While the PM66 has proven itself to be all the cabinet saw I need, the Powermatic rip fence has never delivered the accuracy I require. As soon as I saw the Big Eye fence I knew it was the solution to my problem. Unboxing, it appeared every bit as well-engineered as I'd expected.
Installation involved:
-- Drilling clearance holes on the front skirt of the main table and extension table;
-- Drilling and tapping holes on the rear skirt;
-- Drilling clearance holes on the extension table rear skirt;
-- Cutting the supplied steel rod to 90mm and installing at the rear of the fence to account for the shorter depth (710mm) of the PM main table.
That was the extent of the machining needed to install both rails and the fence.
The fence kisses my Forrest Woodworker II blades perfectly in both high and low positions without needing further adjustment. I still need to check against at least one of my thin-kerf blades. The fence vs. either T-slot aligns front to back with only a couple thousandths (.001") variation. Locked vs. unlocked: no change. It wasn't necessary to add any of the supplied shims.
I can now take 1/32-inch slices from long stock with the expectation that their variance in thickness will be virtually undetectable with a micrometer, much less with the naked eye.
Love the adjustable scales; the long and short scales are easy to read. I anticipate the short scale on the left to get not a lot of usage as the left table extension has been replaced by an Excalibur sliding table. Perhaps I can use the short scale to establish the zero point for thin-kerf blades...
Overall a bullet-proof, engineering tour-de-force. Many thanks, Harvey...
The fine-adjust wheel needed nothing to tune it.
Received with free shipping++ was packed exceptionally well. Set up was a breeze. Definitely need to add it to my dust collection loop before really using it. I will update this review if anything adverse pops up.
My 3HP table saw arrived perfectly and was well-packaged. Assembly was simple and takes about 90mins. Alignment of the table and fence was straightforward. One small complaint is that the splitter for the guard and the extra splitter are made more for 1/8” blades. I have a thin kerf blade and the tolerance is very tight (<0.010”). Anyways, the saw cuts like a dream and the engineering and build are top notch. The miter gauge is a piece of artwork. Highly recommend.
I wish the thin kerf riving knife was the same size of the one used for dust collection. This one you have no upper dust collection.
This should probably be article length. Condensed: packaging is like nothing I’ve ever seen in 65 rotations around the planet. The entire unit is HEAVY. Way heavy. Like, maybe 1/2 the weight of the saw heavy. Beautifully constructed. I adapted it to my INCA 2200 12 inch saw. It picks up that last 1% the saw leaves. Should be noted that it is paired to a 5 horse Pentz designed Clear-Vue dust collector. Gorgeous. Expensive. Does what it claims to do. Buy quality once - regret nothing.
This was my first purchase with Harvey. If you know of the company, you know they have pricing strategy where they seem to focus on playing games with numbers while trying to create hype and impulse purchases. I wish that they would mature professionally and evovle to focus on building trust with customers based on quality products and a exceptional purchasing experience.
The bandsaw was ordered and shipped with great efficiency. Their shipping company, which is honestly Harvey's front door, was exceptional.
Packing of the saw was perfect. Everything arrived without the slightlest buckle of cardboard or shifting inside the box. Far better than I would have expected.
The saw went together easily with caveats. I read the manual but found it inadeaquate. Youtube had several "influencers" posting videos on the assembly. These were helpful, but the whole influencer product placement thing coupled with the pricing model is just one of the pills you have to swallow when dealing with Harvey. I suspect the business model in the corporate headquarters works with thin staff focused on fullfilling orders. That's great; adds values. Much of the marketing is getting product into influencers hands. What is missing is some dedicated people expanding and user-testing the user manuals.
But all and all, the saw is great. The price point means it's is top gear with some roughness on the polish of all of support materials (website, emails, manuals, etc). So if you are comformtable piecing together the base nowledge from multiple source, it's great bang for the buck.
I spent about twenty years going from one contractor type table saw to another because I needed something and that's what I could afford. The drawback on most of those types of saws these days is that insert is just a thin piece of stamped steel. Most also do not have a true zero clearance insert available. For instance the last one of those I had, which the Harvey replaced, was a D branded saw sold at the blue store. The zero clearance insert they sell for that is only zero clearance on the very front leaving a large gap behind that point for your thin pieces to fall into. The only other option is to buy a homemade one online or make one. Your options, given the thin steel plate are 1/8" acrylic, 1/8" plywood or (if you can find it) 1/8" phenolic. Whichever one it is weak, flexes and doesn't last, they also don't deal with DADO sets very well.
These zero clearance inserts Harvey sells are aluminum and beefy enough that nothing I put over it gives it even a little bit of an issue. Your carbide tipped sawblades will eat right through these to cut the kerf and they work just as well for full kerf blades, thin kerf blades and DAOA stacks. It is aluminum so you do need to be careful to be even slower than you would be with a shop made wooden insert. They will however cut through just fine. You can also lightly file the insides of the kerf cut once you make it to give it just a tiny bit of clearance, a few thou is all you need, so the blade isn't constantly rubbing against the insert very easily.
