Popular Woodworking Editors' Blog

It's a good thing that I keep a change of clothes at work. And that I don't wear leopard-print underwear.

OK, let's back up a minute.

This morning I'm finishing up work on the next I Can Do That project, and it requires about 1,000 bamboo skewers that are cut to 8-1/4" long. That 1,000 is not a typo.

We try to obey "the rules" of the I Can Do That column when we build these projects – the tools and materials must come from a home center. And so I wanted to find a way to cut these skewers using the tools in the I Can Do That tool kit. There is no band saw. Only a chop saw and a handsaw.

So I bound together 100 of the skewers tightly with blue tape and marked on the tape where I needed to cut the bunch. I set a stop on the miter saw and began the cut slowly. About three skewers later the entire bunch exploded, and I was glad that I'd visited the Little Editor's Room before beginning the operation.

So I took a bundle out to Senior Editor Glen D. Huey and asked him how he'd cut them.

"With a handsaw – hand tool boy," he said, cackling.

Then he said he'd do it with a band saw, which was my first choice as well. So I bound up another 100 skewers in tape and made the cut on the band saw with no problem.

Looks like we'll be recommending the readers use snips or a handsaw to trim these skewers – perhaps while watching Ingmar Bergman's "Scenes from a Marriage."

Oh, and about that leopard-print underwear comment above: My grandmother always said you should wear undergarments that would look fine in the emergency room when they cut your clothes off – a rule that my mother scandalously violated in her youth with hilarious consequence.

— Christopher Schwarz

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If you didn’t get a chance to read my earlier entry about the Unisaw arriving at our shop, click here to do so.

Ahhhh! The sweet sound of a table saw running. Come on. Admit it. Some of you thought you might never hear the Unisaw running, didn’t you? I have to admit that I had questions myself. In fact, I had a running joke with the Delta account reps – and I assume the folks at Delta through transference – that the saw has yet to be fired up. Even during the Editors’ Event held in Jackson, Tenn. (to read about it, click here), no saw was available for us to use.

Other than the very first e-mail about the Unisaw redesign (which I received prior to the beginning of the Presidential primaries), no one who I knew of had heard a redesigned Unisaw run, except for the one saw that Scott Phillips demonstrated at the IWF show in Atlanta. Well, now you can rest assured. The saw does run and it sounds great!

Assembly was fairly easy. I was frustrated when I couldn’t find the instructions for assembling the extension table. I scampered into the office to watch the included DVD (although it wouldn’t take a master's degree to figure out what went where). After opening all the boxes, I did find a guide that detailed the installation of the table, fence and rails boxed with the Biesemeyer fence. (I was like a kid in a candy store – anxious to get this saw powered up, so I kind of skipped a few steps here and there – like unpacking all the boxes before I got started with assembly.)

As I worked toward the end of the assembly process, I found an innovative installation for the front tube of the fence system. On all the other table saw fence systems I've assembled, I've had to position the front tube, then reach up from the tube’s underside to install the bolts that hold things secure. On the Unisaw, you insert the bolts through the front rail from the top side, then turn a serrated flange nut just onto the bolt. From there, you remove an end cap from the tube and slide the tube over the bolt heads. Once the tube is aligned, it’s a matter of tightening the bolts. It's very easy to do, but you have to have the room to complete the task.

Additionally, I had to tweak the settings on the fence system to get the unit sliding smooth and locking tight. My first impression is that there is a fine line between achieving both. I’ll look more closely at that in the future.

I couldn’t help but make a few cuts with this saw when I had the assembly complete. I ran a piece of maple – tiger maple, of course – and it felt like a hot knife going through butter. (Yes, your old beater feels great when you install a new sharp blade, but this felt better than that.) Over the next few months, we will get the chance to work day-in and day-out on this saw and we’ll share our findings (good and bad) in the August 2009 issue of Popular Woodworking. Look for it!

— Glen D. Huey

We received our new Delta Unisaw this afternoon. The boxes are unpacked, and I've watched some of both Scott Phillips' and Unisaw Product Manager Michael Boie's presentations on the included DVD.

If you're interested in this new table saw design, you've probably sifted through most of the information that’s been written about it. It’s exciting for us to finally get the machine in house so we can get a first-hand look at it.

So far, I can say that I have never turned handles to raise or lower a blade, or to control blade tilt, that work as smoothly as the ones on this saw.

Also, being the snoop that I am, I pulled the table saw top loose from the base – after I checked for run out (and found the measurement dead on). I wanted to get a closer look at the machine’s guts. Easier said than done. Once the four bolts were out, the top lifted, but I would have had to remove other parts to have the top come free. Oh well; I’ll save that for down the road. There’s no sense in dismantling a machine before we get it plugged in and running.

Lucky for me that reversing the process was just as simple! The Unisaw has a small pin located at the back center of the cabinet. Just hook that pin in the appropriate spot in the top, then finger-tighten the four bolts before checking and setting the top according to the blade. When all was set, I snugged down the bolts. It was easy.

One of Delta's most unadorned but fascinating redesigns was with the arbor nut and washer – this is now a single unit instead of the two pieces we're used to seeing. When you turn the nut loose from the arbor, the unit stays in place so you can reposition your hand and pull the nut out instead of dropping it into the saw. It’s a little thing that makes life in the shop better. I’ll have more details during the next few days as I actually make some cuts. Stay tuned.

The complete review will appear in the August 2009 issue of Popular Woodworking.

— Glen D. Huey