I am currently in the market for a new table saw. I have looked at various models and manufacturers and I am interested in the Bosch 4000-07 10" table saw. My question is, does anybody have experience with this saw...both good or bad? My workshop consists of a two-car garage that I have to share with two cars and various other items. Therefore, I need something that can be stored out of the way when not in use. This saw has received very favorable comments on Amazon.com and I believe is resonabaly priced at $499. Any suggestions on other brands I should look at would be appreciated as well. Unfortunatly my major constraint is room.
"Eric Miller" wrote in news:Beeqd.47327$ snipped-for-privacy@fe2.texas.rr.com:
This is primarily a job-site saw, made for portability, rather than fine woodworking. Gets tossed in the back of a pickup truck regularly, etc.
The new Ridgid saw, in the same price range at Home Depot, has earned some nice comments lately. Comes with a well-engineered stand, a decent fence and should roll away nicely. If you need to hang it on a hook, though, I think you are out of luck.
However, with the Bosch, you could build a car port, and convert the whole garage to it's rightful use...
You can do the same with the Ridgid. Neither saw is exactly an easily wall hung device, but the Bosch is about half the weight of the Ridgid (Bosch 60 lbs., Ridgid 122). The Ridgid stands on its side when stored, though, and the stand is permanently attached.
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Just to clarify, I am not looking for a saw that can be hung on the wall when not being used. I have enough floor space to store a saw once it has been broken down and taken off a stand. I realize that a cabinet saw is the ideal choice, but unfortunatly I don't have the room for one right now. Nor do I have the resources now to build a home for one....although that is ultimatly what I would like to do.
a cabinet saw doesnt require any more room than a contrators saw. the motor on a contractors saw generaly hangs off the back taking up more space that a cabinet saw top. the fence system is apples to apples on higher end saws. the main difference size wise between the two is the weight factor. if you put the cabinet saw on a mobile base you can store it while not in use. hope i understood your post corectly.
Aside from some height difference, a cabinet saw doesn't take up much more floor space than a contractor's saw even if it has been taken off the stand. In fact, taking a contractor's saw off its base and having two pieces to store would probably end up using more space than the cabinet saw. The only real difference is weight (and cost). To handle the weight factor, a cabinet saw can be put on a mobile base.
Eric, I have the big cast iron Rigid at HD that you're not interested in. My brother (a carpenter in MI) tried to push me toward the Rgid fold-up that's been mentioned. Says once it's setup on a job site, everyone uses it, and he sees those holding up well to a lot of use.
Eric, if your wallet can stand it, you might look at the hybrid saw from Jet or the new one due out soon from Sears. They have full size tabletops (roughly 27X44), cast iron extensions, etc., but the motors are contained within the cabinets rather than extending out from the back. Therefore, their storage footprint is much smaller than a contractor saw...not much bigger than the job site saw you're looking at.
According to some of the woodworking mags, these seem to be a very good compromise between a contractor saw and a cabinet saw.
For that kind of money, I'd hate to settle for any jobsite oriented portable deal unless I intended to lug it around to jobsites.
I have an extremely small shop with an extremely large table saw. It's a contractor's saw with 24" rip capacity to either side of the blade (Crapsman). The motor sticks way out, the fence rails stick way out. It's definitely a PITA to work around, and I had to consign several machines (belt/disc sander, router table, grinder) to benchtop, or even floor mounted use, plus I had to evict my metal-cutting bandsaw entirely, and put it in my house, in the middle of my den (which SWMBO loves).
Everything about having such a huge, heavy saw really sucks. Until I use it to make something. I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE that saw!! It's worth every bit of the PITA factor. Every bit of it.
I grew up on a Skil 3400, whose two greatest advantages were that I got it new for $50, and it was extremely light and portable. The saw sucked, and required a lot of compensation on my part to make up for its failings. When the time came to replace it, I spent a lot of time looking at things like this Bosh you're talking about, similar saws from DeWalt, etc. I couldn't find a reasonably small, portable saw that didn't force me to trade away an important consideration. I looked at the BT-3100 too, for its lightness, but in the end the space demands were about the same, and if I was going to have to use up 3/4 of my available floor space for a saw, I was going to get cast iron. Aluminum saw tables suck.
So I did. No looking back.
I think if I had a garage scenario where I could put this thing on a mobile base and move it around, it would be even more desireable to have this over any jobsite deal. In my installation, I don't have anywhere to move it TO. It's just there, eating up most of my space like a great gray battleship. But damn this thing can do good work, and it's only a lowly Crapsman.
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