Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I finished assembling the DWE7491RS saw/stand combo today and I'd like to offer up some tips and observations. The booklet for the stand is not very clear on some things and you will find yourself looking back and forth on page 1 which has two illustrations of the assembled stand. One of he things it does not tell you is you are going to need a dead blow hammer (rubber mallet) to mate the stand frame sections together. You will also want a 13mm wrench and a 13mm socket/ratchet. If you don't have any metric tools, wrap some electrical tape or masking tape around the handle of the supplied "mickey mouse" wrench. It will tear you hand up if you don't. Don't loose the Allen wrench that comes with it unless you have a metric set. None of the SAE sizes will fit the bolt heads. As you start assembling the stand legs, handles etc., you will notice that on one side the bolt holes (in the yellow structure) are normal round holes. But one opposite side they are slightly slotted. This allows for tolerance differences during the manufacturing and assembly at the factory. I found that if you install the bolts in the normal round holes first, then the slotted ones the bolts fit better. I tried the other way around first and had a heck of a time getting the bolts into the normal holes. It really doesn't make sense to me but that is the way it is. The two M6-12 pan bolts for assembling the frame halves are labeled "Tool & Frame". All the other labeling on the parts bag are fairly straight forward. When you install the saw onto the stand frame you will find that access to the nuts on the saws front side is difficult due to limited clearances. A thin wrench is the best option. Other saw info: The rip fence is attached to the left side of the saw for shipping/storage. I wish I had taken a picture of it before I removed it as I can't figure out how to re-attach it there (figure 45 and the "how to" on page 14 of the saw manual is useless). If you have magnetic featherboards your out of luck. The top of the saw is cast aluminum. There is a button on top of the cord storage that may be a thermal reset button. There is nothing in the manual about it. The power cord is fairly stiff and seems to be well insulated. However the power cord is rather short so if you are using it at job site you are probably going to need an extension cord. Which brings me to the next subject, power. This saw is rated at 15 amps so one would expect a fairly hefty motor. The one that comes with it seems rather small in size compared to some other motors of equal amperage. The miter slot is standard T-slot. I purchased the DEWALT DW7444 Dado Throat Plate (for DW744 saw) and it fits fine although the dado blade size is probably limited to 8" to 8 1/2" inches in max diameter of about 3/8" wide (or so). I have seen comments that the dado throat plate and the standard throat plate snags wood. There are adjustment screws on both of them and the can be adjusted to be lower than the throat cut-out. Also seen a comment that the dado plate doesn't lock. Yes it does just like the standard throat plate. The quality of the unit seems well made and fairly well engineered. There are some plastic parts that I have concerns about especially if one is actually going to use it daily for construction. I would have given this saw 5 stars but I need to use it more before I rate it that high. Update July 22nd: I finally got around to cutting some wood with the saw and must say I was very wrong about the size of the motor vs. actual power. This baby can flat cut wood. I swapped out the factory blade for a 80 tooth Diablo carbide blade and was ripping through pressure treated 2 x 6's like they were soft butter. I did a an alignment check of the Diablo blade to the miter slot (left side) and it was approximate .1mm off (front to back of same point of blade). I raised the blade all the way up the marked a spot on the blade just behind the carbide tip. With the blade rotated so the marked spot is even with the table top on the front side of the saw I measured the distance from the blade to the edge of the miter slot. I then rotated the blade towards the back of saw until the same marked spot is even with the saw's table top on the back side and made the same measurement. The bevel of the blade to the saw table was dead on from the factory. The exhaust port on the back of the saw fit my ShopVac brand vacuum perfectly.. no adapter need. However, will need something to fit the blade guard exhaust port. Couple of cons though. The miter gauge storage takes a contortionist to get it in and out of the storage location. I have reservations on the longevity of the plastic (rubber?) caps on the bottom of the two legs on the wheel side. You have to rotate the saw on these to erect (and lower) the saw. Abrasive material like concrete will wear them down as you rotate the saw up and down. Already seeing black makes on my floor. In regards to the riving knives. There is one "permanently" mounted to the blade guard and the other one is a stand-alone one that is pre-installed at the factory. The manual (page 9 - figure 27)indicates the the "permanent" one is 2.4mm thick and the stand-alone one is 2.2mm thick for thinner blades. The ones I received with the saw are both the same thickness. The two riving knives are shaped differently so I'm not sure if Dewalt changed the thickness after the manual was printed. Finally issue is there is no apparent locking mechanism hold the blade in the selected height position. The tilt is locked down but not the blade height. I guess it relies on the gear friction to hold it in place (?). I would now make this a 4 & 3/4 star rating if I could. 