Steel City 35915 Table Saw Review I have now spent a full year using this new saw, so have some clear opinons now on this great value saw. It represents great value for the dollar, but IF I had the decision to make today and had more money to spend on a hobby saw, I would seriously consider the new SawStop Professional Cabinet saw for it's quality and safety brake that will prevent cutting off your fingers. For those who are on a limited budget the Steel City represents a realistic cost and excellent value for a woodworking hobby that does not produce any income. In particular, take a very close look at their granite top table saws as they now sell for an amazing $200 less than the same saw with a cast iron top. This represents great value. When I purchased mine a year ago, it cost an extra $50 for granite.
EKHO Mobile Workshop with Steel City 35904 Table Saw
What I Do Like:
- The awesome sturdy Fence with it's smooth operation and great parallelism once calibrated. - The 3 very safe riving knives for 2 kerf widths and one with a dust and blade guard. - The 3 HP motor's ripping power is great on heavy hardwoods. - Safety switch shuts off completely if the power fails to prevent surprise restarts. - Cast iron top is fantastic when you have magnetic tools like the new Ridgid magnetic feather jig. - 5 year warranty if you can get action from Steel City. - Very accurate and smooth cutting once you fix the very poor factory parallel alignment. - Dust collection works well with a 1 HP dust collector connected. Could be much improved if they designed a new blade guard like the new SawStop Professional Cabinet Saw's vacuum ported guard.
What I Don't Like: - Blade does not retract fully below the table's surface. Very dangerous and prone to scratch your work when used as an assembly table as I do with the EKHO Mobile Workshop. - Simple miter gauge is too basic, so I replaced it right away with an Incra V27 that is great. - Cast iron top wings are bowed. - Cast iron top corrodes much easier than General International iron tops. Stains and scratches easily too. - Cast Iron top is not the same quality polished steel you get with a General jointer. - Blade insert was defective and had a very dangerous ridge on the back side that catches some lumber. This was replaced with a new one that now requires 3 screws to hold it down instead of the original 1 screw plus 2 tabs. - Dust port is too low on the cabinet so it intrudes on my Mobile Work Shop back rail. - Riving knives require a bit of extra effort to swap out because the wing nut is always stuck and requires a tap with a tool. - Steel City is very hard to reach or get phone calls / e-mails returned. - Steel City Toolworks web site is not maintained properly to provide any confidence in their long term viability. - Warranty issues are hard to resolve. - Steel City rarely follows through on service commitments. - Steel City is just a VERY small handful of sales people with very few support staff, no head office, no design team, etc. All the products are designed and built totally in Taiwan or China by a manufacturer who makes similar tools for other competitors like General, Ridgid, etc. So with a quick change of paint color and corporate logos your product changes "brands".
Very Safe Riving Knife Reduces Kickback!
SAFE RIVING KNIFE:
The riving knife provides excellent safety protection in stopping kickback. See Fine Woodworking's web site to understand the reasons why riving knives are so important for safety. Steel City provide a riving knife with their see through blade guard as well as two extras for shallow cuts. They are for both thin kerf and thick kerf blades. They do take some effort to change with a screw driver required for the blade insert and a bang on the wing nut that is supposed to be hand operated only.
