Panel Saws Reviews

I give this saw five stars now considering all factors and leaving some emotion out. I bought the saw because of space constraints in my shop trying to handle and cut large panels on my table saw without any help. That, and at the time I was getting ready to start on my kitchen cabinets.

I set the saw up and added my additional options of wheels, stand, extensions and Quick-stop guage. Probably due to something during shipping, my saw would not cut a straight line. It was off by nearly 3/32" over a 48" cut (I cannot believe Safety Speed Cut would crate it up and ship it when it was off by that much). After making the first few test cuts, I thought I was going to have to cut pieces oversized and then trim to square on the table saw, but after reading the manual and making some adjustments this was not the case.

So here is why I still gave it five stars.

The instruction manual was very thorough and clearly explained how to check for square if your cuts were off. They walk you through every possible option and even explain how to make up a large tri-square to dial the saw back into square. After making up the large tri-square (at some additional expense) the saw was very easy to adjust and before long I had the saw cutting square straight pieces for my cabinets.

This saw makes handling large plywood sheets easy, and with less effort and fatigue compared with a table saw, you can have 10 sheets cut down to size in no time at all. The optional Quick-stop guage makes repetitive cuts quick and accurate - great for cabinet sides, backs etc.

So, other than a slight initial alignment problem, the saw has been one of the best additions to my shop. I am considering adding the dust collection option in the future and my only observation there is that it is a fairly high dollar option ($347) for something so necessary. In my opinion, this should be standard on all of the saws instead of an accessory.

Another plus in choosing this saw over a 3HP cabinet saw is that you can use standard 110V power versus adding a 220V circuit for your cabinet saw.

If you work with large sheets often, I highly recommend this saw especially if you have a smaller shop. If you have room to spare, you might consider the H-4 saw which is what I originally wanted but could not get into my shop.

I have found this saw to be very accurate, and easy to use. I have owned it for about a year, and use it far more than I though I would. It makes it very easy to cut a 4 x 8 sheet of plywood. It is however not very portable. I ussually measure up what I need to cut at the job site, and take the work to my shop.

This is a scaled down version of the panel saws used at most lumberyards and home centers. I have had mime for about a year and really depend on it now. Before, I had to struggle with large sheets on the table saw, which usually required the help of a second person. Now, I can manage these easily by myself. The saw was delivered factory adjusted for precision cuts. I highly recommend purchasing the optional wheels, extensions and stand unless you plan on mounting it in a permanent location. I use mine in the garage and wheel it out when weather permits. On the downside, the material rollers are made of plastic and could presumably break if a heavy sheet such as melamine was to drop on them. Also, it is sometimes difficult to switch the saw from crosscut to rip mode as sawdust particles build up between the rotating plates causing them to bind. I have tried silicone spray in this area but it doesn't seem to last. Overall however, I feel this was an excellent investment.

This saw is made in Eastern Europe and is a lot cheaper the the Western saws like Felder or Hammer. I see no big difference in quality or function. It has a slider that takes up a lot less room then the panel sliders but may not be as robust.If you have never ownered a saw with a slider you are in for a big treat. Safety-
The Euro blade knife totally eliminates kickbacks. I have never had one kickback on this saw. Kick backs on the Asia Delta clones are a real and constant threat. This is not a trivial matter. One of the most common types of injuries incurred. Don't ignore this warning!!!
Not that much more then the best Asia saws equiped with a slider. If your considering an Asian made saw this is a much better deal.

Problems with the saw- None.

I purchased this sasw a year ago and love it. The sliding table makes it easy to handle large sheet goods. Aligning the saw is a lot easier than an american tablesaw. The dust collection is pretty good compared to a Unisaw design, but not as good as a felder/hammer. I've used the saw to build a cherry computer desk and shop cabinets so far. It cut through the 8/4 cherry like a hot knife through butter.

Spend the money and get a safer better design. This saw was recommended by Kelly Mehler (The Tablesaw Book) in a review article in Woodworker's Journal.

I don't believe it.
Portable and extendable to any length with a robust connection system that offers better precision than more expensive European systems. The clamping system makes the most dangerous cuts safer than ever before and makes the table saw looks like an ancient bad idea. The anti chip protection works so good that saves me money every day by not having to rework the wood. I trim all my doors in seconds. I make 2 bookcases in one hour and I sold my dust collecting table saw.
But I do have a problem with the EZ Smart System.
I think everybody should have one and stop borrowing my EZ.
Thanks Eurekazone.

