Crazy? (on topic)

[Greg Guarino]

Thanks for the (over-generous) compliment. Keep them coming. Encouragement is always welcome. But I am making strides; each project looks a little nicer than the one before.

Sometimes you can turn lemons into lemonade. Without a TS, the hardest thing is to rip narrow stock, so I try to "design" for standard dimensions. I just had an(other) idea for how to make the legs on my bench/serving table.

I was thinking to rip down the wider pieces to close to the right width, make the dadoes and then trim the edges flush with a router after assembly. But while I was drawing it, I wondered if it might be a nice design element to leave the "excess" width as-is. I'll have to copy the "new" leg design into the full drawing, but so far I think it might work.

[Leon]

OK, seriously, you need to get a decent TS. I really like the way you are experimenting with Sketchup. I think your skills would slingshot ahead with the ideas you are coming up with. That last design is really unique.

Now take another look at it again and consider the possible forces that the outer pieces will be having to resist. I am absolutely not saying that the strength is not adequate so much as to get you to consider that possibility. Just something to watch out for when thinking outside of the box. Keep it up.

[Swingman]

In the span of time I've been woodworking I've had use of a table saw less than 50% of that time, but was fortunate to have learned early how to use a handsaw to rip, then finish up with a hand plane.

It takes longer, as dimensioning stock to project dimensions with hand tools takes a good deal of practice, but it is by no means an insurmountable limitation for building one off pieces of furniture/cabinetry.

If you've got the time, go for it.

AAMOF, were I were a hobbyist today in a shop as small as mine, in lieu of a table saw I would consider either a good band saw, and/or a plunge saw and guide rail/MFT system, like the Festool.

AAMOF, I take my TS-75 plunge saw to the job site, in lieu of a table saw, these days.

[woodchucker]

I was going to reply to Leon's post. But you said it all in yours, you were dead on.

I think that most europeans gave up on the TS for job site. The track saw seems to rule.

I was given advice to buy a bandsaw first. I didn't.

I was frustrated at first with my bandsaw. Even though I thought I Had it setup right. My problem was the OLSON blades.. once I switched to timberwolf my problems went away. The thing cut perfectly to the fence (adjusted once now, and not touched for years). So I agree about the bandsaw.. And whenever you have a dangerous cut on the TS I go to the BS usually.

Hand tools and planes ... the more power tools I have the more I appreciate my hand tools. Especially my planes. Enough can not be said about learning to use and sharpen them...

[Leon]

And I agree with Swingman but I still think a TS is going to be better for cutting dado's/ groves and cross cutting. A BS will rip but IMHO the larger table on a TS helps support the work more so that the relatively small BS table and typically you do have much more fence to help guide on a TS. Track saws are great, I use mine as my joiner to straighten S2S stock. And given that I now have the Festool work table with the track to use my TS75 saw for angle and cross cutting I'm still going to use my TS for those cuts in most cases.

And going on to the BS problems you were having with the Olson blades. I have found that through using 3 different BS's that the structural strength of the saw has more to do with the ability to get a good cut From any given blade.

I had a 10" Craftsman and seldom used it in the many years that I had it. I ordered an 18" Rykon to replace it and long story short ended up buying a Laguna LT16HD BS. My problem with the Rykon is that I would not cut well with the Timberwolf blades but cut quite well with the blade that came with it and one that I had made for it. There were other issues but I won't get into those. Timberwolf worked with me to resolve the problem but we were unsuccessful. So oddly some blades worked well some did not. The Laguna does not care what I put on it and I very seldom have to adjust the tilt on the top wheel for tracking unless I go from 1/4" to 1-1/4". This saw is so ridged that once set up, from the beginning, blade types and widths require little to no adjustment when swapping out. Mostly the only adjustment is moving the guides forward or backward to accept the larger or smaller blades.

[woodchucker]

I never have to change my tracking. I spent lots of time getting this coplanar and everything else. I have a USA made delta 14" POC.

my wheels were wobbly and not round... I had to sit there truing them up... my riser I had to remove the pins to get it lined up.. I also had to reem and shim my guide shaft. The hole had been bored so that raising and lowering it required massive changes in the guide block setup. So I reamed it a little oversize so I could put brass shims in to get it straight... it runs well now.. but that's a lot of work for what should have been a good saw.

Delta was useless, if Delta hadn't been sold it would not matter, I would not have bought another new Delta.. I have bought used.. (jointer).

[Swingman]

Absolutely agree ... would never willinhly give up my table saw for what I do.

I could do without it, however. And were I scaling back to doing just the odd piece of furniture, and even small cabinet jobs, I could make do with a bandsaw, the TS-75, and a router table, although I would sorely miss the TS, time wise, for batch ripping and dado stack work. The fewer 'like parts' needed, the less need for the TS, IME

I used the TS-75 on those two remodels in AR last year, in lieu of the TS. What I missed the most was the dead-on accuracy of batch cutting 'like parts' on the table saw, and using a handheld router for dadoes.

I believe you might be able to mitigate that somewhat with a good MFT setup ... and another $5-10k investment in Festoolies. ;)

[Leon]

LOL. And to let you know where I am coming from with Greg, he seems like the type that might get into producing quite a bit if a TS were available at home.

[Greg Guarino]

Well, Greg has a lot of "big ideas", that's for sure. But only some of them come to fruition. A table saw (and a place to put it) doesn't seem to be in the cards for the immediate future.

Frankly, the thing that slows me down the most is finishing. Using a circular saw (with guides), a miter saw and a router (frequently with a dado jig) I manage to fashion the parts in a reasonable amount of time. But the finishing slows things to a crawl.

Thanks to the helpful folks here, I prefinish as many parts as I can, masking off surfaces to be glued. That makes things a lot easier but there's still an awful lot to do, and do again, and again and again. And life responsibilities usually ensure that several days elapse between those "agains".

[woodchucker]

Greg, you may also consider a Dewalt jobsite TS. They will do a lot. And if you look in Craigslist you will see many TS on sale. The nice thing about the Dewalt is the rack and pinion fence.. and the fences low bar, for cutting narrow , thin stock. In a garage workshop you can pick it up and put it to the side when not using it, and also just put it on a set of saw horses when you need it, or a bench.