Job site tablesaw

[Michael Callender]

What job site tablesaw would you recommend. I am a part time wood worker.

I've had a Craftsman for years that I carry to points on the farm here when I build something. However, I bought a new DeWalt just this week. A contractor friend recommended this one as he has had one for years. I love the rack&pinion fence adjustment and some of the other features. Less than $400. I'm still using the Craftsman but the DeWalt is higher quality.

JKJ

[Julie Moriarty]

I bought a Dewalt DW745 for a house remodel. It handled everything I gave it including ripping 45 degree angles on 20' boards.

[Nick Decker]

Michael, you didn't mention budget. Dewalt makes a very good jobsite saw. Even without the obvious safety feature, SawStop makes an even better one.

[Ron Citerone]

I like my dewalt. Can't say I've used any other portable ones though.

[Andrew Hughes]

Bosch with the gravity rise stand.
I had one for a couple years and it was a darn good saw to use.
The color is very pleasing too

[James Pallas]

Bosch with the gravity rise stand.
I had one for a couple years and it was a darn good saw to use.
The color is very pleasing too
Andrew I have a Dewalt and love the color. I use it so seldom it's easier for me to find in my garage. If you saw my garage you would understand. I went in there once and it took three days to get out.:)
Jim

[Andrew Hughes]

I completely understand. This is a very common problem that's not talked about :rolleyes: spouses want to store stuff and park their ride's in our woodshop.:D
Thus creating the need for highly visible mobile equipment

[Alex Zeller]

I have a DeWalt with folding legs. It's handled anything I've thrown at it. My neighbor has the Bosch, borrowed it before I got the DeWalt and it was also fine. I think it came down to how much I wanted to spend. I think you'll find that they are all about the same.

[Osvaldo Cristo]

Makita. Mine was made in the USA, GA. Probably they continue to be made there. Great: precise from factory, quiter than competition and powerful. Strongly recommended.

[Carlos Alvarez]

+1 for the Dewalt. I had that before I got a "real" saw and loved it. I had the one with the geared fence which kept it perfectly aligned.

[scott spencer]

Question - Are you buying a portable jobsite saw because you need to sling it from site to site routinely, or because it fits your budget/space? The lion's share of performance advantages go to a full size stationary saw with a belt drive induction motor....you give up a lot in comparison for the sake of portability. If you need the portability, the DW, Bosch, and Ridgid are the perennial top dogs, and will do the job. If it's because of budget, consider a good used full size saw instead.

https://i.imgur.com/Nhd1i2Q.jpg

[Bryan Lisowski]

I have a rigid and it is a decent saw. I decided to buy a contractor saw so don't use the rigid very much. Where are you located?

[Michael Callender]

I’m going from a older contractor saw my dad bought in 1960. It’s a magna 710 tablesaw magna is no longer in business. So going to be moving soon don’t want to take it with me. I’m thinking portable something newer. Price wise 500.00 top of my budget. I read some information on the skillsaw worm drive tablesaw. One thing I’ve heard is these saws are loud. I’ve read reviews people say the table is not flat,the fence won’t stay put. That’s what I am thinking.

[Mac McQuinn]

I agree 100%. The older Makita saws were great, I used one on several large house projects and like the smoothness of use, precision and it was much quieter
than other comparable saws. I'm into light and quiet and the Makita #2703 was both and durable too.
Mac


Makita. Mine was made in the USA, GA. Probably they continue to be made there. Great: precise from factory, quiter than competition and powerful. Strongly recommended.

[Dick Mahany]

I decided on the DeWalt 7491RS. It will handle an 8" dado stack up to 13/16" wide. I also find the rack and pinion fence solid and locks securely. The ability to rip up to 32.5" to the right of the blade is nice to have. Dust collection is absolutely excellent. The saw has all of the adjustments to align the miter slots and the fence parallel to the blade and can be set up very precisely. The splayed legs make this saw rock solid when set up. All of the accessories store securely on board and when folded, it stores compactly in my "shop".

It is on the loud side, but all universal motor powered saws are. As pointed out in an earlier reply, the largest negative for me is the smaller infeed capability, but one has to compromise for the portability. I have run full kerf Forrest WWII blades and gotten glass smooth glue ready edges on ripped boards.

I had to give up my old Unisaw that I owned for 20 years when I downsized a few years ago. After having gone a few years without a table saw, the DeWalt has been a welcome addition and is a joy to use. I added a quickly removable outfeed table to it and it fits my needs perfectly and will handle many tasks with solid performance. While I don't the have the need to take it to job sites, I do need to have compact storage that a cabinet saw just won't allow. It really comes down to your needs and budget. I would only say not to be afraid of the lowly job site saw DW7491RS ;)
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[Frank Pratt]

I would like to emphasize the point made already, that if you don't have to have the "pick it up & go" portability, a job site saw is not a good choice. For $500 you can get a far better machine.

