Worth having a table saw?

[Aaron Liebling]

I got great use out of my dewalt contractor table saw and used it (with a nice incra miter sled) to roughly size most of what I worked on. I'm perfectly happy to do all my rough sizing with it and then move to planes and hand tools for all of the refining. Especially for making larger furniture, it's just so much more efficient (for me) to do the big stuff with power tools.

I absolutely agree that there's no judgement and finding the balance between power and hand tools is a very personal choice.

[James Pallas]

I have a portable saw and on rare occasions I use it to make multiple cuts. I’m talking more than 10 long rips or something similar. I used it once last year and haven’t touched it this year. I can cut very accurately with it. I built a sled for it and it has a shark guard that cost plenty but worth it. I have owned several Unisaws in my time. No need for one now. If you think you need it and will use it go ahead. Just remember that inexperience is what causes most accidents. Cutting sliding dovetails accurately on a table saw is no easy task setting it up is the difficult part.

[Steven Mikes]

*update* Thanks all for the advice. I decided to give it a try by hand today. I made a wooden fence with the right angle from a piece of scrap, clamped it to the workpiece and set my saw against it. I don't have a long miter saw like in Derek's picture, best I had for the job was a regular Disston rip saw. I finished one cut this way, but it was miserable. The saw handle hit into the fence before reaching final depth, and the saw was not long enough to reach all the way across that way. Without being able to clear waste out the end, it kept getting clogged in the kerf. I then had to keep alternating cuts from the two sides to be able to reach.

Frustrated, I decided a new tool was definitely in order. I remember reading about azebiki saws and how they can be used for cutting these kinds of long sockets. Went online to find one though and I couldn't. Seem to be all sold out in the US at least, and I'm not willing to wait weeks for an import. So I caved and went to the box store and got a Dewalt compact tablesaw. Set it up on the workbench for now and finished the other side of the socket in no time. I'm not too worried about micrometer tolerances since I have a side rabbet plane and should be able to fine-tune the width by hand after. The thing only weighs 50lb too so I'm planning on hanging it from the garage ceiling when not in use. Hopefully I'll get over the shame of buying another power tool someday..

[Phil Mueller]

Steven, the Dewalt saw will serve you well in many ways. It’s one of the few power tools I own and it just makes sense some times for long or thick rips and the occasional whatever. There’s no shame in it. Just practical for certain things. Congrats on the purchase. Enjoy it.

[john zulu]

It depends on what you want to build. Most are with tablesaw some are with Bandsaw. If sheet good are usually what you work with then tablesaw. Solid stock you can get away with bandsaw.

[Jim Matthews]

I don't have a long miter saw like in Derek's picture, best I had for the job was a regular Disston rip saw. I finished one cut this way, but it was miserable.

Sliding dados are crosscut, by definition.

"I used the wrong tool for the job, with predictable results."

[Derek Cohen]

*update* Thanks all for the advice. I decided to give it a try by hand today. I made a wooden fence with the right angle from a piece of scrap, clamped it to the workpiece and set my saw against it. I don't have a long miter saw like in Derek's picture, best I had for the job was a regular Disston rip saw. I finished one cut this way, but it was miserable. The saw handle hit into the fence before reaching final depth, and the saw was not long enough to reach all the way across that way. Without being able to clear waste out the end, it kept getting clogged in the kerf. I then had to keep alternating cuts from the two sides to be able to reach.

Frustrated, I decided a new tool was definitely in order. I remember reading about azebiki saws and how they can be used for cutting these kinds of long sockets. Went online to find one though and I couldn't. Seem to be all sold out in the US at least, and I'm not willing to wait weeks for an import. So I caved and went to the box store and got a Dewalt compact tablesaw. Set it up on the workbench for now and finished the other side of the socket in no time. I'm not too worried about micrometer tolerances since I have a side rabbet plane and should be able to fine-tune the width by hand after. The thing only weighs 50lb too so I'm planning on hanging it from the garage ceiling when not in use. Hopefully I'll get over the shame of buying another power tool someday..

