Table saw recommendations please

[Chris Green]

I have just been using my rather old and basic WolfCraft saw table with a Skil 'Classic' circular saw mounted in it. I'd not used it for a long while and had to re-learn a few things but it saved me lots of time and effort cutting up some wooden worktop material to make a desktop and some shelves.

I have quite a bit of other similar work on the horizon and I'm thinking of getting a dedicated table saw. I'd hope that this would be a bit more accurate and squarer than the WolfCraft but it's difficult to decide what's good and what's not so good looking at the reviews on Screwfix etc.

For example the Screwfix Titan table saw:-

It gets lots of good reviews but looking at the bad reviews it would seem that the guides are not particularly accurate, fine for cutting up dry-lining timber but not much good for carpentry as opposed to joinery.

I want something that will enable me to cut accurate right-angled cross cuts and parallel rip cuts. 'Accurate' means to something less than 1mm along a long rip cut and properly square for cross. My WolfCraft table isn't this accurate unless you are very careful and help it somewhat!

I don't want to spend a lot (hence looking at the Screwfix Titan) but on the other hand I don't want to waste my money on something that won't do what I need. Somewhere around the £200 mark is probably my upper limit. If I'm not going to get what I want at that sort of level then I'll muddle on with what I've got.

Recommendations please!

[newshound]

A lot depends on the size of stuff that you want to cut. Although I have a Clarke table saw that I inherited from my father in law, I very seldom use it. But then I very seldom need to rip. For cross cuts, I find a sliding compound saw much better. If I am doing long cuts, it tends to be on plywood and then I use a circular saw, sawboard, and two workmates.

You really need a table saw to be fixed firmly to the ground for rip cuts. My late father in law made an ingenious combination of dexion and timber, with a single "leg", attached to the base of his table saw. In the garden, he had two dwarf walls at right angles, separating a path from slightly elevated lawns. His gadget fitted in the right angle so that the saw was very securely located when he was cutting substantial timbers.

[Tricky Dicky]

For accurate ripping go for a fence that is secured at both the back and front edge of the table in other words a full table length fence, it is the deflection of the fence near the blade that causes most inaccuracies.

Richard

[Chris Green]

Probably a mix similar to me, but just recently (and probably soon) I've more panels and such to cut. I too have a sliding compound saw which can cut up to 30mm wide or so but can't manage cuts across 500mm or 600mm panels, it's not so easy to handle large pieces into it either.

I'm lucky to have lots of 'indoor' (i.e. garage) space, I have a two car long by two car wide garage which houses just one car and all my woodworking stuff. It's easy enough to move the car out when necessary.

[Chris Green]

Yes, that makes a lot of sense, can anyone tell me which (if any) 'budget' table saws have this? Presumably though this makes setting the fence a little more work as I guess there would be two clamps.

[John Rumm]

Reading between the lines, it sounds like you are after a contractors style table saw rather than a full sized one. (although if you have space for a full sized one, a second hand pro level machine from ebay etc might be a better bet).

Of the cheaper contractors saws, the lower end Charnwood often gets a mention:

The cross cutting performance with the included mitre guides can often be a bit suspect on smaller saws, however so long as you can get the blade parallel to the guide slots in the table, then its easy to make a cross cut sledge that will give repeatable accurate cuts.

[dennis]

The £159 one looks identical to the one I used to have from B&Q. I paid £30 for that one.

It was useless at anything other than ripping and the table bent.

It was heavy so I gave it away to save space in the shed.

My neighbour has a table saw if I need to borrow some time on one.

[dennis]

You probably just need to make a plywod/mdf table to put the saw on and use a guide on that rather than the one on the saw.

Something like..

[John Rumm]

There are quite a few similar looking saws in the price bracket... e.g:

Not sure I would want to try something at the £30 point though (unless that was second hand?) given the scope for injury if something falls apart on you in use.

Small tables are always going to be limited for cross cuttings unaided, but you can work round many of the problems with home built sledges, jigs, and extension tables.

There seems to be a disconnect in that sentence somewhere ;-)

Handy if there is one near - decent ones tend to come with free electricity as well.

[TMH]

I have one of these

Only complaint is that it's noisy. Has an extension table to enable wider cuts & it's pretty powerful. The fence has knobs at each end to lock it in place, but I always check with and adjustable square.

Also sold under the brand name Scheppach.