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I took off 1 star for those 2 issues. I got this with a new DW746. I had a Sliding miter table on my Craftsman 21829 so I was a big fan of the concept.
These tabs can also be used to hold shop-made feather boards thin strip jigs in place in the miter slot.So in summary a well made nice to have accessory for your saw. Based on the price it's justified more if you do a lot of panels. The other feature I like is that there are two tabs in the miter slot that get tightened to hold the miter gauge in place for the sliding table. Although it is not a necessity, it is a nice addition.
It is much sturdier and has a wider and longer capacity. I like the consistency, the reliability and the safety of this add-on. I really like this slider. Now that I have gotten it set up I can reliably get square cuts along a 30" crosscut and keep my fingers well out of the way.
Fine tuning the set up was finicky as well. This one is a big step up. The shipping was harsh on the packaging.
Really nice kit.Amazon delivered in two days which was impressive as well. I received my sliding table today and installed it on my 746 with no problems. Many of the reviews have described problems with the mitre assembly being sloppy and inaccurate, but I must have received an improved/updated unit because mine is tight and spot-on.
Finally, the only thing that worked was getting online and buying a worthy replacement for the miter gauge. I tried rigging something, and I tried facing the table toward Mecca while prostrating myself. The miter gauge has play even after I went through the prerequisite rituals of tightening anything that looked like it might tighten.
I like the table a lot. Anyway, it was packed well and undamaged when I got it. My experience so far isn't different than many others.
My only complaint so far is the same as you've read here. I'm taking the dewalt miter gauge in the house and see if I can't work my way through the system to see where it's breaking down. Like many, I'm sure, I lifted the nasty up there by myself and thought I was going to lose 11 of my 10 fingers for the momentary insanity.
As luck would have it, I remain whole--in body anyway, but it is a pretty heavy table.
The three biggest issues I found were: 1) Alignment, I've aligned this table three times now to get the travel parallel with the saw table. If I could do it again, I would do what I'm planning on doing now: buy an Incra Miter Sled. But not as intended. This makes square cuts really difficult even with the miter guage set properly. 3) What's with the table lock. My cuts are inconsistent with no change to material or miter guage settings, meaning I'm recutting the same board multiple times in succession with different results.
Sorry DeWalt you win some, you lose some. I purchased this accessory over a year ago. I liked the weight it added to the table. I think this is also contributing to non-square cuts.
Even when locked down "tight". 2) Miter Guage, like others I'm in disbelief that the guage has so much play in it. Pretty flimsy and yes I did try adjusting the lock bolt. This accessory.it's not a winner.
So in this case the table is improving accuracy and ease. I verified this by replacing the Miter gauage that came with the sliding table and using the original stock guage, then using a T square to ensure material squareness and create a square pencil guide line to follow the saw tracking. Overall I gave this three stars largely becuase if I use the table with the fence, the table really helps move stock through the saw easily while the fence keeps it square IF I only use the miter to as additional support (not for accuracy). Set up was not a problem.
Even when locked, the table routinely slides if slightly bumped. I will say that some of this may be operator error as the stock miter guage does't have enough support for large material so maybe the material is moving but not all of it is me. The travel just seems to change with each pass. Cuts range from a 1/32 to 1/8 an inch out of square.
They told me they were aware of the issue but that it was not a significant variance to warrant a manufacturing correction. I called Dewalt directly to see if there was a fix for this. This attachment is a waste of money for one simple reason: The mitre gauge flexes left to right when set so there is no way to get a perfectly square cut. It doesn't matter how tightly locked in everything is, the fence on the mitre will move.
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