We always love to hear feedback from people who have purchased our products. Recently, I received a well thought out Saw Trax review from a gentleman who had purchased one of saws seven years ago back in 2007.
Dear Sawtrax Management,
I am now age 71 and have been hobbling around for some time. My purchase order was dated 12/26/2007 (Beaver Tools) and included full size 1000 Series 64″ high model, Full mid-fence and Floating router plate. My purchase was preceded by researching various options and visiting with your rep from time to time.
My 1000 Series full-size, 64″high panel saw, mid-fence and router attachment have served my 71 year old body just as advertised.
What I wanted was a dependable, accurate saw that would safely take the heavy lifting out of making square cuts in 4×8 and 5×5 sheet goods, and cut dadoes for cabinet construction. Before making the investment, I made careful comparisons, both on-line and at a big annual woodworking show, talking to various manufacturers’ reps along the way. When I called customer service at Saw Trax, questions were always courteously, promptly answered.
With relevant photos, here is a summary of my observations/innovations relating to this product, made in the U.S.A. This is not an attempt to describe what you can already learn at the Saw Trax.com site:
1. While the panel saw does take up wall space in my shop, there is room enough behind it to accommodate dust collector pipe, shop vac, connections, a pipe clamp rack, and rare woods bin.
2. Carefully following printed instructions does lead to a square cutting saw or router assembly. When I lay a square on a completed cut, it really tickles me to see such precision. Recently I shoved the saw frame closer to the wall. It stayed “in square”. I placed bumpers under the end supports and marked the concrete so I could tell if the saw is ever accidentally bumped out of position.
3. Even ordinary inexpensive 7.25” circular saw blades make a pretty good quality cut, but you get what you pay for. Saw Trax markets some sweet blades! Although I attached my own knob to make adjusting the position of the saw easier, I have left it tight and made square cuts only.
4. I fabricated my own dust collection hookup for the bottom/back of the Saw Trax with some sheet metal, and a shop vac collects from the P.C. circular saw itself.
5. The mid-fence, carefully aligned, conveniently gives great right angle results when sizing cabinet sides or cutting dadoes. Note the spring clamp used to stop vertical travel when cutting stopped dadoes.
6. Supporting the lead in/ lead out black rollers with a simple floor support helps keep the entire weight of sheet good from stressing the first roller or two during loading.
7. Although it was a tight fit, I was able to crosscut 1.5″ thick material, but it was hard on the dust brush attachment in front of the blade.
8. To make it easy to align the vertical plywood cut mark with the saw blade, I made a simple angled jig which fits snugly into the vertical sheet metal pan centered on the frame, then lined up the material cut mark with my jig’s kerf locator. I know the cut will be right on. This is so much better than peeking at the edge of the blade just before making the cut.
9. The wooden box I made to fit over most of the exposed circular saw simply slips on and off as desired. I attached a salvaged piece of thin metal to the base plate, left of the saw, to stabilize the box. It has dramatically cut down saw noise, and the sawdust gets gulped up by the shop vac hose or drops to the floor, where much of it is caught by my dust collector. No more sawdust in the face.
10. I found it useful to take a piece of hardboard and size one end to match the saw kerf. Then as a panel is horizontally pushed through the blade, the kerf keeper can be placed into the exiting part of the kerf, relieving stress on the blade.
11. When it comes to routing, I have had the best success with Her-Saf reverse helix router bits, half inch shanks. I went through a small learning curve, as usual.
12. Without my SawTrax I could no longer cut panels, given my health and age. Thank you SawTrax! My son looks forward to inheriting it.
Tad G. Hess
July 2014
Tad – Thank you for your review!