I bought this as a replacement to my Jet Fence on my contractors saw.
This will fit the contractors saw, the difference is the size of the rails which are heavier. You need legs or the saw will tip over. You may have to drill some holes like I did but that's as a retrofit onto a contractors saw. If you have the cabinet saw it should just all bolt up fine.
It's a huge difference over the standard jet fence in terms of control and easy of use. it's long, high and smooth with replacement faces available.

The product is a great product. All Safety Speed Cut equipment is high quality. I wanted to share the great experience I had ordering this through Amazon. The H4 saw was crated and wrapped. It arrived a few days after ordering without a scratch. The delivery person helped me unload the heavy saw and put in my garage. This was much more convenient then purchasing locally. I wouldn't hesitate ordering heavy woodworking equipment from Amazon again. Great service.

After much drooling and hoping, I was finally able to purchase the Promax router table. Only problem is now the drooling has intensified as I can't wait to go use it again!
The 40-031 table is a very well built table that just feels solid and well made. It attached to my new Delta hybrid table saw in 30 minutes or less and is saving me space AND increasing the quality of my routings.
One of the bolts for the fence was machined improperly, but one call to Bench Dog had one in my hand within a week. They definately have quality customer service.
Although it's not cheap, the 40-031 is worth every penny. You will not go wrong with this router table!

Happy Routing!

I was concerned that this would be a problem installing on my Jet tablesaw -- no concerns now...it is a perfect fit.
This is a great piece of metal and really enhances the tablesaw.

The concept of saving space unites with this item! Not only does it help me save space by mounting my router on my unisaw.But it extends my workspace. I gave it 5 stars because of its intent , but the unit i got bows on the top, so i had to grind it to level out with my unisaw.And the phenolic plate from bench dog was predrilled backwards(wierd?) so it would not line up with the holes in the extension. Amazon had me call Benchdog and i am still waiting for the correct top.

The saw's base plate screws do come loose and do fall out. All those people who gave this combo 5 stars should take a closer look at their saw.

I used my saw only twice. Once to rip 6 ft of lumber and once to cross cut 2 ft of the same lumber. When I went to use it a third time it didn't have enought power to finish my cut. When I replaced the battery I noticed one of the base plate screws was missing and the others were loose. I replaced all the base plate screws with screws a 1/4" longer and added locking nuts to keep them from coming loose again. I also used the two batteries right away leaving the drill empty.

I found the drill to be very powerful and heavy. For my uses it is probably overkill.

If you are thinking of getting a combo pack I recommend buying the tools separate. Check out the 18v Dewalt saw, (...)(no base plate screws to come loose!)and try the Makita 9.6v drill. The total cost is comparable to a combo pack but you will end up with the usefull saw that you want and the right size of drill along with 4 batteries instead of only 2.

Now go build something!

The circular saw in particular works excellent, weighted nicely, and very easy to handle. My only complaint is that the battery packs do not seem to last long while working, and I am in constant rotation of the batteries.

This is my story .
I went on a mission to find one tool set like this and there were many .
Since sears was close by I first got the set they offered , a circular saw and drill in a case .
The drill was nice but the saw useless so back it went .
A friend is really onto dewalt and raved about his so I went out but could not find the size saw he had and dewalt made the saw still but a larger blade diameter .
Now the drill was inpressive but the saw was no better than the sears model , both shared the same problem , a base that rocked on any flat surface and to make matters worse it flexed with the slightest amont of pressure .
' This may be fine if you are cutting thin paneling and don't need a square edge but for anything else it is useless and the dewalt had a switch that would catch and this made it difficult to use .
So finally I looked at the makita set and both the drill and the saw were very well made , both had all metal gear cases and both were built with precision .
I have been using them both for a few years now and they are the first tolls I will grab even though I do have power a few feet away .
The saw is light and balanced with a base that is stable and cuts a perfect 90 degree cut it will go through 2x4's with ease and it is quiet .
The depth lock lever is one of the best I've seen and the handle and switch safetly lock are right where you want them to be and simple to use .
Hands down the best cordless combo I have seen . I still looked at others after this purchase but none were in the class of these two tools .
I have used the drill for very small light work and drilling large holes , also as a power driver and in all applications it has worked well . It is large but very well balanced .
These tools I don't believe were designed to replace corded power tools but to add flexability to the job .
All rechargeable power tool batteries run down and need to be charged and I don't expect anyone is capable of giving an accurate run time . It depends on what you are cutting or drilling and the size of the bits or screws . Anyone knows this so for one to say the batteries run down too quickly tells me nothing at all . They ripped a 2x4 and it went dead , was it wet , did it have alot of knots , were you cutting using a guide of just forging on ahead blindly and binding the blade and what sort of condition was the blade in , nice and sharp or a bit on the dull side after hitting a few nails ?

