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Jeff Anderson
I had dabbled with other table saws prior to my bumping into the Evolution brand back in 2018 when I first purchased the Rage5-s followed by the company’s R210SMS+ mitre saw and both these products had changed my whole outlook to DIY and what could be accomplished with added accuracy. Then along came this little beauty, the Evolution R255TBL+ which, although giving me that same cutting capacity I had enjoyed with the Rage5-s, has made the overall design more compact making this table saw extremely portable. Even without the collapsible stand this is a relatively easy carry using just the integrated handle grip and although my saw will be a permanent feature on a stand in my workshop, the option is there for me. Although I found ways around the shortfalls of the Rage5 fence, the addition of the rack and pinion fence system, in my opinion, aligns the R255TBL with, if not surpasses, any table saw out there in the sub £400 price bracket. Lockable on both sides of the table, once set up properly, and mine was straight from the box, you are now ensured of repeatedly accurate rip cuts that can be dialled in from the tape without the necessity to measure from blade tooth to fence, although, on saying that, I still do through habit. Although the saw was pretty much good to go out of the box regarding set-up, having DIY-OCD, It was a given that I would start tweaking anything on the saw that was meant to be tweaked until I had it spot-on. It would seem Evolution have come up real good in this regard as their completely new design now means that we are no longer at the mercy of final settings at the factory, and whether it’s the rip fence parallelism or its accuracy in conjunction with the measuring tape or the blade itself being parallel to the mitre tracks, all can be easily adjusted by fractions of an inch as my images will show. To make it clear, regarding the last paragraph, wood moves and does so readily, and so this level of set-up may be overkill for some but it does demonstrate what is possible with the R255TBL+ saw. So much has been incorporated into the R255TBL’s design that wasn’t possible before in an Evolution table saw. The riving knife for example can now be easily removed and replaced with basically the flick of a small lever and any error with aligning the knife to the saw blade, can be rectified by loosening a couple of Allen nuts and manually lining the knife up. The old plastic throat plate design has been replaced with a far more robust steel one which, by adjustment of four grub screws can be made absolutely flush with the table top with no deflection, allowing a far more accurate setting when you’re checking the blade for a 90 degree cut. I have to say that the one thing that has been incorporated into the new design that was long overdue was the implementation of standard mitre tracks at 19mm x 9.50mm. This means you are now free to indulge in an aftermarket tool like a precision mitre gauge, which in my case, has added a whole new dimension to this saw and turned it into an extremely accurate beast, although to be fair to the saw, it already was one in many respects. Although it seems I’ve done nothing else but extol the virtues of Evolutions R255TBL+ table saw like a demented fanboy, there are a couple of things which I would like to have included in the box. That would have been an extra riving knife that had its maximum height while in place, that was level with the top of the blade, thus allowing for rebating and any non-through cuts which are common on a table saw. Last of my gripes would be the lack of a zero clearance insert plate, which, according to Evolution’s own official video, compered by D.K, that the first batch of these saws would include the usual orange plate but that the zero clearance ones would be sent on to the customer. The second and subsequent batches would contain both in the box. I’m still waiting. Come on Evolution, you’ve got a great saw here, make it even better.
1 month ago
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