This saw rocks! May 04, 2011

My purchase of the Craftsman 22124 was the best decision I have ever made. I bought the saw over a year ago and this is an incredible saw! Coupled with the Leitz blade and beisemeyer fence, this saw rocks! I've used this to cut mahagony, walnut, hard maple, maple plywood and oak with no problems. The blade with aligned perfectly to the table and fence aligned perfectly to the blade right out of the crate. The saw was shipped in a steel crate and packed carefully. The fence was also packed carefully and without a scratch. I love this saw, it is the centerpiece of my shop. The only downsides to this saw are the miter fence and the flimsy outfeed table. I bought an Incra 1000HD and can't wait to cut wood on this saw! Updgrade this saw with a riving knife and you would have a superstar saw! Sears has created a rock solid, serious piece of hardware that belongs in the tool hall of fame! Psst...I feel guilty for the ridiculously low price I paid!

Craftsman Professional 10" CabinetTable Saw - Best of the Bunch! September 26, 2010

The industry called the Craftsman 22124 a "Hybrid"...a cross between the very common light duty contractor saws vs the heft, power and stability of the full cabinet saws. Make no mistake, this saw is MUCH closer to it's big brothers than to a contractor saw. It shared all the positives of the big cabinet saws, except the extra muscle (1.75hp) and higher prices!

I’ve been WW for 35 years and decided to step up to the stalwarts of the saw industry. After carefully researching features-performances-prices of the other hybrids on the market and reading the many positive reviews of this saw, I choose the Craftsman 22124! It had many useful features I wanted:   [110 volt operation, out feed table, quick release guard-splitter assembly, miter gauge clamp-crosscut fence, laminate side table, large cabinet door, wide 18" rip left of blade, very nice Leitz 40T blade, weight and heft close to 3hp cabinet saws, excellent Pro Biesemeyer T-square Fence system, small cabinet footprint, and HD-Cabinet Mounted Trunnions].  Besides the loaded extras, it also Looks great in my shop!

It was very well packaged, wrapped in a shroud of 1" tubular steel. Assembly could have taken me about 3-4 hours, but I used a whole day, enjoying the process and ensuring that each step was done right the first time. Happy to see All parts present and from the cast tables to the cabinet itself, materials were well wrapped with no damages noted. The cast side tables mated near perfect to the main table, but the extra laminate table has a .033" bow to it...will have to get it replaced or build a beefier one to support my 3 HP Router. After installing the front-back rails and the guide tube, found the Biesemeyer fence was slightly catching the lip of the miter slots towards the lock-down knob (front of saw). I had no more adjustment up on the front rail, so added a .250" washer shim to the fence riding pads, now all okay. The table was perfectly square to the blade and the fence was a breeze to square to the miter slots. Once locked down, it takes great effort to get the back of the fence to deflect even .001”…it is Rock Solid, yet glides Very Smoothly with little effort when making cutting adjustments!  Using feeler gauges and a dial indicator, I found the machine tolerances tight with main table flatness Perfect at .000” and the C.I. wings at .002”.  Arbor flange run out was at mere .0009". The completed assembly looks great and feels Very Solid, just like a well made 450# cabinet saw should!

In operation, there is virtually no vibration as the saw Easily passes the start-stop nickel test (using 1957 and 1955 worn coins...not an easy test). It runs relatively quiet (80db at table), with no need for earplugs when not cutting wood stock. Due to my small shop (10’ x 20’), I added the Craftsman mobile base (#22303) to get the 22124 outside for full size sheet work…it’s design and function is simplistic elegance. I've installed a Forrest Woodworker TK-II, a blade that has served me extremely well these past 10 years and a dream to use.

With the features-quality-value it offers, I feel the 22124 was the Best Buy of the HYBRID Bunch. It should serve me, and my boys, many decades of skilled WW service!

The new table saw is a great buy with great options. December 10, 2009

I just bought this table saw two weeks ago and it has been wonderful to use. I had to spend very little time fine tuning the factory settings, and the blade that comes with it is of good quality. The fence is solid and the granite top is great, though I dropped a wrench on it during assembly and put a slight chip in it, though it is hardly noticeable.

Good saw June 24, 2009

Finally, after 10 years of using a $200 Craftsman saw for furniture, and borrowing friends' saws every now and again, I decided it was time to get a decent saw. Overall, this saw is great, although the factory assembly leaves a lot to be desired and there are a few other minor issues. Pros: -Very powerful for a relatively low HP saw. It cannot compete with the 3+ HP monsters, but it does 1" thick oak fairly well, and 3/4" oak very well. -Quiet, one of the quietest saws I've used. -The fence is just about perfect. -Low vibration. -Easy to align (at least mine was, but some reviewers seem to have found differently). -The Biesemeyer extension, while cheap wood, can be tossed to give a great place to mount a router table for those of us with space problems. -Easy to remove blade guard. Cons: -The factory assembly was awful, several things, including the blade elevation and tilt mechanisms, were not assembled properly. Looks like someone forgot to tighten all the set screws, the blade elevation didn't even work out of the box. Quality control people! -No riving knife, but there is a blade guard assembly that does OK for some purposes. -They include a Biesemeyer fence, it likely would not add much to the cost to put a good miter gauge in as well. The stock one is OK, but not great. -Tabletop is not perfectly flat, but not off enough to be a problem. -Slight arbor play. -Inconvenient locking system for elevation and tilt handles - turning the lock can turn the handle too. -Outfeed table cannot be adjusted high enough to actually support anything, its about 1/4 inch below the table. -Arbor not long enough to take a 3/4 inch dado blade.