Can you cut bevels with this guide? If so, how do you compensate for the offset?

The smart base provides two tracks. One for the straight cuts and one for the bevel cuts. The smart base provides anti splintering protection on and off the guide rail.

This tool is great for someone who doesn't have the time, patience, and/or skill to make their own saw guide. Many people have written that they could achieve the same results with a homemade guide made of a straight board and some scrap plywood, but that would take a level of precision and workmanship that I simply don't have (and where are you going to find a "straight" board nowadays!?). I also think the integrated clamping is very convenient and effective. The Smart Guide itself has proved to be extremely precise-to the point that I use a drafting pencil carefully sharpened before making a cut line and get results that are within 1/64" every time. That kind of easy repeatability (precision) makes it possible for me to produce square and correctly sized panels that I was never able to get on my table saw. Don't let my long list of caveats deter you-even knowing what I know now, or maybe because of it, I'd buy this tool again.

A few caveats:
1. Initially, I used this with a cheap DIY-quality saw and got horrible results.
a) Because it was a "small" base saw (versus a contractor grade "large" base...nominally 1.5" from guide edge to saw blade and 5" from the blade to the other edge of the base) it required a lot of time to properly align the saw to the base (Smart Base).
b) I also discovered that if I wasn't careful, the Smart Base would flex and the saw blade would lever away from the cutting line. This was because it was a "small" base saw which didn't cover a good portion of the Smart Base. Bottom line: don't use this guide system with a "small" base saw. Make sure your saw base is at least 6.5" wide.
2. I mounted the saw to the Smart Base using the provided machine screws. This was a bit of a pain (see above 1a) and required that I use a Dremel to get the nuts to sit flat (think about some of those saws with ribbed bases). However, I was glad when I later gave the cheap saw away and was able to easily remove the saw guide base. The other way to mount your saw to the Smart Base would be to use double sided tape (included). Hopefully the manual has been updated because it doesn't match the hardware provided with the guide. The machine screws that came with my guide required a 1/4" hole in the Smart Base and a 1/8" hole through the saw base. I think the manual recommends 11/32" and T-nuts which apparently, was the old way of doing it.
3. When making the first cut along the guide, you're cutting through a plastic strip (the "EAC-1") mounted to the aluminum guide and assuming you don't change saw blades this line should be your cut line from here on out. The first time I did this, I put both lengths of the guide together and clamped it to a 4x8' sheet of plywood-bad idea. The guides, when put together are 100" long, so unless you clamp the guide along a diagonal, some of it (the guide) will extend beyond the plywood. Any other time except this, this would be fine. But, when you cut through the EAC-1 it must be supported underneath so as to get a precise and clean cut that you can easily align to your planned cut line. My EAC-1 was jagged at the ends where it was unsupported and it projected the wrong cut line. I ordered a new set of edges and expect to have much better success next time (see below).
4. Another thing about the EAC-1 is that when you make this first important cut you need to be pretty steady in order to produce a nice clean cut and hence a nice clean cutting line. I recommend taking the EAC-1 off and making 2-3 practice cuts so that the first time you use the guide you're not trying to carry out any kind of accuracy dependent operation that will affect every future cut you make. I think my first attempt at this would have gone better if I'd had a better sense about how fast to push the saw along the guide, knew how much resistance I could expect, and whether there were any sensitive motions to avoid (i.e., flexing the Smart Base perpendicular to the cut line). Oh, and don't forget to use the Anti-chip insert...you'll want the EAC-1 to be really cleanly cut.
5. Finally, get a good blade to put in your saw. I assume the reason you'd be willing to shell out the dollars required for this guide is that you are serious about achieving a good result. Don't let a dull blade keep you from that. The recommended Freud Diablo (~$15) was a winner for me.

I've had my HTC outfeed attachment on my Jet cabinet saw since about 1995. The other day I had been struggling with trying to rip half sheets of ply on my Hitachi portable table saw using portable roller stands when I finally got so fed up that I decided to go back to the shop and do it. That's when it hit me how much I have come to take the HTC for granted. I don't think about it because it does exactly what it's supposed to do.

As far as other reviewers complaining about variations in roller height, it's not an issue I've ever noticed. Perhaps HTC uses cheaper rollers than they did way back when. Either way, I don't feel the need to check it unless I'm experiencing issues with how it's supporting the stock, and it never gives me such problems. I just level the first set of rollers to the table when I first mount or (re)mount it, and it always works from there. It never pulls stock to one side and after all this time everything still moves perfectly. Also, the folding feature is of great value to me, as I have a small shop.

