Customer Reviews

DELTA 36-821L Special Edition 10-Inch Left Tilt Arbor Unisaw with Biesemeyer 50-Inch T-Square Commercial Fence

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I must say that I am more than impressed with this saw! Alot of investigation and homework went into the purchase of my cabinet saw. Once the wife said "go ahead" I looked at all the possibilites, Jet,Powermatic,General, and Dewalt. I went on the internet, called manufactures, read every woodworking magazine I could find, and played the each saw to get a feel for them. Finally I spoke to my friend who has been teaching woodshop since 1966 and he told me that he has a Powermatic in his shop. He expressed to me the problems he has had in the past and the 3 motors he has had to replace. He recommended I consider the Delta Uni-Saw. I began talking to more professinal woodworkers (8 to be exact) and each of them said "buy Delta". After 9 of 9 experts endorsed the Uni-saw I went ahead and bought the Delta. I have now owned my saw for 6 months and I can say I am happy I chose Delta. The saw came nicely package on a crate and arrived without a single dent or scratch. Set up was easy and the instructions were very easy to read and understand. The saw came perfectly aligned out of the box. The rip fence took only minutes to align and it was only a off a 64th". The surface of the saw as completely flat. Once the saw operational, I ripped a 3" piece of maple with no problems. I then checked my freshly cut piece with calipers and it was dead on. My question is how could you not chose the Delta since thay have been manufacturing this saw since 1937. I only have 2 negative comments about this saw. First the blade it came with. It was really "cute" and was the same quality as a "Craftsman" wall clock I got for x-mas where they used a saw blade as the body of the clock. Second, I still can not find the dato insert as it is different for the left tilt than the right tilt. Its ok, I just made my own. Hope this was helpful!

I purchased my left-tilt Unisaw late last spring. When the guard is folded back and the blade tilted, the splitter catches in the rear rail and jambs, damaging the splitter. I was having trouble getting a quality bevel cut and discovered that the blade went out of alignment with the miter slots when tilted. Delta says .015" is acceptable but mine goes out more. Test custs showed that even at .015, the cut quality was unacceptable. Generals and Powermatics seem to be within .001" at all settings from the factory. I ended up having custom table shims made to get it in alignment withing .001" at both 90 and 45 (it goes out about .005" between the two extremes).

Delta's machinist told me the miter slots were not machined right and their rep admited they had quality control problems with the wings resulting in excess shimming. Replacement tops and wings were sent and were either dished or were rusted and had to be replaced again. Biesemeyer has replaced the rear rail several times because of errors in drilling the mounting holes.

In DECEMBER, the situation was turned over to the local rep who insisted this would never happen if he had been involved from the begining. He finally took care of the top and wings but forgot to order a new guard. When he was reminded to get the guard, he ordered the wrong one. Still waiting for the right one. Also noticed Delta had completely missed a weld on the mobile base causing the saw to be unstable.

Delta had me take three vacation days to meet their machinist who said he thought the quality was unacceptable and I was not being unreasonable. Countless evenings and weekends later, we may be in the home stretch once the final parts come in...of course, now it's FEBRUARY of the following year.

Once all the major issues were corrected, the saw performs reasonably well. However, it seems if you want high quality, you need to buy General or Powermatic and if you want to save money, buy Jet or one of the reputable imports. Time is to valuable to be wasted like this.

I knew it was time to upgrade my Table Saw from a Conractor Series model but I didnt know who to believe. Was Powermatic and the extra bucks worth it or was Grizzlys or Jets low prices the best deal? I looked at just about every saw that was out for a solid year. I heard good and bad about Powermatic...and heard Grizzly was an import from a distant land BUT I never heard anything but good about Delta, especially the UniSaw. From amatures to the pros...they all said, If I were you Id get a Delta. Finally, I just decided to check out the ToolCrib Website and found customer reviews under many of the Models I was looking at. All other brands had comments about troubles except the Delta saws...other than it being hard to follow directions on building the unit. I bought the UniSaw! I just got my Delta Table Saw, Beisemeyer Fence System, and Delta Outfeed Table and it was a BREEEEZE to build. Out of the box, all items were perfect and easy to assemble. I actually enjoyed it! Now that Im sitting here telling you my review, Im thinking...Imagine how much better my woodworking would have been this year IF ONLY I HAD DECIDED EARLIER! Be sure and get the outfeed table too...its worth the [cost].

One negative...buy a new blade for your new saw. The one that comes with it is cheezy at best. I figured a saw this good ougth to have the top of the line blade since it a top of the line machine.

THis is a good, solid saw at a very competitive price. It is much better than the older Deltas. Stll, it just doesn't stack up to the Powermatic, the General, or other saws that cost s few hundred dollars more. The table milling is average, arbor tilt mechanism is pretty good, belt connection to blade is prone to gathering dust and slipping during heavy use. The best features of this saw are the excellent laminated table extensions and the Biesmeier fence. Overall, this is s good saw for home or school shops, but it doesn't have the weight, solidity, acuracy, or refinement that you'd want for serious can=binet work or production runs. Oh, and the Delta mobile base is very very good and stable.

I am very happy with the purchase of the 36-821L Unisaw. Although they do not specify it, you need to order or build the right extension table or you will not be able to use the saw correctly. It seems that the saw comes with all the parts needed for the extension table except for the most important part, the extension table. I decided to build my own extension table and it ended up costing me half the price. The saw was very easy to put together, it did not take 5-6 hours like the other reviews stated. Only one problem with the saw so far and that is that the on/off switch seems to be defective and although the saw does work, i will have to get in touch with... and/or Delta to fix the problem. It also does come with a very wimpy blade so you should upgrade it as soon as possible.

I have tried and used many different table saws through the years, but find no stationary SHOP saw that I enjoy using more then the Delta 5 HP unisaw which I recently purchased. I also purchased the roller base with the saw. I have used many 3 hp Unisaws and loved them. I figured that for the few hundred more I have the 5 HP, why not! I love the power, the ease of setting up for the cut, the stability while ripping heavy MDF sheets, as well as the continued percision with unbelievable ease. This saw out performs any saw that I have ever used, including some very big shop saw names! I also have the 10" portable jobing table saw by Makita with the Rousseau stand for the field. Excellent in it's place.

I have a small home shop, and purchased this saw about 3 weeks ago. I love it. I don't do any heavy production work, just furniture and cabinet work, and this is the perfect saw. I can honestly say that I will have this saw for a long time. Power is great, blade control is excellent, and the 50" Biesmeyer fence system is spot on accurate. I highly recommend this saw to anyone looking to purchase a cabinet style table saw. Delta is the best.

I bought the Delta left tilt arbor Unisaw. I'm very happy with it. I could have purchased either the Powermatic or the General. The attention to detail on the machining seems better on the Delta than the other machines.