The fit and finish are perfect. The only real flaw is that with many sawblades, including the one Harvey ships with their saws and the three other they sell, are just a tad too high to fully seat the insert in to make the first through cut even with the blade as low as it will go. Fortunately, each insert has four leveling screws mounted in it. The screws have enough play to let you raise the insert up just enough so that it is not riding on the blade. You can't use the fence to hold it down at that point but you can clamp a piece of wood down across it in a few ways to hold it down. I used a scrap piece of wood, drilled two holes into it and used t-head 1/4"-20 bolts to lock it across the t-slots. Once you make a cut about two inches long you can shut the saw off, lower the blade, level the plate correctly in the opening, hold it down with the fence and complete the through cut. You really do want to complete the cut even is you only normally raise the blade up to cut 3/4" material and less so you can use the riving knife properly. I am actually going to buy a few more these to have them on hand for some specific tasks and to have a few replacements for the future in case I need them and they change the pattern and these are no longer available.
I bought the dust collection cabinet before I pulled the trigger on the cast iron table. I need to add a third layer to my current table because the router is bottoming out on the cabinet, causing the lift plate to rise up. So I would be happier if the cabinet was about an inch deeper , but it's an easy fix until I upgrade my work surface.
From deliver to resawing was 3 hrs and 15 minutes. Wonderful tool. Connecting the table yo the trunions was a bit troublesome. On bad side I was told to expect delivery on 14 Sep but it got here on 27 September. Worth the wait but I am glad I took a production pause
I purchased the RG-2 roller guide to replace shop-made featherboards that I had been clamping to the table on my old cabinet saw that had a smaller table than my Harvey. I had been considering a magnetic type and am glad I postponed that purchase. I have yet to use the RG-2 but it is well-designed and robust so I anticipate that it will function accordingly.
Fits perfect. I would like to see a thin kerf replacement for the over arm dust collection blade guard.
Moving from a contactor's saw to this is night and day. Plenty of power to rip 8/4 stock. The blade height and bevel adjustments are smooth and easy to use. I have a 2hp dust collector connected to it with about 20 feet of metal pipe from the collector to the saw and the dust collection is great. Just going to take some time to get used to the blade guard.
The entire router table system is solid. Great tool. Couldn't be happier with all of the components of the router table system.
The insert fits perfectly since it made by the manufacturer for this saw. It has all the adjustments the regular insert has with the added benefit of being zero clearance. I'd like to see a version made with a removable zero clearance portion, made of mdf or plastic. This would allow for replacement of the disposable portion. Otherwise if I want an insert for cutting at a 45° or other angle I would need to buy another insert and they are pricey.
I installed the Bigeye on my franken-craftsman tablesaw - harvey router table to the left, "vintage" cast-iron extensions to the right - replacing a vega fence from 2004. Nothing wrong with the vega, so true to this day, but it was missing a number of the features I was looking for.
It was installed in less than 1 hr (for the most part, more on that later). The hardest part was moving the saw to get to the back. My existing mounting holes lined up without any need to drill, the eccentric bolts sliding in the t-track is a brilliant design!
On my table, the holes in the harvey router table are slightly higher than the cast iron tables on the craftsman, so being able to use different orientations on the bolts was a life-saver. Dialing it in was effortless.
My favorite features include the high-low fence, the stops on the rails, the t-track on the top of the fence, and of course the rear clamping.
The only annoying thing is you can only remove the fence on each end. This is unavoidable given the way the fence slides on bearings in the rail. But, in my small shop that means I can only remove the fence on the far left side forcing me to take lower the blade and remove the splitter, it's trivial, and with 52" to the right, I don't know if I'll ever need to.
The only problem I had was the two set srews on the stops for the scale (one each on two stops) could not be loosened with any standard hex key, it's like they were either stripped or milled for a 2.25mm hex key. They didn't look stripped but no hex key I own (or shipped with the fence) fit tightly enough to loosen the screw.
Harvey's cs came through, sending me replacement stops the same day, but I had to drill and use a screw extractor to remove the faulty stops. Scary on a brand new piece of equipment, especially at this price.
Overall, I love it! The stability of the fence makes ripping large sheet goods far more accurate and scary than my previous fence. Absolutely no deflection.
It’s just arrived today,
Still not assembled but the quality is hi level.
I think my harvey sliding table is the first one in Saudi Arabia :) I am so excited to try it on my laguna F1
Thanks for hi quality
This big eye rip fence has been such a huge improvement to my workflow. The fence is square and doesn’t deflect when I apply pressure and the flip stops are a great add on for those repeat cuts