If you could only buy one... Bandsaw or tablesaw?

[Dan Barr]

If you could only buy one powertool, what would it be?

bandsaw or tablesaw? I have had no power tools for about 8 years now (except a skilsaw, reciprocating saw, dremel... Not really "power" tools.

Which is the most versatile.? things to think about... Resawing, miters, ripping sheet stock, curve cuts, all kinds of jigs for both.

I am all neander for the moment. Thinking about getting back into a few powertools.

Thoughts?

dan

[Steve Eure]

That's a hard question. Both saws have their respective places in the shop. Resaw, I would have to go with the bandsaw. The table saw would be limited to small thicknesses. Curves, bandsaw hands down. Sheet goods, table saw. Although if you had a good skilsaw and some type of rail system, you could cut sheet goods with it. Miters, table saw with a good jig. I went without a good bandsaw for several years but since I bought my 14" Rikon, I don't think I could do without either one any more. That being said, outside of resawing, you could still get by with a good jig saw.

[Frederick Skelly]

I don't have a universal answer Dan. Like so many things, which is most versatile will be tied to the things you build and how you like to woodwork. For example, you can do most everything you described except curves, on a tablesaw and more - rabbets, dados, etc. But if what you love to build is bandsaw boxes (often curvy) or do a lot of wide resawing, it's not quite versatile enough. OTOH, if you buy a bandsaw, it won't do rabbets and dados - which may not be an issue if you are still able/willing to do them by hand or also buy a router. Sheet goods - again, if you use a lot of them, you might want to supplement your bandsaw with a tracksaw.

In my shop, I had a tablesaw before a bandsaw. And it got used a lot. But now that I have a bandsaw, it gets most of the workout, because I'm no longer building large things from sheetgoods. Plus I cut alot of my small joinery by hand. But I'm still darn glad to have that tablesaw.

So I'd think about what you like to build and how you like to build it - how much do you want to conutinue doing by hand, what tasks do you do most often that would benefit from a power tool, etc.

Good luck,
Fred

[Robin Frierson]

My tablesaw gets a lot more use than my bandsaw. So I say tablesaw.

[Pete Staehling]

For my work the band saw wins easily, but it depends on what you build and how you choose to build it. I'd guess that for most people the table saw would be used more.

[Joe Kieve]

My 2 cents is ..... table saw.

[Raymond Seward]

Tablesaw for sure

[Charles Wiggins]

It all depends on what type of work you do, but that being said, if you have a skilsaw you can make a simple table saw, so between the two, that would push the band saw up to the top.In my own case, I my dad gave me his old Delta Rockwell table saw and jointer combo machine so that's where I started.I've bought machines as deals cane up on them rather than targeting a specific machine as my next goal.

[Lee Schierer]

I build mostly cabinets and other things that make a table saw essential. If I were primarily a wood turner, then a band saw would probably be higher on my list than a table saw. For precise work, you can't beat a table saw. It also excels at cutting sheet goods. A band saw does curves well and can be used for resawing. Making precise crosscuts and angles is not part of its vocabulary.

If I could only have one, it would be a table saw. Fortunately I have both tools in my shop.

[Ole Anderson]

Table saw, mine gets used 10x as much as my BS. I could do without a BS but not a TS.

[Erik Loza]

It all depends on what type of work you do...

This ^^^^ and I will add, "What's your budget?". This is like a chocolate-or-vanilla-ice-cream-type question: Nobody will be abe to give you a meaningful answer unless we know what you like and why you like it.

Erik

[Andrew Hughes]

20 inch bandsaw with a Woodmaster ct for me.I work with solid wood very little plywood.

[Jim Becker]

If you are going to continue to primarily be a "Neander" and work predominantly with hand tools, the bandsaw is a very versatile time saver to have in your shop for rough cutting prior to working with your blades, etc. But the bottom line remains...what do you want to do with your woodworking?

[John Lankers]

It depends, a jigsaw could complement a tablesaw as well as a circular saw could complement a bandsaw.
If you're planning to work a lot with sheet goods then the tablesaw wins otherwise ..., only you can answer that question.

[Chris Fournier]

Totally depends on the kind of work you do as others have mentioned. I do pretty much everything so I can't be without either ever! The TS gets the most use for sure.

[John K Jordan]

Totally depends on the kind of work you do as others have mentioned. I do pretty much everything so I can't be without either ever! The TS gets the most use for sure.

Dan,

I hear an echo in here!: what kind of things do you want to make or do? Here's an idea: make a list of current and future things and start over, posting it here, perhaps even in a new thread. Then you might get some useful appropriate advice!

That said, for what I do I want both, with the bandsaw first on the list. I've read that advice in several places over the years - one reason that is the bandsaw is useful for breaking down stock to useful widths and thicknesses. Jointing and planing for almost any flatwood task can always be done with hand tools. I did that for a while.