16 Sept 2014 Update Been using the saw for a couple of months now and have some updated observations: - As I noted previously, one will definitely need an extension cord if you are more that a few feet from a power source. - The plastic covering on the legs which one rotates the saw up and down is really taking a beating on raw concrete. Probably will not be an issue for a long time if used on dirt. - The saw is definitely powerful and capable of cutting all of the woods I've used on it (oak, cherry, walnut, birch, pine, and extremely hardened pressure treated pine). I use an 80 tooth tungsten carbide Diablo blade for all my cutting and it works very well with this saw. - After finishing a job, you should remove the blade insert, drop the blade all the way down and vacuum out the blade chamber, especially the cloth material that is used to keep the sawdust out of the motor.The cloth gets imbedded with very fine sawdust powder. As a side note to this, I noticed that when the saw is in the stowed upright position, there is a plastic cover over the saw-blade's aluminum housing. The are holes for screws and threaded mating holes in the housing for these screws. The were no screws in these holes on my saw. However, I did not that the plastic cover plate is easily removable and allows access to the saw blade chamber for cleaning. - Although the saw really kicks a lot of sawdust out the back port with or without a vacuum attached, the enclosure the houses the blade will still accumulate sawdust over time and should be cleaned. - The blade insert is made of aluminum but at the end of the slot, there are two black metal (iron/steel?) plates on each side of the opening. With the high humidity here in east TX they have started to rust. They appear to be clipped in and I think I can remove them and refinish them. Don't know whey they are there and don't seem to serve any purpose that I can see. - I had noted in my review previously that there is no apparent locking mechanism to hold the blade in the desired vertical position. I like to cut wood with a minimum piece of the blade protruding up from the cut. On several occasions, I have observed the blade "slipping" downward just enough that the blade did not cut all the way through the wood. In several instances I was using wood that had been planed smooth on both sides so that they were very straight and level. Since it does not do this all the time, I attribute this to where the two gears that raise/lower the blade sit in relation to the height selected. The fix for me is easy, just set the blade height higher than what I used to use. I don't think this will work well when doing dado cuts. Feb 22, 2015 Update Have been using the saw for 8 months now and I've upped my rating from 4 to 5 stars. The blade slipping down issue I noted in my previous update has disappeared. I don't know if I was doing something wrong, but it just flat stays locked in place. I absolutely love the rip fence. It seems to be infinitely adjustable and it locks firmly in place no matter where you set it. More importantly, when you use the lock down lever, it doe not move the fence even a fraction of an inch. I was wrong about using the DEWALT DW7444 Dado Throat Plate. The plate fits and locks into the opening but dado opening is not long enough to accommodate an 8" dado blade. Apparently the bade placement in this saw is located closer to the back of the saw. My fix was to use my band saw and cut the slot all the way open (to the rear of the throat plate). That fixed it. So far I haven't found a factory dado throat plate for this saw. I guess one could buy a blank zero clearance throat plate and cut it open with a dado blade set. If you are looking for an accurate saw that stores in a relative small foot print and is very easy to set up or fold for storage, I would highly recommend this saw. It may not be suitable for making quality furniture pieces, but you could not come any closer in a portable unit. Mar 6, 2014 Update Was looking at make a zero clearance throat plate for this saw and found one on Amazon for the DW746 table saw. I knew the dado insert for this saw fits so I thought I'd give it a try. Well low and behold it fits perfectly. In fact there is a sticker on the back of the this throat plate that indicates it will fit the following DeWalt saws: DW744; DW745; DW746; DWE7480; DWE7490X; DWE7491RS; and DWE7499GD. For this saw you have to remove the riving knife (aka: splitter), but I have found a solution if you want to keep it with the this throat plate. Measure how far back from the saw blade's does the riving knife extend (you need to raise the blade up all the way to make this measurement). Follow the instructions on how to setup the new throat plate (including the removal of the the riving knife) and make zero clearance cut in he plate. Next mark the throat plate with a line from the back of the kerf cut that matches the length that you previously measured for the length of the riving knife (including the gap between the back of the blade and the riving knife). With the blade fully extended in the zero clearance slot, turn on the saw and pull the throat plate up and towards you until the length of the marked line is cut. Turn off the saw the, remove the throat plate and re-install the riving knife. Assuming you blade is slightly wider than the riving knife, the slot will be wide enough to re-install the throat plate without any problem. This the the throat plate that Amazon sells: Leecraft DW-2 Zero-Clearance Table Saw Insert for DeWalt Model DW744 and DW746. Here is the link to it in Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000223V9/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 FYI: The picture in Amazon depicts it as red colored. It is actually a pale tan color and very well made. Follow up Oct 21, 2016 The saw is still going strong and the rubber feet have not worn out yet. No hiccups of any kind and surprised at how stable and accurate the cuts this saw can make. Its nearly equal to a lower end cabinet saw. Maybe better than some on the market?- As to the zero clearance throat insert I previously wrote about I did come across a couple of issues with it. It seems the height adjustment screws are not long enough to properly level the insert. It is only one side were it is lower than the other and not flush to the top of the table. The other issue, for some folks anyway, is there is no locking mechanism to hold it in place. Still can't find a "commercial" dado blade throat insert for this saw. I guess the saw is intended primarily for construction use but it would be nice to make so mortise and tendon joints for rough shelving, and workbenches, etc. July 4, 2017 Well its been a little over 3 years since I purchased this saw and I've just ran into my first major issue with it. I needed to make a 45 deg cut on a baseboard so I unlocked the blade from the upright position and titled the blade to 45 deg and locked it. After I complete the cut, I started to unlock the black to return it upright so I could lower the blade for storage. For some reason the locking lever would not move. After try to move it for several minutes I took a rubber mallet and gently tapped on the lever until it finally started to move. I finished moving it to the unlock position by hand. Although the locking lever moved to the unlocked position, the blade in fact did not unlock. My blade is now stuck in the 45 deg position. I'm going to have to figure out how to take the locking mechanism apart and see what the issue is. I'm hoping (best case) that there is a pin in lever that engages the locking mechanism and it is worn or slid out just enough to not engage the lock.