via freight hauler. I was able to carry the machine into the basement one piece at a time from our detached garage. If you assemble this beast, you won’t be getting it very far without some help and a hand truck.
UNPACKING
The machine was packed very well. Much better than any machine I have purchased in the past. As opposed to flaky Styrofoam, Delta used bolts and a chipboard base to keep everything from moving around. All the accessories were very well packed in cardboard and used to help protect the load further. A couple wrenches will be needed in order to unpack, but it is still pretty easy.
ASSEMBLY
The instructions were typical Delta. To every person you talk to, that means something different. To me, they are straightforward, less than wordy and encompass only a few superlatives from my mouth. They are easy enough to follow if you think ahead and don’t just jump into it without reading through them once or twice. Assembly was easily done by myself, although the motor mount and pulley setup might have been simplified with an extra pair of hands.
I ordered the 6” height attachment for the machine which is fantastic. It is much sturdier than I expected and installs with pins to locate it, so no worry about misalignment. If you do not want to put the top of the machine on the ground, an extra pair of hands is required to install this. The height attachment takes the clearance to table from about 6.25” to 12.25” absolutely fantastic for resawing.
FIRST IMPRESSION
The table came as near as I can tell perfectly flat. Instead of the typical single bolt in the rear of the table to stop the table at 90 degrees, Delta supplied us with a rotating collar with three bolts, allowing you to easily set three different angle settings. In the past this could have been accomplished using coupler nuts and a bolt change every time you wanted to change the angle without re-measuring the table to blade angle. Now you just rotate the collar, tilt the table to one of the three settings and lock it back down. Upon arrival, the bolt was way off of 90 degrees, so make sure to check that before use (as it says to do in the instructions).
The doors to access the wheels are held closed using a clip mechanism which, unfortunately is very close to the blade. It took a bit of fussing to keep the blade away from it, but I was able to solve that problem without any other modifications other than tightening and loosening bolts.
The tension adjustment is a combination lever arm and nut located beneath the spring. Although the nut is very awkward, it works. The wrench is only allowed a quarter turn or so, but you should not need to do much more than this due to Delta’s new “rapid release” lever arm tension adjustment. Delta added a “rapid release” lever arm with graduated marking on it for each blade width. When the tension is let off the blade, you pull out the lever (in the direction the wood is fed) and rotate it left or right to the desired position based upon your band width. To engage the tension, just pull the bar towards the front of the machine until the lock catches and if need be, it can be fine tuned for perfect tension.
The guides and trunnions are your typical metal blocks and metal bearing designs, respectfully, located above and below the table. The adjustments for both the top and bottom guide blocks (to adjust the spacing between then) are done with your fingers and a hex wrench. To adjust both the trunnion and the blocks (parallel to the blade), there are thumb screws to move them and wing screws to lock them in position. To make the same adjustments on the bottom, there are two long thumscrews conveniently located in front of the angle measure located beneath the table. It is quite nice to watch from above the table without contorting your body to reach the adjustments. It is fairly quick and easy to adjust the guides and trunnions in general.
The angle measure is quite loose and probably is not very accurate. If you are doing precise work, you should probably just adjust the table to the blade angle with a protractor or miter gauge.
OVERALL IMPRESSION THUS FAR
I am very happy with this machine so far, not to mention proud to have another American made machine in my shop. If you are trying to decide if the extra money from the the 28-206(currently the only other saw offeread at Tool Crib of the North/Amazon)is worth it, I say yes. For the extra +/- $300, you get the following:
Made in USA not China
1-1/2 Horsepower not 1 Horsepower
5 year warranty not 2 year warranty
UPDATE March 01, 2004
I spent this past weekend resawing a few 3-4 ft long pieces of 8x10 Kiln dried red oak. I used a 1/2" 4tpi timber wolf blade and a shopmade ripfence clamped to the table. It was much like cutting through warm butter. Having the 1-1/2 HP motor was fantastic and the operation was smooth and fast. My impression of this machine keeps getting better.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
lizard2806
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Location: Fairfield, CT
Reviews written: 26
Trusted by: 3 members
About Me:
Architect, Woodworker, Contractor, Hobbyist
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