Conventional Table Saw v Sliding Table Saw

[Jim Foster]

Tom, what brand slider is that? Did you have to modify the motor cover? Thanks

Over 20 years ago I went from the small contractor's saw to a cabinet saw with a sliding table. This combo is a cheap version of a slider. But if you cut a lot of square cuts (and who doesn't) it is a wonderful time saver. Sliding tables are available for many table saws.

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[John Leake]

I would suggest as does Bradley in the prior post to look for a used saw. Powermatic 66's come up for sale regularly, not as often as unisaws. I got a lightly used Unisaw 3hp for $700 with a Unifence on it a year ago. The saw only needed clean up and lubrication, as well as remedial work on the right hand table extension (particle board that sagged - easily fixed with a welded up lattice support). A sawstop in my opinion is nice, but expensive and I have not seen one for saw used.

As far as a sliding table, I would say you can build a "cross cut sled" for much less that works great. I have made two of them out of baltic birch plywood and would build another in a heart beat if I got another saw. Use 1/2" ply as the base, laminate front and rear fences to 1" thick and carefully glue them up square to the saw slit in the base (make it first after adding something to slide in the miter groves).

[Eric D Matson]

I believe I have seen a picture of a Saw Stop with a sliding table attachment. How well does this option work? I have been eyeballing the Saw Stop PCS but now you guys have a studying the sliding table saws. Would this be a viable solution or would it be best to do one or the other. The sliding table saw looks like it would be really nice for a SLR but I can do the same thing with a straightedge. Just curious.

[Loren Woirhaye]

A format style sliding table saw is a special class of machine. The table is right up next to the blade. I have used mine with a vacuum jig to rip 36" x 3" wide parts tapering from 3/8" to 3/16" thick. The parts came out clean enough to laminate right off the saw. That's a special furnituremaking type application of a format slider. You can mount a tenon jig on one but of course you can do that with a miter gauge too. Modern format sliders were invented in Europe and while they are well suited to joinery and squaring panels, what they really were designed for is ripping of square edges to very accurate tolerances for edgebanding. The edges you can get turn out squarer and straighter than most operators can get with a rip fence. I've thought about it a bit and I think the format slider is awkward for ripping narrower boards since it can't be fitted with a zero clearance throat plate there is a lack of support right adjacent to the blade on both sides. The gap is quite long due to allowances for scoring units and the riving knife in the back. I am fond of the way the fence can be retracted to use as a stop or just not to interfere with solid wood bending towards the fence as it is ripped, which prevents binding.

[Rick Markham]

I went through this decision recently, I weighed all of the major cabinet saws with 3HP or more. I ended up with a Grizzly G0623X slider. It will take nearly a full dado stack, is 5HP, will crosscut a full sheet easily and with a Digital table saw fence the thing is dead on with rip cuts. It's footprint is small and fits wondefully in the space I use it. Yes it's weird not having a miter slot on the right side, do I miss it? Only very rarely, and so far I have always found a better way to do it with the sliding table. Yeah, you have to rethink the tablesaw a bit, but it's an advantage. Not very many saws allow the user so much flexibility. After setting mine up, it has been nothing but a dream to use (I've been using it regularly for a year now) dare I say I like it more than my Kapex, and that IS a statement! My vote is if you can swing a slider, especially one that will take a dado stack, jump on it and don't look back!!!

[Chris Fournier]

I currently have a slider and it is three times the saw (by weight and volume) that my cabinet saw was which was a General 350. I wish that I had had room to keep that General because there are ways of working on it that are so much easier than the slider at times. Most all of the issue is with regards to ripping. I have come to terms with this and moved on to the slider.

Cross cut sleds work very well on cabinet saws but full sheet goods are always a wrestling match. This being said I think that a smaller slider would be my choice over a conventional cabinet saw of equal quality if I only had room for one or the other.

I hope that you enjoy your new saw.

[Frank Drew]

If you spend half an hour using a slider any regular table saw will seem unbearable to use from that point on.

98% of everything I do is solid stock for furniture. Although the slider shines working with sheet goods, the large crosscut table and miter stops makes every aspect of joinery (especially angled joinery) dead on and a breeze.

Joe and Dominic pretty much sum up my feelings; I upgraded from a larger Powermatic to a German sliding table saw that crosscut to 54", fine for me because I didn't use sheet good all that often but appreciated the very accurate crosscutting my new saw gave me for both sheet and solid. And I could mount a full dado set, which was my preferred method for cutting tenons.