On Mon, 10 Jan 2005 13:42:37 -0600, (MSCHAEF.COM)
wrote:
very helpful review, Mike... I hope you enjoy your saw!

(I think the 2nd guy, at the least, could have controlled the rope
around the tree thing to control your "decent"... lol

I know this has been done before, but I thought I'd post a few
comments on the Craftsman 22124. I'm an amateur re-entering the
hobby, and just took delivery of a saw last night. I don't
have it running yet, but here are my thoughts on the saw and
getting it into my basement. Hopefully, this will help somebody
who's now in the same position I was a few months ago.


A few comments about the saw itself:

- The trunions are mounted to the cabinet entirely seperately from
the table.

- The trunions look pretty consistent with other contractor-grade saws.

- There are adjustments for backlash on both the blade elevation and
tilt geartrains.

- The control wheels are rather small. The tilt wheel rubs the plastic
cap over the hole through which the shaft exits the cabinet. I don't
know yet if this is by design, or if I need to adjust something. It
works, but I'd like to improve the way it works if I can.

- The fence looks nice, as you'd expect, but two of the cross pieces are
missing paint in places. I don't think it's functional, so I don't
really care, but I do think that on a $900 saw, the finish ought to be
better.

- I got the saw for 10% off (Craftsman club) of $900. Shipped, with tax,
it was right at $900. There's lots of documentation online of folks
getting better prices than that for various reasons. I think that's
more a matter of patience, and your wilingness to do things like
apply for Sears cards, if you don't already have one.).

I think that in general if you look at the 22124 expecting a cabinet
saw, you'll come away disappointed. The trunions aren't as solid, the
power isn't there, there's only one drive belt, and the hand wheels are
kind of wimpy. However, if you look at it as a foreign-made contractor
saw with a bunch of nice upgrade features, I think the saw can fit that
role quite nicely and for a competitive price. I'll know more when I get
it set up and running.

Some thoughts on what it took me to get it down into my basement.

- The saw itself is shipped in two packages. One, for the saw itself
weighs about 400 pounds and is 30x30x42. The other, for the fence, is
about 72x18x6 and weighs about 70 pounds.

- The saw is bolted with two 13mm bolts to a metal pallet. Around the saw
and on the pallet, are the iron table extensions and a box containing
the outfeed table, hand wheels, miter gauge, switch, and various
sundries. Atop the saw is a box contining the miter fence and blade
guard. Atop that box are the blade, drive belt, and manual. All of this
stuff is wrapped in multiple layers of what basically amounts to
industrial grade saran wrap. Atop this, and bolted to the pallet with
four or five bolts is a metal frame. All of this is enclosed in a
cardboard box, aside from four metal legs protruding from the bottom of
the pallet.

- The delivery team dropped this off in my backyard. if I had had a
basement door wide enough to accomodate a 30" box, I get the impression
that they would have been willing to put the saw there. They did state
they'd have been willing to move it into a garage.

- Getting the saw uncrated was pretty straightforward. The box cuts off,
and after loosening the bolts, the top of the metal crate frame lifts
off. The only thing to be careful of is that the saw and accessories can
make it tricky for one person to remove. I removed the table extensions
and miter gauge box from the pallet and that made it significantly
easier. Removing the red motor shroud from the side of the saw would
have made it easier still.

- The extension tables and other auxillary boxes account for about 100
pounds of the weight of the saw (excluding the fence). The main assembly
of the saw itself weighs about 300 pounds and has a width of 24 inches, if
you remove the red motor shroud. This is the biggest/heaviest piece of the
whole thing. If 300 pounds is too much weight, I'm pretty sure it'd be
possible to remove the table and motor to move the saw in more manageable
pieces, but that'll make set up that much more difficult.

- To get the saw off of the pallet, the official approach for the 22124 is
to unbolt the saw and team lift it off. I followed the instructions for
the 22114 and 22104: I flipped the saw over, unbolted it, and flipped it
right side up. This worked, with the caveat that the motor swung around
inside the cabinet during the flip. Nothing seems visually damaged,
while everything still works, I'd feel better about it had I secured the
motor. (It was at least padded with styrofoam to keep it from hitting the
cabinet wall.)

- I was able by myself to get the saw down the stairs and into the
basement with a lot of effort, but without much drama. I used a hand
truck, lashed the saw down tightly, and tied a heavy gauge (and now
trash) extension cord to the handle of the hand truck. The extension
cord I then ran around the base of a tree in line with the door and back
around the handle. This was to have a way to both tie off the saw to
rest between steps as well as to have a way to control the saw's
descent without having to rely as much on my own
strength/balance/footing/grip. A rope would be a lot better, but the
extension cord jerry rig probably saved me a trip to the hospital.

Something worth noting is that everybody I spoke with, and the manual
for the saw, is pretty explicit about moving the saw being a two-man
operation. I don't think a second man would have helped in this case.
He would have been below the saw, and consequently at more risk of
being pinned had the saw fallen. (I didn't move the saw at all when I
was under it, and made sure it was tied off.) Given that the saw and
dolly are probably in the 330-340 lbs range, whoever's below would have
to be incredibly strong to arrest any kind of loss of control of the
mass. I think it's a lot more important (and safer) to have good
mechanical means in place for controlling the descent. The second
helper will be _far_ more useful installing the extension wings,
I expect.

-Mike



mac

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