Craftsman Professional 10 in. Contractor Saw (Sears#21833) Reviews
www.sears.com
Rating Summary
“Very Capable Table Saw if Assembled and Aligned With Great Care.”
- an avid online shopper, a comparison shopper, looking for durability, a Craftsman devotee
- Pros
- Good Caster set built into the base, heavy construcdtion, Sooth, solid rip fence, powerful motor, quiet motor
Craftsman Professional 10 in. Contractor Saw (Sears#21833) —
After much research, I had bought the Craftsman model 21807 the previous month. Very effective while it worked, but it was very unsafe, and the direct-drive motor siezed up after 1 week of use. Got a full refund from Sears. Craftsman is my brand and the brand of both my grandfathers but these days, for anything that doesn't fit in one hand and come with a forever guarantee, well, Craftsman has become Cost-Cutting-Man, with every aspect of design, materials and manufacturing on its low-mid price range power tools being skimped on.
I got this saw 2 weeks ago and paid 450$ for it. I had obsessively researched table saws from Grizzly, Jet, Delta, Dewalt, Skill, Bosch, and others. DETAILED information for this saw was non-existent on the internet. I learned a lot from a detailed review on a woodworking website and wanted to give Craftsman one last chance. This saw comes in a box that measures 4ft long x 2.5ft wide x 2.5ft high. Sears brought it out to the pick up truck on a cart, lifted into bed easy with four people total. Used a ramp and one other person to get it off the truck and into house. If looking for a challenge of your strength and use of leverage, it is possible for one person to get it from Sears to your house.
However, upon removing all of the parts from the box, the single largest piece, (top half of cabinet/cast iron table/motor) has got to weigh 200lbs by itself, I could not lift this awkward to grip dead-weight by myself. But, it turns out that you can leave this piece as it comes and still assemble the whole saw as long as you remove the thick styrofoam that encases it. This top section remains upside down as the entire bottom half of the saw gets assembled and attached. At that point I flipped it right-side up by myself, with great effort. So it is possible for one person to transport and assemble this table saw by oneself if help is not available, but you have to be strong like bull and plan your moves well.
It took 8 hours to fully assemble this table saw. The instructions are somewhat lacking but still worked. The next day I spent 2 hours fine tuning various alignments. There are many to deal with, but all of these alignments can be made as accurate as you want with time and effort. The only difficulty I have had is adjusting the blade parrallel to the miter slots. In short, accurately adjusting the trunnions was a trying process, and the front trunnion is very difficult to get at. After two battles with the trunnions, I've got the blade aligned within 1/64 inch of being parallel to the miter slots.
If great care is given to the many alignments, after the refinements are made this saw is just great. With the right blade for your specific use, the 1.75 HP V-Belt drive motor is plenty of power. It runs smooth and quiet. The safety equipment is so well designed that I actually use it. The splitter, blade guard, and riving knives are real quick to take off and put on. This will save people (like me) from kickbacks and losing fingers. Almost all of this saw is heavy duty construction, the only exception is 2 plastic washers for the tilt/height wheels, already broke, already replaced with better ones. Also, there is play in the height adjustment that forces the blade angle off a degree or two, but if you become aware of how/why this happens, you correct it by relieving the tension that is put on during raising or lowering the blade, by just reversing the wheel a little bit after raising or lowering and you will feel the tension go away see the blade go back where you want it.
Hope that helps. For the price, this saw is outstanding. There are a lot of things to dial in to get this saw accurate. That is the only reason I can't say it is perfect. So far, this saw is a credit to the Craftsman name and hopefully they will start making more reasonably priced, quality power tools like this one and make them in America. Please do this Craftsman, it's good business, and all the old-schoolers can stop spinning in their graves.
Last edited on Jan 27, 2011