[Michael Callender]

I don’t plan to take it on a job site. I’m a stay at home diy woodworker. What is your opinion of the skillsaw worm drive tablesaw. I’m still going back and forth on weather to keep the magna saw or not. My concern is once I get it to where I going and I go to use and it breaks. Now I spent money to transported it fo nothing.

[Michael Callender]

I use the magna saw for ripping and cross cuts only. It has a setting for beveled cuts that has not been used in a long time.

[Carlos Alvarez]

I made a lot of great things on my Dewalt, and I think it was THE best choice even though I wasn't carrying it around. I just didn't have space and cash at the time for something better. I made this sink using it, and ONLY it, cutting way over thickness by flipping the boards. It was my TS, jointer, and more. Get everything adjusted perfectly, and it will do that. I think the only power tools I had otherwise were a couple of sanders.

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[marlin adams]

I bought a rigid R4516 a few months ago and I am very happy with it. Easy to align the blade and fence. Only thing is there are no zero clearance inserts for it and when I get around to it I will make my own.

[Tim Bueler]

I still have a Makita 2708. Has to be over 20 yrs old. It got used almost daily for 10-ish yrs, then off and on since. I still use it occasionally and it still works great. I have a Rousseau table to go along with it. More stability, more rip capacity and waaaay better fence. Both companies are still in business!

[Rich Engelhardt]

Things to look for on any saw:

-Standard size miter slots that are straight and will accept accessories.
(My Hitachi job site saw had odd sized miter slots & it became an extreme frustration to deal with it. Try making and using any sort of sled))

- A decent & reasonable insert that will allow you to either buy or make zero clearance inserts.
(Again, my Hitachi had a weird insert & yes - it was an extreme frustration to deal with)

- A splitter/guard that works.
(Way too many of the lower end table saws have horrible splitters that are usually attached to the guard. They are flimsey and won't stay straight. Having one fall over in the middle of a cut & block you from being able to continue causes you to have to let go of the work and shut the saw off - with the blade still buried in the wood. Good luck when it happens while you're cutting a full sheet of plywood. All you can do there is push the plywood off to the side so it binds and the breaker trips. I took mine off the Hitachi when it blocked a sheet of plywood on me.)

- The ability to take a dado blade.
(A dado blade is just simply too handy to not have. Same goes for it's smaller cousin, the box joint blade. Again, the Hitachi didn't have the ability and it frustrated me no end.)

Those, along with the lack of a nice heavy cast iron top a contractor saw has, made me get rid of my job site saw and never look back..
Well - - almost never...I would like to pick up a cheap used one for the job site. Every once in a while I need to rip something that's too small to put under the track saw.

[Tom Blank]

I have a Dewalt DW745, primarily because I do not have space for a full size table saw. I would pitch it in a heartbeat if i had room for a real table saw. I had a terrible time keeping the blade square. Took me a long time to discover the table is swaybacked, if I squared the blade to either side of the table, the cut was off using the sled. Squared with the sled, the cut was off using the miter gauge.

I just accept it for what it is - a decent saw for framing a house, not good for anything else. I now do everything I can on a bandsaw and anything done on the Dewalt is rough cut oversized and finished up with handtools.

You get what you pay for on these saws.

Tom

[Kyle Iwamoto]

I'll toss something out. I think, and I could be wrong, that the only jobsite saw that can rip a 4x4 is the Skil wormdrive. If that's important, that'a what you need.

[Carlos Alvarez]

I'll toss something out. I think, and I could be wrong, that the only jobsite saw that can rip a 4x4 is the Skil wormdrive. If that's important, that'a what you need.

As I showed above, I ripped a bunch of 4x4 hardwood by flipping it over. With the saw perfectly adjusted, that worked fine with just a bit of sanding to clean it up a bit.

[julian abram]

I purchased one of the early Dewalt job site saws many years ago. It was the one you carried and placed on a folding stand. Carried it around to jobsites, great saw and pretty much indestructible. Used it a couple years as a shop saw, now it gathers dust, I'm too fond of it to let it go. I would say if I were buying in today's market the little Bosch saw looks mighty attractive, very portable and user friendly.

[Thomas L Carpenter]

Of the job site saws mentioned, which ones are the easiest for an old man with a bad back to move around. The Bosch looks like the only one that is "wheel ready". Wheel ready means to me that it already has its wheels on the ground ready to move around.

[John Halsted]

Bosch has the much better mobile design. I own both.

The rack & pinion fence on the Dewalt is nice though.

