Delta Reviews

Short and sweet...it does the job. But wasn't an out of the box solution. The two alignment pins that came with the piece fit just fine, but the two existing alignment pins that came with the saw were a slight bit larger than the extensions holes for them. Required some a bit of fileing to get them to fit, and it was fine after that.

I was very pleased with quality of the components and ease of installation. The instructions were clear. I would be easier to assemble with 2 people but can be done by one person and some means of supporting the weight of the upper part of the saw. I hung it from my ceiling.

everything was a bolt together thing for me.no files or hammers needed here.
best of all the blade cover near the post is metal instead of the plastic one that came with the saw.
now i need some more new baldes

Let me start off by saying that this is the last table saw you will ever own. It is powerful, smooth and solid as a rock (it weights just slight less than a sizeable boulder). Put a Forrest Woodworker II blade on it and you will get cuts so smooth you could probably sell your jointer.

Assembly is a bit of a chore, the direction could be better and the extension fence could be easier to mount to the saw. Plan on investing a good portion of an afternoon to get it together. However, once you do, hitting the on/off switch that first time will make you glad you made the investment.

If I could rate the saw in different categories I would give it 3 stars for the set up and 5 stars for its performance. Here are some of the problems I had. I couldn't easily tell which cast iron extension wing went on the left and which on the right. The wings aren't marked. After researching and analyzing the picture in the manuals in great detail I finally figured out that the left one has a countersunk screw hole in it. Also two of the pretapped holes in the guide tube were misaligned. This wasn't that big a deal because there are a bunch of other holes in the guide tube to use to attach to the front rail. In general there are a lot of holes in the rails and no explicit directions about where they should line up with the cast iron tables. This was easy to address but still mildly irritating. By holding the rails to the table and sliding it left or right I could figure out where to align it. One major objection I have is that the Z bracket system isn't used to attach the extension table to the cast iron wing in the Biesenmeyer model. It's used for the Unifence model. It would really simplify the stabilization and attachment of the extension table. It was a struggle to attach the extension table. In order to align the extension table flush to the cast iron table one person has to hold the extension table up while another one clamps it together. But the underside of the wings and table don't have a convenient surface to clamp together so it ended being misaligned a lot. I eventually just put a long clamp across the table, essentially squeezing the front and back rail against the extension table which held it in place. So the assembly was irritating but it's just a minor inconvenience. Another issue I had was the side extension table is substantially shorter than the one pictured on the box and in the manual. It barely was long enough to get the 50" distance from the saw blade. I was impressed that the Biesenmeyer face was absolutely parallel to the saw blade right out of the box. Also I was pleasantly suprised that the witness line on the fence was only 1/16" off. I think Delta does a good job in aligning things properly at the factory. Overall it was a frustrating set up but the blade/fence are parallel, the table top is flat and stable which is what really matters to me. I didn't go to the lengths that other reviews did in checking the flatness of the cast iron surface. All I did was put a straight edge on the table top and adjusted things to keep the surfaces flush. If your livelihood depended on it I guess such minute differences would matter but I'm a DIY/woodworking hobbiest.

I am the envy of my woodworking friends! ;-)
This thing rocks. Solid and powerfull, this thing handles everything I've thrown at it. The accessories that came with it are great, as well. And the Biesemeyer fence is fantastic! Having the rolling base is a plus, as well. On the downside, it was tough to put it all together because it is HEAVY and there are many parts. Plus, the bags that held all of the screws fell apart so I spent some time just sorting the screws, washers, nuts, etc into piles. Things would have been much easier with an extra set of hands - especially when installing the cast iron extensions. But, once it's all in place, aligned and square it is fantastic!

I wanted to upgrade from the flimsy splitter/guard on my Grizzly G1022SM. The Delta 34-976 Deluxe Uniguard Blade Guard, was the obvious choice. It came with the splitter, sold separately at over $100.
The huge box has everything in it, but the instructions. Using the instructions online, I had it assembled in a couple of hours. I ran into one problem. The index pin should go into a notch in mounting bracket. However the notch was too tight, causing the pin to sit on the notch instead of in it. When tightened, the splitter leaned to the left. I grinded the notch down, so the pin fell inside the notch, and it worked great. Last, the unit has an auxiliary switch mounting bracket, but the switch is hard to order. It appears that the original Unisaw switch or tilting arbor switch can be relocated onto the arm. I would suggest you pick up the switch and Lamp accessory 25-858, with your order. That being said, the unit is awesome. I have no complaints at all!

