Delta Q3 Review:
First thing on the two saws is to grab the table and check the stability. The Delta
        table and saw are sturdy.

The table has plenty of room to balance even the biggest project. I like the round table so if I grab the edge of the wood I can still keep my hold while spinning the wood around the table. With the teardrop type tables I need to move my hand to turn the wood to the back of the saw.

When I saw I like to position my hands on the wood and go. I can turn the wood ,  running my hand under the arm of the saw and back around again on the Q3 without a problem.  I remove the hold down clamps from all my saws , as most people are doing now.
The top mounted controls and everything up to the front of the saw is a big advantage.
The Q3 is quiet and has very little vibration.
To insert a blade is simple.  Open the clamp and put the blade in place.
Start closing the clamp until it holds the blade, now adjust the nut with the right hand until the lever is in the 2nd photo position. That is the proper tension for the clamp, swing the lever the rest of the way closed and the blade is firmly locked into the clamp.
Lift the tension lever until resistance is felt. Screw the lever knob in or out until it is in this position.
Push the lever back and the proper tension is done. I may vary from this for 2/0 or 9 size blades accordingly.
The bottom blade clamp is the same as the top one. Removing the table insert allows a good view, without having to look under the table.

I hear the Q3 being a c-arm will not do precision cutting. But I make and design all
my wood gear clocks on it so how much more precision is a person capable of. And I
stack cut thousands of ornaments every year, for the mail order business.

Cutting 2 X 6 pine and thicker wood I feel the Q3 really is great. The aggressiveness
of the c-arm makes it cut the thick wood  as easy as a parallel arm saw cuts the 3/4
stuff.

In all I have the Dewalt and the Q3 sitting in my shop. I use the Q3 89% of the time
and the Delta P20 10% of the time.
       
But again remember I also look for speed, and the aggressiveness of the c-arm will
increase production by at least 25%. A big plus to me!

Just about everything I cut is on the Q3. The wood gear clocks that I designed and made were on the Q3. The projects like the Cladesdale Plaque  and the Grapevine Hearts  in Scrollsaw Workshop was done on the Q3. I have even made the miniature puzzles with 64 pieces on a 1" square puzzle on the Q3. That makes each piece 1/8" X 1/8" with the tabs and slots a little bigger. I have pictures of them on my site. Anyway the Q3 will cut anything the other saws on the market will do, but just faster because of the more aggressive cutting action.
As you have seen on my site I have 9 different current models of saws to chose from in my shop, even have the Eclipse here, but I still use the Q3.
I think the C arm saws were bashed back from Pat Speilmans early books. If he had ever cut on them much I think he would have found he misrepresented the cutting capabilities of the saw. Some complain of the undercut, but as I have shown many, that is because the feed the work right up to the end of the line without slowing down the feed rate to let the blade catch up. Most seem to feed the wood hard into the blade so there is a lot of bow in the blade, and when bowed of course the bottom is cutting farther ahead than the top of the wood section. Feed the wood into a corner right up to the corner then just stop and hold the wood, The blade will come about another 1/8" as the bow is straightened out, that is how they get the undercut they blame the saw for. I can make the parallel arm do the same thing. But normally the feed rate is slower so there is not as much bow so the undercut just doesn't show up as easy..
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