Hitachi Table Saws

Japanese giant Hitachi was born in 1910 as a simple electrical repair shop. Today it is a huge multi-national corporation making a mind-boggling array of products across a wide variety of markets, power tools among them. They entered the U.S. power tool market in 1980 and quickly gained recognition for their line of pneumatic framing nailers and the introduction of the world’s first sliding compound miter saw. Today they make over 1,000 different models of electric power tools, table saws among them.

Hitachi uses their world renowned expertise in both metallurgical sciences and plastic technologies to produce lightweight table saws. Obviously this enhances their portability and many reviews, mostly from light duty users, praise their table saws for this.

Others, however, think some of their models are too light to do much beyond simple cuts in soft wood, and are in fact dangerous. Let’s look at a few selected Hitachi table saw models to see what we can learn about their upside and their downside.

 

The Hitachi C10FR Table Saw

Hitachi labels this model as a “Jobsite” Table Saw, which would imply suitability for professional use, but hold on. They have another model, the C10RB Professional Grade Jobsite Table Saw. That one lists at Lowe’s – a major retail outlet for Hitachi tools – for $239 while the true professional model, the C10RB, lists for $437. We’ll look at that model in a moment but right now let’s concentrate on the C10FR.

This model features a 15 Amp motor which is surprisingly quiet according to some reviews. The “fold and roll” design makes it easy to move around and store but the wheels are undersized and made of plastic, not like the rubber wheels found in most competitive models.

To enhance its functionality Hitachi included both a rear outfeed and an aluminum telescoping right side extension. In theory this should allow a user to cut larger pieces but if you search some of the reviews on the Internet and in the woodworking forums, you’ll discover that these features pose serious safety hazards. The right extension is so lightweight it can actually drop below the level of the table housing and can tip when cutting large pieces.

In addition, some user reviews note excessive “dancing-around” with this saw, and the rear extension won’t support 4x8 sheets of plywood. It would appear that this portable table saw has some great convenience features but suffers from severe drawbacks in performance.

 

The Hitachi C10RB Table Saw

While this saw fairs better in overall reviews, the lightweight design still poses performance issues with this saw. The base is not likely to stand up very well under constant and heavy use – it’s made of an injection molded plastic. You might even stumble across woodworking discussion forum posts advocating the reinforcement of the base with plywood!

While this model’s telescoping extension and rear outfeed seem to function better than those in the C10FR, the overall table still suffers from a low center of gravity and users should be aware of the possibility of tipping. The 15 Amp motor starts with a bit of a bang but does an adequate job with ripping normal size wood. Once again, the principal advantages of this saw are its convenience features.

 

The Hitachi C10LA Table Saw

This is Hitachi’s sole entry in the cabinet table saw market and it would appear from user reviews that with a little “heft” added to them, Hitachi can make a pretty good saw. The 15 Amp motor can handle hardwoods as large a 4x4 with no loss of stability. Larger pieces require a little slower feed through but still present no problems for this saw.

The construction is primarily cast iron, including the trunnion assembly. The C10LA features an oversize table at roughly 27 inches by 40 inches with a solid rear outfeed extension. The aluminum rails allow the rip fence to glide easily from side to side.

You can rip a full 30 inches to the right and 18 inches to the left. Dust collection is very good, with a large 4 inch dust collection port that can be connected to a shop vac. This saw retails at Lowe’s Home Improvement Centers for a little under $1100.