Installation and removal (on the Jet anyway) are no big deal, though you do have to drill holes in the cabinet of your saw.

In summary, if you need the option to save space by folding your outfeed table down, this is a product I fully recommend. If you have a lot of space, I'd probably recommend just building ground supported tables around your saw, which might be cheaper, but more importantly would allow the possibility of extending the table around the left of your saw to support full sheet goods.

True this product is not precisely flat and has 1/8" variances in height, BUT it works great. Until a couple of years ago, I had hefty football linemen living at home, but they've grown up and I no longer have anyone to hold the other end of sheet goods for ripping. This product not only fills the gap, but is an improvement. There's no variations or wobble on the other end and the stock always tracks straight since the 1/8" variances are at the outer edges causing the sheet to naturally split while staying against the fence (and, without any problems after the cut is finished). The instructions are precise and installation on my Powermatic 66 took approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes, plus another 5 minutes of help (from my Marine Sgt. son who was home on leave) required to tighten the lower screws. Also, the 2 short rollers were not short and I called the manufacturer on Monday, received replacements on Friday and took another 5-minutes to slip them in place. I like the fold down feature that is adjusted to the table height since my saw is on a roller base and this product permits easy movement whereas a fixed table would be a hassle.

Cutting on my Jet 10" cabinet saw used to feel (wait, was) unsafe, but since adding this invaluble accessory I now know how much safer cutting can be.

... now if they only had one for the left side ....

I had to mount the Panel-Loc to a 2x4 fence because the fence on my table saw is too tall to allow the Panel-Loc to hold down thin plywood. It works much better than a featherboard for ripping plywood. It would be 5 stars except for one problem. You cannot see the base of the fence to ensure that material is tight against the fence.

I got this as a gift from my daughter last year but didn't have a slot in my router fence to use it. Finally got around to making some MDF fences with the right slots and found out this is a great product. I've always had trouble keeping the part I was routing down against the table and tight against the fence. This solves the first problem and helps with the second. It gives you a uniform depth by keeping downward pressure on the wood.It is easy to setup, takes about 5 seconds to set the proper pressure on the wood.

Two disadvantages keep me from rating it as 5 star. I tried routing some rail and stiles and found they were too thin and slipped under the guard. The second problem is when you want to adjust the router bit depth of cut, you can't see the bit so you have to slip the guard out of the way, adjust the depth, and then slip the guard back. This is fairly easy but annoying.
Even with these two disadvantages, this is the best product I've found for router applications. I especially like the fact that the bit is fully encased and dust collecion is greatly enhanced.

I had bought the Bench Dog PL400 a while ago, and unfortunately it sat in the tube it ships in. Well I broke it out, and after using it, I am sorry that I didn't do it sooner. It is great. It will fit any type of fence with the standard T slot. The attaching nuts are included and the easy to turn and fasten tightening knobs do the job well.
The great thing about this piece of equipment is that it does such a great job of holding down your workpiece. If you have a 3, to 6 inch panel or greater, it will perfectly keep it mated to the table. That is in part due to the hard rubber strip that extends below the bottom. The cast aluminum plate is substantial. I was tongue and groove routing, 88 inch long boards, and when I got to the end of the board, the PL400 had no problem keeping it true to the table, even when I let go. So I had 3 inches of an 88 inch piece of cedar being held straight, and under all of that pressure, it was still flush for the bit.
The safety advantage is second to none. Since it completely covers the router bit area, it protects you from an exposed bit. It actually covers an area a few inches away from the fence.
It is usable on your table saw, router table, or anything that has a T-slot. No T-slot, no problem, it is shipped with an included T-Slot aluminum channel, so you can convert your fence to a T-Slotted fence. If you added a wooden riser-extension to your fence, this would attach right to it. It is not predrilled, so you can custom apply it to your needs.
I highly recommend it. Easily adjustable for just the right amount of pressure. It does the job more completely and uniformly than single featherboards. It removes and installs in about 30 seconds. It doesn't shift on you when larger stock is trying to move it.
If I was cutting different size pieces all day long, I would use a featherboard, because it allows you instant access to the bit, for setup changes. If I was making runs of lots of boards, I would use the PL400, because the 20 second additional set up time, is more than worth the benefits and advantages.
I plan on keeping mine handy, and using it a lot more from now on. Hope this helps.