For too long now I've been operating my saw without a guard (yes, stupid). I removed it once to cut dadoes and never replaced it. I finally bought the uniguard and I never have to remove it-even when cutting dadoes.

The guard is everything you expect from Delta: beefy, well engineered, and everything fits as it is supposed to. I was able to fit the guard on my Contractors saw with a 30" extension table without having to cut the support arm (the instructions suggest cutting it as an option). There is no need to do so if you have the room behind the saw. The support arm is fairly heavy-awkward but you can easily set it up by yourself. Tip: Before sliding the arm through the clamps (3 of them), make sure they are in line. The one clamp attached to the extension table can be adjusted, the others are attached to the saw table and will not need adjustment. An easy way to do this is to push a broom handle or similar item through the 3 clamps and sight down the handle.

The instructions are fine, although more than once I wished for a close up photo and that the photos were better lit, but I managed.

Finally: It does what it is supposed to do - the guard covers the blade at all heights and angles, and moves up easily when passing the material to the blade.

Well worth the investment, ensuring I'll be able to count to ten for years to come.

Purchased this blade guard for my contractors saw after reading a table saw book that opened my eyes to the dangers of the table saw. This is the blade guard that should be included with the saw. The splitter is removable for dado operations, but the fact that the blade guard is on a separate arm means that I can use the blade guard even with the splitter removed. If you use a table saw, I highly recommend purchasing this (or another) blade guard as it almost completely eliminates the danger of losing a finger while using the saw.

The Good - made in USA, good fit/finish, quality materials. Overall, better materials than my Jet jointer.

The Bad - table was not flat (off by about 1/16th). I called Delta, the lady was clueless, thought I was talking about the width measurements... She did, however send me a new table.

The OOGLY - replacement table arrived, it is more warped than the original! Also in this category, the saw vibrates more than I would like. And the dust collector is useless; I replaced it with a flat, 6x6 adapter (4") by cutting two slots in the top of the adapter and adding a screw to hold the bottom. Works great with an 1100 cfm collection system.

Also, I installed the riser, but had some difficulty with the alignment pins - they are very soft, and don't fit that well. I finally had to file them down to get the riser installed.

Overall, not terribly impressed with this product.

I ordered this saw from Amazon. It arrived in about a week. Everything was packed securely and there was no damage or dings or scratches on the bandsaw. Assembly was very simple and straight forward. Machine runs pretty well except for mild vibration even after adjustment/tune-up. I replaced the belt witha PowerTwist belt with mild improvement. The mobile base is excellent and very sturdy. Overall, I am happy with the saw, except for the following:

1. The dust collection assembly is a piece of plastic that is held in place with a small clip. Very cheaply made dust collection system and does not work well.

2. The rip fence which is made out of aluminum is not flat vertically and I can not get it to sit 90 degrees with the table. I am planning to contact Delta to get a new fence.

3. The bandsaw wheels were out of plane when arrived from the factory, but this can be adjusted.

I hope this review was helpful.

The saw itself is nothing less than I expected from Delta. I received my 28-299A in 4 days; it went together well and runs flawlessly. My only complaint is with the unbelieveably cheap, plastic dust connector. It is thin and held in place with a spring clip which falls open in use because of the weight of the 4 inch adapter and collector hose. What on earth were the Delta design engineers thinking when they decided this was an acceptable feature for this saw? I have used the saw extensively and found guide blocks and thrust bearings very easy to adjust without tools. The blade tracks perfectly even after hours of continuous use. Come on Delta...improve the dust collection and make it equal in quality to the rest of the machine!

Being a Hurricane Katrina victim and having seven feet of Salt water in my shop, I'm faced with replacing all my tools. A friend suggested the Delta and the savings were sizable compared to my old DeWalt. To make a disappointing story really short, the Delta cannot hold the shavings from the Dewalt. It is believed that this planer invented snipe. Worse on soft woods it seems. Be wiser than I, spend a little more and buy once. I "Will" get the DeWalt again.

