Ridgid's New Table Saw at Baltimore MD Woodworking Show

[kramer katt]

I wonder if this will put any price pressure on Craftsman Zipcode saws
that would be great

[phrog]

I think a lot of Granite's strength depends on the type of granite. There's more than one kind, and it's not a homogenious material. For instance, a granite with a lot of veining would be prone to breaking along the vein, but something that's one solid section should be fine, I would imagine.

Bigguyz,
Now I'm all confused again. :-) (I think you may be right.)
Richard

[SARGE..g-47]

Is it granite or a composite granite?

It's granite coming from a quarry a few miles from the Steel City Manufacturing plant in China and rated as some of the best granite in the world. Any granite mined is first checked for potential cracks and any that shows any gets cullled.

There is no need to spend a lenghty time in the casting process to relieve stress as with cast iron. And even under a highly monitored process if the carbon is not dispersed evenly in cast iron... it can stress crack down the road is the reality. Granite has been "stress relieved" for 5 million years and just waiting to be used now. A water grind down to around .001 and good to go.

The granite tables have stainless steel rods inserted and epoxied at key structural points to re-enforce it more. I can't say with HD as they will carry their own warranty but.. Steel City has their own version which will be out soon. It will carry the normal 10 year warranty with 5 year on the machine as all Steel City. The only exception is the new black granite lathe.

I got a call from Jim Box (head of SC technical department and I mentioned to him to check at his convenience to see if the Biese or the Steel City Industrial (a Bieseymer with the original foot pad that rides the rear rail to keep the rear of the fence from dragging table as the current Biese) would fit. He will get back to me when that is done as they are somewhat busy with new machines drifting in from over there.

BTW.. I have field tested the black granite jointer fence for 2 years. Not one scratch or chip. I intentionally hit the back of the fence with a 1" metal wrench about 4-5 times very hard to try to chip it but.. it only deflected off. I would not do the same thing on any outer corner though as it might be suseptible there. And any chip can be patched with epoxy and then sanded out.

Regards..

[THyman]

Geeoh,

By chance was Rigid selling any reconditioned bench tools like the planer or jointer and if so can you remeber the $?