"Extra" table saw - what to do?

[Jon Endres]

When I owned my first house, I was given an old Craftsman table saw that had been rusting in my grandmother's basement. It's a 1939 vintage, Atlas-made tilting-arbor saw and it was used by my grandfather to make a lot of furniture and cabinets. I cleaned and mostly restored the saw, and built a decent mobile base with drawers to set it on. I saved the old micro-adjustable fence and bolted on a Mule Accu-square fence that I picked up at a woodworking show. It has a fair amount of sentimental value to me and it is fully functional.

A few years went by and I found a deal on a NOS Delta Unisaw that I couldn't pass up. It came without a fence, so I took the Mule fence off the Craftsman and disassembled the old saw for storage. I still have the old fence, motor and all the parts.

Now I'm in the process of finishing up my new shop and I'd like to pull the old saw back out and use it again. No point in keeping it if it's going to be on a shelf forever. My dilemma is - I don't know what to do with this thing. What do you do with a spare table saw? Set it up for a dedicated operation? I can't honestly think of anything that I would only need the saw to do just one thing, even setting it up permanently with a box joint jig or something like that.

I'm sure there's a few of you guys that have more than one of a machine - what do you do with the extra one?

[Bill Ryall]

With my shop fully configured, I have 2 table saws. One is set up for ripping, the other with a sliding table and long fence for crosscuts. I have found that I do enough production/repetitive work that the second saw time savings is worth the sacrifice in floor space- no blade changes, much less re-configuring a single saw for different operations.

I also have 2 band saws for the same reason. A 14" for general use/light resawing and a 10" with a 1/8" blade for scrolling/tight curves.

[Prashun Patel]

If I had 2 saws, I'd back them up so they could each serve as outfeed for the other (assuming you could figure out dust collection piping). Then I'd configure one with a permanent dado stack.

[Keith Weber]

Ditto on the dado!

[Charles P. Wright]

If I had space for two saws, I would have one with a regular blade, the other with the dado stack. That way I could still size pieces without having to fiddle with the dado setup once i get it dialed in.

[David Kumm]

Just be sure the craftsman can handle the weight of a dado. Adds a lot of stress to a spindle assembly. Dave

[Brian Henderson]

Depends on the size of your shop and what TS operations you commonly do. Put them back to back and you have a large work surface with integral outfeed tables. Set one up for ripping and keep a dado stack in the other. Like I said, it depends on what you do most often with the TS, but the possibilities are endless.

[glenn bradley]

So for those of you who would setup a second saw with a dado, do you just do sheet goods cabinetry to where you know what dado width you would use 90% of the time? Or do you put something like a 3/4" stack in and make multiple passes for different requirements?

My curiosity stems from having Grandpa's old saw stored on top of a cabinet where it has been for years. My intention was to set it up with a sled for crosscuts but, like a miter saw or a RAS, this just seems to take up such a large footprint for the return in service it might yield.

Grandpa's saw is in great shape but, even pristine and restored I have seen them go for only a couple hundred bucks so there is no real sales value in it. I guess I just hate to get rid of a good tool and the sentimental value keeps me from just letting go ;-)

[Rick Potter]

When I got the SS, I kept my old Unisaw, and usually keep a Freud box joint set on it for 1/4" dado's. Not for box joints, but for drawer joints, and the like. Right now I have a big rip blade on it because I am doing initial sizing on a bunch of old wood I bought, and don't want to scratch up my nice new saw.

I just got an Infinity Super General blade for the SS, and plan to keep it mounted, switching the Uni as needed between heavy ripping and dado's.

Just got my Jessem table saw guides, and came up with a mount for the Uni, as well as the SS.

[Ben Rivel]

Just got my Jessem table saw guides, and came up with a mount for the Uni, as well as the SS.
Nice! I just got them installed on my SS PCS. Havent used them yet. How are you liking them so far?

[Mike Cutler]

I have two saws. They're set at 90 degree angles to each other. One for ripping, one for crosscuts.
The crosscut saw is the out feed table for the ripping saw and the ripping saw provides material support for the crosscut saw.
Most folks have some type of an out feed table setup for a single saw. A second saw makes an excellent out feed table,if nothing else, with no loss of floor space.

[Prashun Patel]

That's clever, Mike!

[Charles P. Wright]

So for those of you who would setup a second saw with a dado, do you just do sheet goods cabinetry to where you know what dado width you would use 90% of the time? Or do you put something like a 3/4" stack in and make multiple passes for different requirements?


I only have one saw, but I do sometimes find it frustrating that I've got a Dado setup in there (which can be different whether I'm working with, 1/4", 1/2" or 3/4", rabbeting, or whatever operation), and really don't want to mess with that for the current project; but then for another operation want to just rip/crosscut something. Generally, better planning could prevent that, but sometimes it is nice to be able to tweak something without messing up the stack's width/depth, etc.

I also like the idea of having the saws 90 degrees to each other for crosscut/ripping.

[Lornie McCullough]

The second saw with the dado stack (or the wobble blade, depending on the job) is one of the most used tools in the shop. I would never consider getting rid of it.

Just as a tip: I use playing cards with the dado stack to fine-tune the width of the cut if necessary. A perfectly sized dado is a pleasure to work with.

Lornie

[Mike Cutler]

That's clever, Mike!

I wish I could say it was by design and such, but my "shop" is only 9' wide, and 19' long. It was pretty much the only way to set them up and be able to use them.
I don't do a lot of dado cuts. For me having one set up for cross cut and one for rip seems to work out.