I had a lot of frustrating little problems when I first got the saw but now that it's worked out it well worth it.
This is actually my second 4100. The first one was damaged when the box came open during shipment and the table top was scratched up by parts of the cart legs. It didn't help that the way it was packed the only thing separating the table top and the cart legs was a thin pieice of styrofoam with a cut out in the middle.
Anyway I received the second saw undamaged. There were some fit and finish issues. The table top had what looked like black fingerprint marks. I tried getting it off but couldn't...oh well...no big deal it's cosmetic. The second problem was not so trivial. The riving knife assembly was loose and not square to the table or lined up to the blade. There were no instructions in the manual on how to align it. I emailed Bosch customer service but it took them awhile to respond (5 days). In the interim, I figured it out myself. There's two allen bolts that adjust the riving knife from side to side and a screw with a locknut that adjust the angle. After that the saw ran fine and the new guard system worked as advertised...modular and very easy to use.
The saw was running fine for about a week when I ran into my third problem. As expected the blade supplied with the saw dulled out pretty quickly. I replaced with the Freud LU83R010 10-Inch 50-Tooth Thin Kerf Combination Blade that I bought just for the occasion. I tried a few crosscuts and the new blade cut like butter. I decided to rip a 24 inch piece of 3/4" plywood. To my horror the wood binded between the riving knife and the fence as it went past the back of the blade. I checked the alignment and tried again...same thing the wood binds as it goes pas the back of the blade. Tried my Irwin Marathon 80T blade and same thing. It turned out that the Freud LU83R010 and the Irwin 80T has a 0.092" kerf while the riving knife is 0.091" wide. Talked to Bosch customer service and they confirmed that is a problem. Their suggestion was to try a blade with the wider kerf. I tried the Bosch PRO1050COMB with a 0.128" kerf and a Bosch CB1040 with a 0.098" kerf and they work fine. So beware when using thin kerf blade with this new riving knife/guard system. Bosch 4100-09 10-Inch Worksite Table Saw with Gravity-Rise Stand
I am a finish carpenter and had been going back and forth between the Ridgid Table Saw and Bosch. Although I've used the Ridgid before, after researching the Bosch for couple of months, I decided to buy it. This saw is more expensive than the Ridgid but I must say it is worth the extra bucks. Very sturdy and accurate (once you do your initial setup). The gravity rise stand is ingenious and although I do not mind the 2 step folding saws, this saw always puts a smile on my face as I use the rise stand. Its so simple even a kid could work it.
The saw is higher than your standard table saws by about 3 inches. It does not sound much but it did feel awkward at first after using standard saws for such a long time. You do get use to it quickly though.
The rip fence is dead on and the soft start feature is a nice addition that prevents overload.
The saw is heavy but is easily loaded to the bed of your truck/van by placing the handles on the bed and sliding it back.
One of the worst features of this saw is the wheels. They are not large enough to carry over stairs. You will, I repeat you will scrape the metal bars behind the wheels frequently. Do not try to roll this saw over finished stairs. I am surprised that the engineers at Bosch did not recognize this.
Overall though, this saw is the best portable saw that I have used in years.
I have been using this saw for several months and am quite happy with it. I bought it mostly because of the safety features: riving knife, blade guard, and anti-kickback pawls. Early reviews said that these devices are so easy to use that owners actually will use them, and that has been my experience.
The saw is well designed in other respects, too. The fence and miter gauge are easily adjusted and accurate. The blade height adjustment wheel is convenient. The only thing I don't like is the clumsy blade bevel adjustment: to change the blade angle, you unlock a rather stiff lever and the blade and motor assembly flops around--you just push it to where you want it and tighten the clamping lever. I would have preferred a wheel like the height adjustment.
The gravity-rise stand is neat. I don't transport the saw to job sites (I'm a hobbyist woodworker), but I have to work in my garage, and need to store my tools against the wall. The saw is easy to fold up and stores in very little space.
The saw arrived in good shape, although when the UPS driver took it out of the truck, the manual fell out. It's easy to see how some people get a saw with no manual. If this happens to you, I suggest you download the manual from Bosch's web site. I did this before the saw arrived in order to learn about it as soon as possible. Yes, it's 84 pages long, but after page 20 or so, odd-numbered pages are in French and Spanish--if you don't need either of those languages, you can just print out the even-numbered pages.
I recently acquired a thin-kerf Forrest Woodworker II blade. I was a little nervous about it because of the reviewer who had trouble using a thin-kerf blade because the kerf is too narrow for the wood to clear the riving knife. The kerf of the Forrest blade is variously reported as 3/32", which is .094", and .100", and the riving knife is .091" thick. I had no trouble with the wood binding on the riving knife, in both crosscut and ripping operations. (The blade cuts beautifully, too--recommended.)
All things considered, this is a good portable saw for the price. I'd have gone with a larger saw if I had room for one, but I have to be able to tuck my tools off to the side in order to put my vehicles in the garage.
Rather than go into detail about what it does well, I'll just list my complaints:
- The included blade is of mediocre quality (though that's to be expected from stock blades these days)
- The texture of the table top looks like bead blasted metal, but from what I can tell it's some sort of spray coating. It's rubbing off in some areas to reveal a smoother surface underneath. Honestly, I'm not sure why they didn't just leave it that way.
- The included miter gauge fits sloppily in the slot. I had to purchase an aftermarket unit with adjustable width in order to make decent crosscuts.
- There is no way to lock the blade height, so it may change gradually because of vibrations or accidental nudging as you work. This can be a problem if you are doing partial cuts (such as dadoes for box joints) and need a constant depth.
- A considerable amount of dust goes to the floor under and behind the saw, even when hooked to a shop vac.
- The blade tilt adjustment is awkward. It has positive stops at 45 and 90 degrees, but anything else is best done with a good angle gauge and a helper to hold it in place while you use both hands to set the blade angle.
- The storage for the included push stick is on the back of the saw, instead of one of the sides where it would be easily in reach. - Portable Table Saw - Table Saws - Table Saw - Woodworking'
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