Got delivery of the planer & performance of the unit is as the other reviews said. But the Detla owneres manual left off two set up steps that should be performed before operation.

1. The unit was covered in a lot of grease. Normally, this is a good thing and was probably beneficial to protect it in transist from China, but grease + sawdust = sticky mess on your wood. Cleaning off the excess around the height adjuster & on the cutterhead & chains, and then lubing the chains and adjuster with a dry chain lube helped.

2. Make sure to check the cutter head height from side to side across the table. When I pulled mine from the box, I cranked it down all the way to the lowest height and it started to jam up at about 3/4". That's when I cranked it back up to a mid height and checked the height of the cutterhead to the table on the LH, center & RH edges. It was set at over 1/8" off from side to side, causing the unit to jam on lower heights & would create trapezoid pieces if left that way.

To adjust, you will need two 1-1/16" wrenches or a socket & a wrench, ruler, and a phillips screwdriver. First, remove the LH side cover as shown in the book on how to acess the chain drive for lubrication. This will expose the height adjustment mechanism (Black in color) Place one of the wrenches on the bottom nut to hold the adjuster (bottom of cutterhead frame)& loosen the top lock nut (On top of cutterhead frame). If you are lucky & your unit wasn't tighened by a 800 lb panda, it should losen and then you can turn the lower nut to adjust the height of the cutterhead. Make sure to hold this nut when tightening.

If your lock nut was tightened by a 800 lb panda like mine was, you will either need a torque multiplier (say a piece of pipe) and the machine securely clamped down on the bench, or an impact gun and a 1-1/16" socket. Mine was on so tight the impact was the only way to get it off. To gain access, you will need to take the top cover off with a 4MM hex key & remove the two screws. Those two screws were loose on mine. You can wiggle the cover off if you take it slow without having to loosen the RH side. Make sure the cutterhead is in a lowered position to allow the rods some flex. Once off, raise the cutterhead up & then you can drive off the nut & perform the adjustment.

Even with these extra steps, I was able to have this up and running in about an hour and cutting very true. Some suggestions:

Purchase an outfeed roller stand of some type. The outfeed tables are too short for work longer than 24" and it will make it go faster.

If you are running narrow stock & want to avoid sniping, start one piece, then when it is 1/2 way through, start the next piece. And then repeat with a third one. I found that second board will come out perfect the full length & the third has very little tail snipe.

Hope this helps.

First looked at the RYOBI and the Ridgid. Both were big and bulky, one had a not so sturdy feel and the other was pricey for what I wanted. Based on reviews here and the look and feel of the Delta floor model went with Delta.

I have the mitre saw utility vehicle from HD and this planer fits well on it. With the adjustable rollers I was able to level off the feed with minimal snipe on par with much bigger and costlier shop planers. Years ago I did prehung door assemblies and we milled our own jambs using commercial planers. This little Delta produces very similar results.

Good quality feel, precise cuts, and ready to go right out of the box. Also, this planer has a blade that is very easy to change. I believe anyone could use this machine and produce nice smooth surfaced material.

the delta 36-412 is a beast. unique features including the front bevel lock mechanism and the quick grip sliding fence make the saw a treat to work with. it cuts smoothly and efficiently, and is the only 12" saw that can cut a 1"x8" upright. the dust port is too small, and the secondary blade-guard is a liability--a 90-tooth blade throws the dust into the guard and showers the operator with dust. I removed the seccondary guard after a day and haven't had any problems since--mind you I run a dust collector on-site non-stop.
cut and dry; professional trimmers who frequently cut base over 5" would be advised to follow my lead and invest in "the beast"

I'm a professional woodworker and own a half dozen miter saws and several different brands. Like many other people, I feel the sliders are great, particularly if you are doing carpentry. But, they can be a bit cumbersome to move in and out of the truck and job site and most don't come close to the accuracy and the excellent features included in the 36-412. For doing crown and cornice molding this unit really does the job nicely. For those that may not be aware, many of the problems you may be having can be simply solved by fastening up to a 3/4" x 4" MDF chip breaker to the fences that will adjust independently along with each fence/back stop and can be trimmed and adjusted as needed. This will help you visually line up your cuts and put the work piece closer to the center of the blade arch. If the fences aren't quite true, you can always slip paper shims in between the aluminum fence and MDF as needed. This is actually a very handy trick for most saws that have sliding/adjustable fences. We found the unit to be true out of the box as well and were immediately impressed with the thoughtful design and quality of the sliding fence lock and crown stop mechanisms.