[phil harold]

I’m going from a older contractor saw my dad bought in 1960. It’s a magna 710 tablesaw magna is no longer in business. So going to be moving soon don’t want to take it with me. I’m thinking portable something newer. Price wise 500.00 top of my budget. I read some information on the skillsaw worm drive tablesaw. One thing I’ve heard is these saws are loud. I’ve read reviews people say the table is not flat,the fence won’t stay put. That’s what I am thinking.

Stay away from that skill wormdrive
It’s is good for framing but has to much slop for trim
Don’t ask me how I know...
ugh

[Thomas L Carpenter]

Thanks for the reply, John. This thread has got me thinking about a move I will be making in about 2 years and downsizing my shop but not downsizing capabilities. I have a General tablesaw on a stand I made and it seems to take up a lot of space in the middle of my two car garage/shop. When I move I suspect things will be smaller so thanks again for this thread.

[lowell holmes]

I cut my thumb on my table saw one time. I would recommend a Sawstop for safety.

http://www.rockler.com/sawstop-10-in-jobsite-saw?

[Greg R Bradley]

Problems with all of the Jobsite Saws is that none of them have a full set of features and I'm not sure that is even possible as they are targeted at different uses. Some of them really shine on one feature and some of them have something that is just terrible. If one really works for you it is going to be because you like the one thing it does well and don't mind the one thing it does poorly.
Examples are:
The Skil has the ability to cut deeper than all the others but it is sloppy and now that Skil is not owned by Bosch, the support is terrible.
The Sawstop has the safety feature and a great portable stand that actually makes moving and setting up that massively overweight pig reasonably pleasant. HORRIBLE designed throatplate that mean there is no way you will ever have a ZCI on that.
All the Dewalts have a mix of good/bad features. All of them have fabulous fences but falling down a bit on the later built ones on execution. The small ones have a folding stand that means you are lifting the saw (and killing your back) onto a flimsy, unstable stand that doesn't move. The larger ones like the 7491 pictured above are the only ones that have solid legs and a larger more stable base that actually means some safety cutting big stuff. You slightly lose on portability. Easy to move around but not so quick to setup as one that actually keeps two wheels on the ground and sacrifices stability for fast movabiltiy. Think Dewalt is the only one that will run a Dado, not that running a Dado on a Jobsite is actually what you would choose as first choice.
Makita makes nice units with a high price and miss many modern features.
Rigid units can be found on sale for nothing so can be great for the money while not being very great overall.
You pay your money and make your choice. Not like any of them fit any one person's needs.
I bought a DWE7491 even though I'm not a Dewalt fan in general. I looked at the Sawstop and wouldn't have taken it at the same price let alone paid more than double for it. The bigger Bosch was the same price as the DWE7191 and came from my favorite tool dealer instead of the evil, evil Lowes. In the end it came down to fantastic fence, great dust collection, great stability with the wide spread steel legs. It came down to what fit my needs and someone else will have different needs. Don't ever forget that they all need better blades........And don't forget that all universal motors are loud, which means all jobsite saws.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

If you want a JOBSITE saw, for less than 400 bucks, you should not expect ANY accuracy. That is what a jobsite saw is. Rough. Fast. Rip a 4x in one pass. Not have to flip it over. If you want a nice cut, then you don't want a jobsite saw. And you should fork out some bucks. A Sawstop would be nice........

[Carlos Alvarez]

I achieved excellent accuracy with my Dewalt. Didn't expect it, but got it.

[Matt Mattingley]

There is nothing wrong with the Dewalt! But they left the big boy market and went consumer. Most Dewalt built are not 240 V. Once you go to 240 V you are generally looking for more horsepower. As soon as you get up to the 240v Single phase you will start opening up your eyes to three phase machines. This opens up a new can of worms.

[Carlos Alvarez]

I assure you I've got zero interest in three phase, and can't imagine I'll ever get rid of my Unisaw. The Dewalt was great for what it was, and I was just commenting on the allegations that it can't be accurate, since I experienced otherwise.

[Michael Callender]

I’m so confused one minute it’s a dewalt then rigid what about delta?

[Simon MacGowen]

I’m so confused one minute it’s a dewalt then rigid what about delta?

You should be confused, because everyone here is either relating to their own experience and/or the lack of it. When it comes to job site saws, they are what they are: for site work, not for work expected of high precision and accuracy. Any inaccuracies are fixed during the time of assembly or installation. You get what you pay for.

There are so many job site saw reviews or shoot outs (eg https://www.protoolreviews.com/tools/power/corded/saws/best-portable-jobsite-table-saw-shootout/24024/). Simple google and pick a saw that meets your budget. At the end of the day, for the kind of money you have for any jobsite saw, lower your expectations and you would be happier with your purchase decision. My neighbor has been a window installer for the last 9 years, running his own business, and has gone through 5 different jobsite brands with his two teams. He has not found anything particularly great or worse. He now buys new jobsite saws according to prices.

Simon