Best Inexpensive Table Saw

[Sanbar]

Any recommendations on a low budget table saw.

[J T]

Sat, Jun 12, 2004, 6:11pm (EDT-1) [e-mail] (Sanbar) burbled: Any recommendations on a low budget table saw.

For what? New? Used? What's low budget? How much you willing to pay?

Not enought details to give a valid answer.

JOAT You know it's gonna be a bad day, when you turn on the news and they're showing escape routes out of the city.

[items4sale]

Good Point! Do you want to do dado's? Some don't have long enough arbor's. Check out used one's probably get a good deal. Check Harbor Freight & Grizzly

Frank

Sanbar wrote:

[Jim Martin]

"Sanbar" wrote

I'm pretty happy with my Unisaw. I paid $200 for it. Is that low budget enough?

Sorry for the gloat. My recommendation is to be patient and buy used.

Good luck,

Jim

[Lumberjack]

Delta TS300 retails for $299.99 & is a good low-budget table saw. It's rare to find a table saw with a good fence like this model has for the price. This place sells them new

so does Lowes, and I also have a used one for sale on eBay which may be a good place to start. , I wouldn't get anything of less quality for woodworking projects, but if it's for construction type work then any cheap junk saw will do.

Regards, Lumberjack

[B a r r y]

A good straight edge guide, with a good circular saw. Need dados or rabbets? Use the same guide with a router. Heck, you could actually skip the saw and do your cutting with a router and straight bit.

The portable stuff will still come in handy even after you get a good table saw.

Here's a good example:

Barry

[WebsterSteve]

Check the classifieds and get something used.

[LonE]

i purchased a Jet from Woodcraft for 500.00$ and i have been very satisified with it and the stock fence isn't too bad either.

LonE

[nuk]

Lots of good recommendations so far. A good circular saw and router would be very useful anyway, so spending some money up front on those might not be a bad idea. In the mean time start shoping the classifieds, and check out some books on tuning up saws, as a lot of what you see there will help you to tell if a saw has been abused, or is going to be more of a PITA than you want to deal w/. Other options include getting an upper-end bench or lower end contractor saw to begin w/ while you decide how serious you want to pursue woodworking. I opted for a Ryobi BT3100, a nice little saw from Home Depot for about $300, less if you time the sales right. Lots of dedicated help over at the forums at

and an interesting review at: Like I said, neat saw, but not always the saw for everyone. Works for me, though.

Enjoy,

nuk

[Scott Burright]

There's now a cut-rate version of the 3100 with a similar sliding table/miter gage idea. $169 @ Borg. They seem awfully weird to me, but I guess you could get used to them.

--Scott

[B a r r y]

I respectfully ask, like what?

Thanks, Barry

[Rick Samuel]

[Scott Burright]

Like slap a board on the table and nibble 1/64" of of it just by eyeballing. I've also had better success slicing boards exactly in half on the bench saw. You can install a dado stack-- granted, only a 1/2" one-- and with stop blocks, dog boards, and such, you can cut nice repeatable dados and rabbets very quickly. I even find the standard-blade, multiple-pass method of cutting dados far easier on the benchtop saw than with a circ saw.

To cut dados with a handheld router, I'd want to clamping fences, so that you reference the left one in the first pass and the right one coming back. Or a jig that does the same thing. Seems like more of a bitch to set up and repeat, and the guides aren't cheap. Then there's multiple passes for depth.

Tapering legs, cutting tenons, and raising panels can be done on the bench saw, with a little help from our jigs.

As for big sheet goods, there are ways.

I wouldn't trade my benchtop saw for a Festool plunge-cut circular saw and guide system. OK, I would, but only so I could sell it and buy a better table saw. The point is, I think the better benchtop saws are whole worlds better than circular saws for weekend warrior projects, and not a whole lot more expensive. If a contractor's saw is not in your immediate future, I say the $179 on a jumped-up bench saw is worth every cent.

(Of course, one thing it will do is whet your appetite for a real table saw. Eventually, you *will* part with the money!)

