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NW Illinois. I would take a Saw Stop also, or any other QUALITY saw.
Sometimes it's better to keep your mouth shut, and have the world think you a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt.
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Got one ! A Delta Unisaw that is. As I mentioned in a previous post, a friend, Don, and I shared a work shop many years ago. Don owned some of the equipment, and I owned some. He bought this saw new in the early to mid 90's I think (?) . I didn't think his widow would ever sell it, but she finally relented. It has been in an unheated building for the last 15 (or so) years. Used only occasionly to saw concrete forms. Don's son is an excavator and concrete contractor. After getting the saw tore down, and out of the building, (which wasn't easy) I saw the top was a bit more rusted than I had thought, but after some time spent with 400, 600, and 1000 grit sandpaper, I am really pleased with how it turned out.
I also brought home my band saw, and lathe. Now I am stuck trying to stuff the proverbial 10# of $hit into the 5# bucket, that is my garage.
Sometimes it's better to keep your mouth shut, and have the world think you a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt.
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Congrats. That’s a great saw and should serve you well for many years.
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I have read and heard that a 52" Biesemeyer fence is the ultimate in both accuracy and stability, when it comes to table saw fences. Is it worth the 3 - 5 hundred dollar cost to upgrade from my Delta Unisaw fence? I don't mind spending money for good tools. I believe that your quality of work, depends a great deal on your quality of tools. Your opinions please.
Thanks
Greg
Sometimes it's better to keep your mouth shut, and have the world think you a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt.
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(05-02-2022, 04:43 AM)Gregor1 Wrote: I have read and heard that a 52" Biesemeyer fence is the ultimate in both accuracy and stability, when it comes to table saw fences. Is it worth the 3 - 5 hundred dollar cost to upgrade from my Delta Unisaw fence? I don't mind spending money for good tools. I believe that your quality of work, depends a great deal on your quality of tools. Your opinions please.
Thanks
Greg
The Biesemeyer type fences are great... but people have cut a lot of wood with other fences. I'm not sure I'd replace what's there unless it was problematic. And certainly not 'just because'.
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Only if the existing fence is a piece of scrap and it cant produce repeatable and consistent results.
Simon
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Congratulations! You did good; looks like a keeper.
I've never used a saw that has a Delta Unifence, but I know that Norm Abram used one for quite a while in the New Yankee Workshop. I doubt seriously that he would have put up with problematic fence. If it will align and hold the alignment for repeatable cuts, keep it.
My old Delta contractor saw had Delta's Jet Lock fence. It had a micro-adjust feature that was nice, but the fence gradually became so finicky that it ahd to be checked for alignment quite often.
Ray
(formerly "WxMan")
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The Delta saw cant match a sawstop in terms of safety and dust collection. Rather than upgrading the fence, spend money on outfitting a riving knife if the saw doesnt have one and on adding an overhead dust collection feature.
Simon
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I have a Unifence on my Unisaw and I wouldn't spend the money to change from the Unifence to the Bessy fence. There is a lot that either can do that the other cannot. I'd check out some YouTube videos on them so you can be versed on the positives and negatives of both. I would also recommend a splitter for that saw and a guard if you can find one. Check the SharkGuard. I don't have one yet but was pondering it for some time.
Congrats on the saw. It looks like a great one.
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05-03-2022, 01:59 PM
(This post was last modified: 05-03-2022, 02:02 PM by BrentDH.)
I have had a unifence for 25 years and would not spend money to replace it. Even if I had a chance to choose between the uni and the beismeyer I am not sure which I would pick. As far as I can tell the only downside to the unifence is that it is difficult to make accessory jigs that straddle it because it is not rectangular and the "head" is in the way of having things slide on it.
Being able to slide the aluminum extrusion forward and backward on the "head" can be an advantage at times. For example, setting it as a stop block for a crosscut with the miter guage when you want it to clear the fence before engaging the blade.