My purchase of the Delta 36-412 was based on looks, ruggedness and price. I'm not a heavy user of miter saws but I've always wanted one for the now and then projects that were previously done struggling with a common skill saw. My intention was to buy a DeWalt or Craftsman saw not a Delta since I considered them inferior. However after spending about an hour looking at all the available saws it was apparent even to me a novice that the Delta saw was built stronger and had more features that I felt were more useful to my needs.

After getting home I did a little research on the internet and found that many other agreed with my assessment of this saw. For once I made the right decision based on my own opinion before being influenced by others.

My current project is the reason for buying the saw and I have not doubt it is going to be much easier having a miter saw and the Delta will serve me for years to come.

I've had this mobile base for five years. The concept is great; a low profile base for occasional moving of a heavy tool, but sturdy and immobile during use. Unfortunately, the extension on the wheel lift suffered a broken weld after a couple of years use. Since I only moved the saw four times, that's unacceptable performance. There's only a small weld that fixes the extension bar to the lift plate, so check it carefully if you get one of these bases or you may face an expensive repair later!

Excellent quality, easy to assembly, feel secure when moving saw, and easy to raise and lower. The only drawback is manuverablity. Turning radius is large for my small shop (16x16) and requires some work to get saw where you want it.

It didn't take too long to assemble, very strong, makes moving the saw easy. I'm very satisfied.

I purchased the Delta 22-560 as my first portable planer in February of 2001. Prior to the end of the first year of use (casual wood worker) I had to take it in and have the cutter head assembly replaced. When I received it back from the Porter Cable/Delta repair shop, it sounded twice as loud as it did before I took it in. Today, as I was planing 2" red oak, I began to smell rubber burning and the unit quit cutting. (At least it did not spray the parts through-out the shop as one other user described.) Disassembling it, I determined that the cutter head assembly nut had come loose and could not be tightened without the pulley on the cutter head "throwing" the belt off because of a wobble in the pulley. I will not buy another Delta planer (even though I have been a Porter Cable/Delta purchaser for years) and am considering either a Makita or the Grizzly 15 inch.

I have always been a big supporter of Delta tools, However, I'm afraid I cannot give this product great praise. The fact is, the only reason I am giving them 3 stars at all is for the overall end product it can produce. Now I've used four different brands of planers and never encountered the types of problems I've had with this peice of equipment! Easily enough broken down, but jeeze I've had to take this thing apart 4 times this months... I've only used it 5 times this month! with moderate 1/16th cuts. Today the belt shredded to peices for the second time in 5 months. I'm about to find a Jet 15" planer online, The more expensive machine will pay for it self compared to all the time I lose trying to fix the delta!

Hope this machine was just a lemon, but prehaps this will help someone else.

When I bought this item I followed the advice of another review, that being to take the blades out and give the machine a clean. This was going along nicely until I had to remove the bolts that clamp the blade in place. The bolts were that tight that when they `cracked' sparks literally shot out.
Some bolts were that tight that I had to get a small piece of pipe to use as a lever arm. This problem was consistent for every bolt I tried. I had to give up trying when the tightness of the bolts damaged both the supplied wrench and the bolt head. I have informed Delta and am hoping they reply with an explanation.
Now after that little whinge the machine is quite good to use. The reason for not a higher rating is only due to this assembly error.

It does exactly what I expected. I am very satisfied. The only warning I would like to make is: make sure you have a way to place planer on stand. I used a hoist and did it by myself. However it is a job 3 people couldn't do manually. I had already placed the stand on the roller base before puting the planer on the stand.

