What about this table saw?

[Mark Gibney]

What is the considered opinion of this Crescent 8" table saw?

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I'd love to get some wisdom on these.
It seems people like the older American made bandsaws and some jointers, but not necessarily this smaller table saws. Why no love?
Mark

[Bruce King]

Uh, too small.

[Jamie Buxton]

I can't tell for sure from the photo, but it certainly seems that the table is extremely narrow. Try to crosscut anything longer than two feet or so, and it would be falling off the edge.

But the base appears to be big cast iron, so if you build a wider table the thing might not be too likely to fall over.

And on the third hand, one can now buy older 10" cabinet saws like the Unisaw or the PM66 for under $500. That seems like a much better choice.

[Bill Dufour]

I had a rockwell tilting contractor saw like that. Angle cuts are difficult since gravity tends to either bind the work into the side of the blade or make the good side fall away from the fence. Or both at the same time. They are alright for 90 degree cuts but the table is small, fence is nothing special. A used jobsite saw is probably cheaper and better.
Bil lD

[Andrew Seemann]

Old bandsaws and jointers tend to have normal, usable designs. A lot of old saws look like that, kind of neat but terrifying to consider using.

Bandsaw design was pretty much worked out by the turn of the century, and jointers, after square heads and clamshells went by the wayside, were basically solved. Other than occasionally missing or questionable guards, most old bandsaws and jointers are pretty good, and not much different than modern ones, other than the aforementioned clamshell and square head jointers, which have mostly been melted down by now.

Small table saw design on the other hand didn't really get figured out until the late 1930s with the Unisaw. A lot of those older designs have tilting tables, bizarre fences, or suspect drives. And that is before we get to no splitters, riving knives, usable blade guards, and other safety features we moderns like in our saws.

I would take a decent job site saw or contractors saw over that any time. The only good use I could see for a saw like that is maybe as a dedicated set up to do some small rip in a production setting. Even then I would want a better saw.

[Mark Gibney]

All very valid sounding objections to this saw, and I'm not about to give up my Unisaw anytime soon.
That said, when I look at this 8" Crescent it reminds me of the Hammond Glider saw, which as far as I know is a highly coveted saw. The Hammond Glider seems very small (I haven't met one in person) and is supposedly good for crosscutting small parts very accurately. I wondered is this Crescent could do something similar with a sled.

I actually have a Rockwell tilting saw I picked up once for $15. I figured I'd get it working sometime more out of curiosity than anything else. It's intriguing looking. Thanks for the warning Bill.

[Doug Dawson]

Wasn’t that used in a Bond movie? :^)

Or, what our mothers thought of when we said we wanted a table saw for our birthday.

[Jake Hillestad]

Never seen a Crescent like that, if it were close and not priced outlandishly I wouldn't hesitate to pick it up just for the fact it has that cast base if nothing else.

[Lee Schierer]

My opinion is don't buy it. The table is quite small. The blade will have limited depth of cut. It needs a guard on the exposed belt an pulleys. It needs a guard on the exposed blade under the table. It doesn't appear to have a riving knife or blade guard on the table.

[Dave Sabo]

Some things are best left in the past .

This is one of them.

[Bill Dufour]

The one saving grace of the rockwell tilting top saw is the dust collection is easy. There is a cast iron dust chute maybe 2" square out the back. The blade sits in a one sided cast iron trough to channel the dust. Since the blade does not move the dc piping does not either. I did add a panel on the side of the blade so it did not throw as much to the side. I had no dc of any kind back then. The guy I bought it from was a retired contracter. He said he bought it new right before or after the end of ww2. I assume after since metal would be rationed. The motor had been repalced.
These saws are often on a factory card table size bench with one motor driving a jointer and sometimes a bandsaw. I know Walker Turner made a similar set up.
Bill D

[Bradley Gray]

If you have an operation you do often that is complicated to set up but is within this little saw's limits, it could be handy to leave it set up.

In this case small could be an advantage. Crescent is likely good quality.

[Ron Citerone]

If you have an operation you do often that is complicated to set up but is within this little saw's limits, it could be handy to leave it set up.

In this case small could be an advantage. Crescent is likely good quality.

This makes sense to me. I wouldn’t want it as my only saw. An interesting piece for sure.

[Peter Kelly]

Cool collector's item if that's your thing. Wouldn't look forward to using it were that my main one though.

[Mark Gibney]

Yes. And as Ron and others has said, it's an interesting old woodworking curio, but not a working tool. Thank you all for your opinions.