I personally do a lot of woodturning so the bandsaw first is a no-brainer. However, I couldn't get much done around the farm here without some kind of table saw. Here is what worked for me for years (along with an inexpensive miter saw): a 14" bandsaw AND an inexpensive table saw. I bought a lightweight portable jobsite saw from HD. Both of these are still useful today even though I now have a cabinet saw and big bandsaw.

JKJ

[Dan Barr]

I have all these same thoughts. What I do now keeps the bandsaw at the top. I'm mostly making small things with thin stock. Resaw is a must. I dont like doing it by hand. I can cut joinery, shoot miters, ends and edges, flatten/smooth, etc. all by hand. The jigs, sleds, accuracy, etc. make me think twice about the tablesaw though.

it's a matter of time before I have both. Albeit, probably a long time.

dan

[John Vernier]

Depending on the work you do, You might also consider a small planer as a priority. I work a great deal with hand tools these days, although I have a TS and a 14" BS - glad to have both, and would be hard pressed as to which I would give up; but as to which machine saves me the most sweat and drudgery, the planer is hard to beat. I roughly flatten one face of boards with hand planes on the bench, as I don't have a jointer, then use a 12" lunchbox planer for thicknessing.

[Alan Schwabacher]

If you plan to set up a power tool shop, the table saw makes an efficient central tool that works well in conjunction with others, like jointer and planer, that ensure stock is flat and straight.

If you want a single power tool to fit in well with hand tools, the band saw wins. You don't need to start everything with all faces straight and parallel, and the band saw better accommodates that style of work. The band saw also has a much smaller footprint, so if you have a small space, that could be important to consider.

[Van Huskey]

That is really tough, being predominately a power tool user it is a bit like asking me if I want a car with wheels or an engine. I consider the core of a power tool based shop to be a TS, BS, DP, jointer, planer and either a router table or shaper. Limited to one really puts pressure on knowing where your neander ways are the least efficient or lack capability/capacity. From my POV needing to resaw stock over 3-4" wide would lean me toward a BS but it there is only to me one machine in the shop I would suggest going to at least a 20" bandsaw. If you are thinking of a roughly 14" bandsaw I would lean more in the direction of a TS. Smaller bandsaw tend to be more of an augmentation than a replacement for a TS.

This is also a scenario where a bandsaw and a tracksaw might be a good solution.

[Prashun Patel]

For me, bandsaw. But this requires you have a good way to do cross cuts and to joint edges. Bandsaw can do curves and cut thick parts well. Bandsaw is also safer for rippiNg wide lumber with tension or twist.

The tablesaw is better if u don't do a lot of curves and aren't fast or comfortable doing cross cuts and edg jointing with another tool.

[Mike Henderson]

For me, I'd take the table saw. I just don't use my bandsaw that much. If I have to resaw something that's not too wide, I'll do it on my table saw - two passes- flip the board and make two cuts to resaw.

Beyond resawing, I could use other tools for cutting curves.

Mike

[Off topic, the tool that really improved my panel work is my 8" jointer. I used to prepare an edge by hand or glue up off the table saw. The jointer just makes absolutely perfect joints for gluing up panels.]

[Brian Henderson]

It depends on what you do. My tablesaw gets a lot more use than my bandsaw by a factor of 100.

[Jim Becker]

Based on your comments in post #17, it sounds like the band saw would give you the biggest bang for the investment "today" since it's immediately complimentary to your hand tool work and described projects. I know that if I were placed in the situation someday where I "had to" predominately work only with hand tools, if there was space for a band saw, there would be one in my shop just because it would be so useful with the Neander focus for building and finishing projects.

[Ben Rivel]

No way I'd be without BOTH personally. Id just stick with hand tools until I could fit/afford/justify/etc (what is the reason NOT to have both) both in the shop. IMO and in my shop they are complimentary tools.

[Mike Heidrick]

Heck why only one bandsaw is where my mind went?

[Dan Barr]

Heck why only one bandsaw is where my mind went?

Ha! I wish...

Money is the limiting factor. I had all the powertools prior to 8 years ago. Sold them all when I moved to England (hertz difference vs. induction motors and hard to find a house/garage suitable for workshop purposes). Left England after three years, moved to Hawaii, now Illinois. Been neander since England. However, my previous time with powertools taught me to buy the best the first time so, I'm thinking of buying the BEST possible TS or BS. That will probably limit me to one really nice purchase.

Agreed, having neander tools/skills and not making furniture/cabinetry (for now) makes the bandsaw the most attractive at the moment. I dont mind flattening/jointing, etc. by hand.

The fact that I am seriously contemplating this purchase tells me I'm looking at the slippery slope. In 5-10 years, I'll probably have both anyway. The real question... Will the wife tolerate the purchase and the subsequent loss of her husband to his hobbies. 😝

[glenn bradley]

I have all these same thoughts. What I do now keeps the bandsaw at the top. I'm mostly making small things with thin stock. Resaw is a must. I dont like doing it by hand. I can cut joinery, shoot miters, ends and edges, flatten/smooth, etc. all by hand. The jigs, sleds, accuracy, etc. make me think twice about the tablesaw though.

it's a matter of time before I have both. Albeit, probably a long time.

dan

Given these statements I would lean toward a larger bandsaw. 17" could do but, I sometimes wish for larger and I do have other power tools. in a neander shop a solid accurate bandsaw can be a real time saver.