--Scott

[B a r r y]

I'll agree. Is the runout on that saw good enough for an accurate

64th? The example I used had some issues. The router will also nicely nibble an edge.

Again, routers do great dados.

The jigs are very easily made. Multiple passes are easy with the rotary turret on a plunger.

I'll agree with tapering, but the other two operations are also very easily done with the router flipped over, mounted to a board, with a scrap wood fence clamped to the board. A square piece of ply makes a great 90 degree miter gauge for tables without slots.

I don't cut full sheets alone on my cabinet saw.

I'm glad it works for you. I fully agree that IF a better table saw is not in the plans for a long time. With your saw, or a good circular saw and guide, a router is still pretty necessary.

I just like newbies to hear the options.

Thanks! Barry

[Scott Burright]

If you're super-retentive on the setup, you can get (and keep) a Delta bench saw to contractor saw tolerances, unless parts are damaged. It seems you have to take this kind of trouble to tune more expensive saws also.

You're right: A router is definitely necessary, and can do some of these jobs better than the bench saw. Thing is, you'll need a router even if you get a Unisaw. So I have started out with an inexpensive fixed-base Ryobi router and an inexpensive saw. Got me cutting!

A word of warning on cheap routers: The lower-end Skil plunge routers are a pile of pony waste. On every model I've tried, there's 1/8" of play in the base when you lock the depth down. Cheap fixed-base routers do not have this problem.

Tuning circular saws is a big problem also. My mid-range Skil is just slightly out of parallel and plumb with the footplate, no matter what I do. This means saw marks and other nasty things. Unless you spend $120 or more on a circ saw, the cheap footplate spells nothing but rough cuts for you. The bench saw, on the other hand, can be adjusted 11 ways from January, and it doesn't cost a lot more than a good Milwaukee circular saw.

Your post is right on, though. Good info, and newbies should have it all.

--Scott

[Scott Burright]

None here, neither.

To me, the TS300 is still half a table saw. And it costs half as much as a real one. That's a 1:1 ratio of cost to capability, and I figured if I was going to sacrifice capability, I should get a better discount on the price. Thus the TS220LS. I mean, once I'm spending $300, I'm thinking, why not $550? But $179 is a different story. That's the price of a good circular saw

• blade + clamping guide.

I'm not sure what the 300 can do that the 220 can't.

The TS300 does have a cast iron table. But this means it lacks portability. I figure if I'm going to get a real stationary saw, I want one with an induction motor and standard-sized table. Otherwise, I want to be able to heave it into my car.

This was just my reasoning. It's all tradeoffs. The 300 seems like a good saw. Not an heirloom, but certainly something you can make furniture with for a while.

--Scott

[B a r r y]

You guys should also keep an ear to the ground. I sold a Jet contractor's saw, with a 30" fence, decent blade, mobile base, link belt, PALS kit, and some assorted small stuff, for $350 six months ago.

That saw served me extremely well for 6 years, and I'd still be happily using it if I didn't need a whole bunch of 44" wide panels. I paid $500 + $49 for the base, six years ago.

Keep the ear close to the ground, 'cause mine sold in four hours, out of a local bargain shopper rag / website that covers NY, CT, MA, and RI. While the buyer was looking at it and loading it up, several more calls came in.

Barry

[Keith Bozek]

Hi Barry,

You mentioned a "local bargain shopper rag / website that covers NY, CT, MA..." I live in NY. Just curious do you have a URL to that website.

Keith

[Scott Burright]

Yes, this is the problem. For every one person who gets his hands on such a bargain, there are X persons jostling for it and coming away with nothing. If you spend time (and Einstein proved time = money), and you know what you're looking at, and you're willing to travel, you may eventually snag a deal like this. I think that when the time comes, I'll just spend the extra $200-$300.

But your mileage will vary. For some, The Gloat is all. If you're that type, then the joy you get from buying a real saw plus accessories for the price of a Ryobi BT3100 will be well worth the trouble.

And Barry.... next time you have tools to sell, write me, dang ya.

--Scott

[B a r r y]

fun! Barry