This is a great planer. No snipe, works fast or slow (2 speed), Set-up was easy, manual is well laid out. Be prepared to clean off the shipping oil, this thing is covered in oil! Comes with a 5 year warranty, I doubt I will need it. This planer is well built. a little short, you have to bend over a ways to work. The mobile base is not the same as the open stand model, you will need the 50-324.

Since recieving this tool nearly five months ago I have run large amount of red oak through it. The results have been consistent and excellent. With the infeed and outfeed rollers adjusted I get little, if any, snipe. The two speed gearbox is nice. The fast speed is great for rough thicknessing and the slow speed gives an excellent final finish that needs very little more prep before finishing. It came with a mobile base and 5" dust collector. On the mobile base it is easy to move and I consider the base a must. I had no trouble adapting the 5" port to a 4" hose after a quick trip to the hardware store. However, it seems that it came with a 5" port for a reason, as it needs the extra inch to provide adequate CFM for chip removal.

Setup requires several people or an overhead hoist since it weighs in at over 400 lbs. I strongly suggest using this machine with the mobile base.

Overall it is a great machine.

After reading all of the reviews here I bought the 2700XL for my Makita 2703. I thought that it would be an improvement with regard to the fence and add some much needed table space. So far it has been nothing but frustration. I just can't believe that it has gotten the positive reviews I have seen so far. Here are the issues:

Rather than attach to your table saw in any stable fashion it is designed so that your table saw rests on nylon ring mounts. This might work well if there was any way to adjust the height of the nylon mounts to get the 2700XL flush with the saw table...there isn't.

My instructions said that this table came pre-set for the Makita 2703 - it wasn't. My saw didn't fit at all and my first task was readjusting all of the nylon rings. When that was done it was apparent that the two table beds were not flush - the 2700XL sat below the saw table making the fence unusable.

Which leads me to the first MAJOR DESIGN FLAW: there is absolutely no way to level the 2700XL to your table saw. The only way to do it is to remove the two mylon mounts where the tables join and put shims there. Well that took me the first 2 hours of setup time. When I was done I had a level table but it was not mounted solidly and would tend to slide around since I was forced to bypass two of the mounts. If this table had been designed with an extra $.10 thumbscrew to level it I would not have had to go through this hastle.

The other issue with this is that you now no longer have a truly portable solution if you have to re-shim and level your table every time you take the bloody saw out...so consider this to be a stationary solution rather than a portable one as advertised.

So now I had a level table and I put on the fence. I slide the fence across and notice that the fence is not square with my saw table. Hardly believing my eyes (since that was the whole reason I bought the table in the first place) I slide the fence back over to the 2700XL table to find that the fence IS NOT EVEN SQUARE TO 2700XL TABLE ITSELF. The whole contraption is manufactured such that that the fence is not even square to the 2700XL and the table it mounts on. SLOPPY, SLOPPY, SLOPPY. And, again, I find that there is absolutely no way to adjust the fence or table to fix the problem.

The only positive thing I can say about this product is that it seems sturdy when the legs are unfolded but that's about it.

So now I am faced with the choice of either living with a $300+ off-square table/fence on sloppy mounts with homemade wooden shims leveling it, or packing it up and sending it back. I would recommend saving your money and buying a better saw. Buying this thing is definitely throwing good money after bad. Rousseau needs to send some folks to a seminar and learn about QA.

Addendum
I found an easier way to level the tables without sacrificing stability. I took out all of the screws supporting the 2700XL's table and added a plain metal washer. This raised the table a few millimeters to bring it into level with the saw table...much easier than shimming.

This table is a delight. The cutting accuracy is incredible. Having recently retired, I'm catching up on 30 plus years of "honey-do's", including house remodeling. The large table space and the ease of operation are features not found on other saws I've owned. The portability is a major plus. Highly recommended.

I've used this stand with other saws in the past and found it to be outstanding. However, I would not recommend this stand for anyone who has the DeWalt DW744 table saw. You have to remove the entire existing rack & pinnion fence system (quite a bother) and then try to set the stand up to hold the saw tightly in place. This was not easy either, nor were the instructions helpful. Also, the table to the side is lower than the surface of the table saw and must be shimmed up to match. While I think this is a great product for most saws, I'm not pleased so far with how it fits my DeWalt.