If I had room for it, I would get a table saw... that said, I do my projects with a circular saw and a piece of aluminum angle for a guide. Clamp the aluminum to a piece of scrap, put the edge of the plate under the circular saw against the aluminum and cut across. Then measure carefully (I actually used calipers, but you could easily cut a "gage stick" from other scrap) from the edge of cut to face of aluminum. Then you can use the "gage stick" to set up your pseudo-fence and cut very straight & pretty precisely place lines. It is slower to set up each cut, but a whale of a lot cheaper than a table saw. I wonder about accuracy (squareness) of fences on bench model saws. Anyone have experience to share? I use the same aluminum angle & my router to make dado cuts as well.
- posted
20 years ago
Hi. I am interested in woodworking. I have made a desk, using hand saw
> and an electric drill. It was a hard work. This time, I am thinking
> about a power tool to make things easy. Since my budget is rather
> limited, I want to buy just one power tool. I am wondering whether I
> should buy a bench saw(table saw) or a bandsaw(just a small one for 290
> Canadian dollars) or a jigsaw(makita). It seems that the jigsaw is the
> most portable, but I don't know if it is possible to do
> straight-cuttings. I will be making a sofa( or futon type ), but I want
> to try to make other furnitures like tables or chairs or some kind of
> drawers. Could anybody give me some suggestions?
> Thank you very much in advance.
>