[Brian Holcombe]

Being mostly handtools, I own a few power tools; Tracksaw, router table and now a giant bandsaw. Reason being is that resawing is a giant time sink and not very enjoyable once you get up to the large boards or have a ton of it to do.

[Ryan Jones]

Tablesaw hands down. You can get away without a bandsaw if you build jigs for the tablesaw. You can also clean up the parallel faces with the tablesaw, joint, etc.

[Rich Engelhardt]

If you could only buy one powertool, what would it be?I finally broke down and bought a nice older 14"Rockwell band saw about three years ago.
We had to take it apart so I could fit it in my van.
I got it home and put it all back together, except for the blade and the wheel covers.
When I sold the saw this past Summer, it never had the blade or the covers installed.

I did buy a nice Bosch jig saw though that gets a fair amount of use cutting curves.

[Osvaldo Cristo]

If you could only buy one powertool, what would it be? bandsaw or tablesaw?
...

Resawing, miters, ripping sheet stock, curve cuts, all kinds of jigs for both.
...

Thoughts?

dan

It is great question and I am facing it as well.

I think tablesaw is the most flexible power tool for the workshop after the hand electric drill... but it uses a lot of space, mainly if not movable because you need a reasonable workspace around it. I purchased mine 25 years ago and I have used it a lot in these past years.

Now I am facing the possibility to move to a new house in the next few months... I will lost my dedicated workshop I construct in my house 25 years ago and probably I will have only a small part (a single wall) from a typical two car garage, so space is a point and I am seriously considering a movable bandsaw as my next best solution. I am specially attracted by the resaw and curved cuts possibility I never had in my tablesaw (I have used a portable jigsaw for curves and never resaw anything higher the cut height capacity from my 10-inch tablesaw).

My third best option is a mittersaw... I will go with it if I do not have space for the bandsaw... ;)

Anyway as almost any priority list that is heavily personal and will depend from your needs and tastes.

I wish you good luck in your decision.

[Bill Adamsen]

As Brian mentioned, if you work primarily with hand tools then a bandsaw makes sense because you can work glue surfaces with a plane or scraper, tenons with a handsaw and use chisels for other operations (mortises, even rabbets and dados). Regardless, the use of hand cutting tools is an art that requires development.

For most new to woodworking, a tablesaw will provide the flexibility to perform both ripping and crosscutting and will help bring projects to completion faster ... be the project panels or solid wood. Plus - and this is just my opinion - the bandsaw a newcomer is likely to purchase, is less suited to the tasks mentioned as the benefit of a bandsaw. For instance, I wouldn't typically consider leveraging the Delta for resawing, but would go straight to the 800mm Centauro (which I use a great deal). However, few hobbyists would get a saw of that ilk.

Were I "starting over" I'd at least consider the tracksaw/SCMS as the requisite combo. Of course the one's I'd select would likely cost as much as a good used slider.

[pat warner]

Have forsaken the circular saws (table, chop, radial etc), too scary, noisy. And will do nothing about the nature of the wood. The work can pinch or split at the blade. Rarely does the stock exit the blade with 1 kerf over 2'. It has to be re-jointed to straighten.
With a bandsaw I can rip or x-cut aluminum, ply, plastic, and even wood. Moreover, the stock gets pressed down on the table, not in your face.
Have used the band saw only, for >15 years. Not to say that band saws are perfect. But they're safer, quieter, one blade can do all.
Not necessarily for production, but they can be.

[lowell holmes]

I can rip a 16' 2X12 on my 10" table saw. I know because I have done it. I have a 48" table extension to the back and a 36" side extension to the right.

I rip on my band saw, but could never accomplish a 12' 2X12. The would be unstable with such a cut.

I have a 1X8 X 48" extension on the back side of my that helps with the rip cut.

I refuse to be without either saw.

I would say the proper choice for you would be dictated by the kind of work you want to do. Occasional long rip cuts can be accomplished on saw horses with a sidewinder "skill-saw".

If I anticipate a pinching problem, I will rip a bit over width and then rip to size.

[Von Bickley]

Table saw for me. The table saw has always been the heart of my shop.

[Rich Riddle]

I am going to be odd man out and say band saw. It gets used quite a bit and is quite useful. I can get by with the track saw and sliding compound miter saw for most other things done on the table saw but the band saw offers unique abilities not easily duplicated elsewhere.

[Dan Barr]

Osvaldo, Good luck to you too. It is hard to move and give up the shop you've built. I've done it three times. That is why I went neander. Moving powertools around was too much. Forced me to pare down to the absolute neccesities; handtools.