I've put together this review of the DEWALT DW745 Heavy-Duty 10-Inch Compact Job-Site Table Saw with 16-Inch Max Rip Capacity, to hopefully assist others in choosing the best product for themselves.
A 15 Amp motor lets the dw745 table saw make quick work of everything from bevel cuts in hard woods to resizing sheet materials.
Featuring a 16-inch maximum rip capacity, a patented rack and pinion fence that telescopes to deliver incredibly fast adjustments and improved accuracy, while also sliding into a compact position for transport, this saw is packed with thoughtful features that make it an easy choice.
Bevel applications are easy to tackle with the ability to adjust the blade from 0 to 45 degrees, while the included 24T carbide blade provides improved cut quality and offers an extended life to save you money.
Other unique design elements include a metal roll-bar base that provides durability on the job, adjustable rear feet that make it easy to steady the saw on uneven ground, a special coating on the table surface that reduces friction for smoother cutting with less effort, and a dust port that allows you to connect a 2-1/2-inch shop vac and keep your work area clean. Kit includes saw, miter gauge, push stick, carbide blade, and blade guard.
We got this six months ago for job-site use. It cut pretty well right from the box. The fence has a rack-and-pinion system that is clever, but not quite perfect. We measured the alignment error and have two fixes. If you want to know about them so you can save some money, read on...
Using a TS Aligner, we checked the alignment of the fence. The fence was near-perfect when we backed up to the mark, (going right) but it skewed by as much as four or five-thousandths when we moved the fence to the left. That's because the connecting rod between the two gears flexes and there is some "slop" or "play" in the gears. This is more noticeable when approaching the mark from the right. Sometimes this is referred to "lash-back."
The easy work-around was to always go past the mark (an inch or so to the left) , then roll the knob back slowly right to the mark and try not to overshoot. That works okay, and it is free. But, it is a time-wasting nuisance and won't provide the consistent accuracy that good woodworking requires.
SO... we replaced the metal rod that connects the two rack-gears. Instead of the stock rod, we used hardened O1 tool rod, which doesn't twist or flex as easily. The rod costs $12 bucks. We also adjusted the two gears to remove the slop. Now we had fair fence parallelism in both directions. Not bad for a twelve-dollar fix... but there is more.
After using the saw a while, several of us noticed it made burns marks even with reasonable feed-rates and a new blade. One rainy day, we got out the TS aligner again and checked all the critical alignments.
Dewalt uses decent bearings, so the runout was not too bad. But there were a number of other small inaccuracies that added up: arbor run-out, slot-parallelism, fence alignment, blade-alignment etc.
It took about an hour of measuring, but the Dial indicator with the TS Aligner helped us get everything literally "dialed-in."
Now this thing cuts as smoothly and accurately as our five-thousand dollar cabinet saws.
The secret is to choose a saw with good bearings and a design that allows adjustments. Dewalt and Bosch contractor saws both qualify.
Use a dial indicator with a TS Aligner to accurately measure and adjust EVERYTHING. It takes an hour, but it is worth the effort MANY times over. If you buy a new saw in the box, you have to assemble it anyway, so that isn't much more work. ...
You can get professional precision at a fraction of the cost of a cabinet saw.
We cut all kinds of mitered molding and trim. We make custom installations and complex speaker cabinets that require EXACT cuts. After we adjusted this with the TS Aligner, the noise-level was lower and blades stay sharp much longer.
That's always a good sign!
The beautiful thing about this saw is that we can take it to the site, make measurements on a story-pole and cut exactly to the mark, repeatably and reliably. The saw's design allows you to adjust it, assuming you have the right adjustment tools: a dial indicator and a TS aligner.
Those two tools are inexpensive and pay for themselves very quickly. You get your money back fast because you waste less wood, blades last longer and the motor runs cooler when everything on the saw is tuned up.
This is a good saw because you can adjust it and it has accurate bearings. With a TS Aligner and a cheap dial indicator, you can get many times your money's worth!
Highly recommended!
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