Hitachi C10RJ 10" 15-Amp Jobsite Table Saw with 35" Rip Capacity and Fold and Roll Stand

I like this saw! I'm not a cabinet maker, but as a cheapo guy who has built a number of storage and garden sheds, I will take this unit over the more costly DeWalt (which no doubt is a good unit) any day. It wasn't too difficult to assemble but the manual isn't much help unless you use a magnifying glass to study the pictures and make sure the parts turned the right way and on the correct side, they don't explain a lot. However, the saw itself is nice and I feel stacks up well against saws costing $200 more. It is accurate, the fence locks tight, and you can adjust what you need. My saw was accurate right out of the box. Reviews of other saws did not convince me they were that much better and in some cases they seem more complicated.

I've owned full size table saws in the past. I was hesitant to purchase this inexpensive "portable" saw, thinking it would never compare to those used professionally in the past. BIG SURPRISE! This saw is exceptionally designed, sturdy and accurate. i actually prefer it to larger saws I've used before. It sets up fast, stores fast and is very easy to move and store. UNBEATABLE!

The assembly was simple. I checked the calibration, adjustments, before I used the saw; every one was right-on. I will be building a boat soon, I will more than likely check them before I start again. I don't expect them to need tweaking. I've only ripped soft wood but I fully expect it to rip 5/4 and 6/4 American hardwoods. The blade was very sharp. I've not put my dado blade on yet but I anticipate no issues. Worth every penny!

I ordered the saw in November and it worked great until January when it suddenly stopped working. I sent it to the warranty shop (40 minutes away) and it took FOUR MONTHS to get the start switch module. I called Hitachi support several times and they said the part was back ordered. They finally confessed that there was a design issue and the part had been recalled. FINALLY my newly designed switch module was received and installed. It worked great again ... for ONE WEEK and now the smart switch module is dead again. Now I have owned the saw for 6 months and I have been able to use it for a total of 7 weeks. I am tying to return it now. Update: Hitachi support is going to have FedEx pickup my saw and take it back to Georgia so they can look at it. They say they will repair or replace it. Depending on how this goes, I may change my rating. Update 2: I added 3 stars to my review. If it hadn't been such a rocky start, I would give it 5 stars. My saw was picked, repaired at the factory, and returned in two weeks. Hitachi was serious about their support. It has worked perfectly since (about 2 years). I have worn out one really nice carbide tip blade building my shop and a tree house. I would recommend this saw to friends & family.

Bought on sale for $350 and love this saw. The package was damaged in transit and the rear outfeed shelf was bent - Amazon refunded the cost of the arm and I simply bought a new one. Had to calibrate the scale but I honestly expect to do that on any machine that has been shipped UPS or FedEx. Otherwise everything was square and accurate. Top on mine was flat and I have had no problems with the power switch 6 months in. I've done superfine clean cuts to aluminum on it and have no complaints. The rear outfeed does not extend very far so I replaced the rods with 24" ones and it works great. The current price is listed at $499 but it appears the Metabo version (Hitachi changed it's name) is $100 less. At $500 you may be tempted to go with DeWalt or similar but $399 and under is a great deal for the saw.

Disclaimer: this is my first table saw and I am beginner woodworker, so take my review with a grain of salt. If this sounds like you, you might find this review helpful. Like other reviewers have mentioned, the manual is hard to follow in some spots. If you can use common sense, you probably will figure out most of what you need to do. After that, Google is your friend and will help you the rest of the way. The reason for the headline was because you have to put it together and adjust a lot of stuff to get it tuned in. For me, the fence wouldn't stay in place during cuts in the locked position so I had to dig around to figure out how to lock that down. Thanks to another reviewer, I was able to get my fence to lock properly and I will go over the instructions to do this later in this review. The saw has plenty of spots to make fine adjustments so you can dial it in pretty accurately. The fence feels flimsy and I will probably replace mine in the future if possible. Don't get me wrong, this saw will get you most of the way, but if you are looking for professional, fine, amazingly true cuts out of the gate, this saw will not do that for you. It's good for entry level, but expect a lot of adjustment and fiddling with the saw. I like the way the saw comes together for storage and it has nice ways to store the blade guard, kickback guard, push stick, and miter. The saw folds down so you can cart it around on wheels which is nice if you have to take it outside to do your cuts from a basement or something similar. I contact customer support to try to get my loose fence issue fixed, but all they did was refer me to a webpage to look up repair centers. Unfortunately, that site also list retailers so you'll have to call around to see if they actually do repair. For the loose fence issue, where the lever is for locking the fence, there are 2 half inch nuts directly behind it. They need to go more towards the plastic lever to tighten the fence. When I did this, the nuts were close to being completely buried by the lever. I had to use a bar clamp to put pressure on the rod to create room for threading up the nuts. For reference, the rod I'm talking about goes through the plastic lever - you'll see it's springy if you push on it. Good luck!