Steven, I used the mitre saw many, many years ago. In recent years I have used an azebiki ..

With a fence ...



Or without ...






Remove the remainder to depth with a router plane ...



Regards from Perth

Derek

[George Yetka]

All the mentioned tasks I would assume going to the router table for. That would also allow more profiling options.

[Stephen Rosenthal]

Disston stair saw. Don’t use it very often, but perfect for the task.
DC3D3556-220E-4837-B1A1-864F51DFCC23.jpg

[Assaf Oppenheimer]

Hi Tom, I work in an orthopedic ER. I can confidently tell you that the worst self inflicted knife wound I have ever seen (excluding deliberate self harm) is nothing compared to the average laceration from a power tool. they get at you with a lot more power, and they don't stop on reflex. I have sutured together quite a few of both. I'm not saying I don't dream of a power shop of my own one day, but a big factor in deciding to learn woodworking the neandrathal way for me was safety. hopefully in a year I will start training as a surgeon - I hear that you do better with all your fingers

[Don Dorn]

I still have my cabinet saw from the point I started and before moving to hand tools. It stays - there is no guilt on my part from using power to reduce laborious tasks that I don't want to do by hand. No one seems to begrudge planers and for me, I'll mill/size the wood with power and use hand tools to do fitting, smoothing, joinery, etc.

[Warren Mickley]

Hi Tom, I work in an orthopedic ER. I can confidently tell you that the worst self inflicted knife wound I have ever seen (excluding deliberate self harm) is nothing compared to the average laceration from a power tool. they get at you with a lot more power, and they don't stop on reflex. I have sutured together quite a few of both. I'm not saying I don't dream of a power shop of my own one day, but a big factor in deciding to learn woodworking the neandrathal way for me was safety. hopefully in a year I will start training as a surgeon - I hear that you do better with all your fingers

I always figured that my hands were too valuable to take a risk with a table saw.

Many of my neighbors are also woodworkers. One guy has long operated a ten man shop. The table saw in his shop operates just about full time. A few months ago he had a freak accident and a piece kicked back and speared him. He was in and out of the hospital (recently four weeks) and is able to walk with a walker.

[John Erickson]

After years of operating a woodworking cabinet shop and then using hand tools to compliment my work, the decision is solely yours. I agree with Tom buy the best you can afford to fit your space. Bear in mind an under powered saw is an unsafe tool.
We tend to call a tool unsafe when we get injured but should think of what we were doing at the time. Inanimate objects are not dangerous, we are!

[chris carter]

Inanimate objects are not dangerous, we are!

Inanimate tables saws are totally safe. It's when they are animated that they are capable of taking off fingers!

[Derek Cohen]

So far the only machines I have are an 18in band saw and a thickness planer. Have been getting by fine so far doing everything else by hand.
I have some long (>2ft) sliding dovetail sockets to cut now though, and can't stop thinking about what a pain it would be to do by hand, and how easy it would be with a table saw.
Some other things might be much easier too, like I could probably cut rabbets for picture frames in a fraction of the time it takes to do by hand.
I was thinking one of those folding ones so it could be stored without taking too much space. What's the general consensus on these things, or is there one?
Thanks!

Steven, when I moved from restoring the various houses I purchased over the years (i.e. carpentry) to furnishing our home, some 30+ years ago, my tools were a contractor table saw and hand planes. It was some years before I could afford/justify a bandsaw, jointer and thicknesser/planer. Now I have these machines, I still prefer hand tools for all joinery. Machines are my apprentices.

What if I could have just one machine? I refuse to answer that since it misses the point. The point is that any machine can be #1 - it just depends on what you build and how you like to do so. I really like all the machines I have, and consider the table saw especially useful for dimensioning boards.

Consider that in the 18c (and probably earlier), it was possible to purchase much of the boards already sawn and thicknessed to size. There is no heroism in doing all this grunt work by hand. Good that you can, because it is an important and useful skill ..but not heroic. My advice is that it comes down to what one can afford and the space on hand.

Regards from Perth

Derek