What's the difference between the many types of saws out there?

I'm a total noob when it comes to woodworking but just bought my first house and would like to put a workbench in my garage. I have nothing to work on now but would have worked out some plans to for a bench that I think will suit my needs but am now looking for equipment to buy. What's the difference between a table saw, mitre saw, circular saw, or any of the other popular saws out today that I might need to know about or consider?

TIA,

thepip3r

Reply to
internetsavant
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Go to Home Depot, Lowes, or a store like Woodcraft and put your hands on them to see what they are.

It would be good to take a beginner's class in woodworking before you buy.

If you are in Texas, Homestead Heritage in Elm Mot (close to Waco) have classes.

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Reply to
Lowell Holmes

It would take a thick book to give the differences and nuances between models of all the saws available. Table saws break down to portable, benchtop, contractor, cabinet and hybrid. They range in price from $100 to $3000. Many a woodworker looks at the tablesaw as the main tool of the shop where most projects start out.

Circular saws are the hand held jobs used on construction sites.

Miter saws are for cutting boards cross cut, and at angles. Great for trim work.

Radial are and band saws should be included also.

Go to a good tool store and take a look at the various types and do a rough comparison between the cheap and expensive one. Figure out what you want to build (now, and in the future) and we can give some better advice as to what will work the best.

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

Find a good used bookstore and get some books. This will increase your knowledge base.

It would also help to know what you want to do. Woodworking is a vast field and not everybody wants or needs the same tools.

Reply to
Lee Michaels

Start with a decent quality circular saw, one that'll hold an accurate tilt setting. You can get adequate precision for rips or sheet goods with a couple of clamps and a straight piece of MDF shelving. For crosscuts, use a speed square as a cutting guide. Most of those cuts will be 90 or 45 degrees, with 95% being 90 degrees.

Your workbench for now can be an old door set on a pair of sawhorses. Sturdy, but can be knocked down in a jiffy when you want open floor space, or when you need the horses for an outside job. In 35 years, I've only used a "real" workbench in other peoples' shops.

Reply to
Ferd Farkel

Time for a book like Carpentry for Dummies, or maybe the This Old House books on hand and power tools (currently on clearance at Borders Books for

*two bucks!*) they're excellent for the beginner so your search for more information has direction, half the trick is knowing what kind of questions to ask. ;^)
Reply to
DGDevin

Start here:

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Reply to
Chuck Taylor

"Edwin Pawlowski" wrote in news:lc7Vi.9434$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr23.news.prodigy.net:

*snip: Summary of powered saws.*

There's also the hand saws, which when properly sharpened can be just as effective as their powered brothers. There are two basic kinds of hand saws, push saws and pull saws. Push saws cut on the push stroke, and are good for jigs such as bench hooks and using your body weight to make a cut. Pull saws cut on the pull stroke, and are excellent for general cutting. They usually have a much thinner blade than a push saw, and cost about the same.

Quality hand saws are a good way to get started in wood working. At $10- $20 for a saw, you can try a variety of hand saws before you get in the range of a cheap table saw.

I have this pull saw, which gets a lot of use:

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picked up my push saws second (or third, fourth, fifth... who knows how many owners they had?) hand. Once sharpened, they're excellent for cutting with a bench hook or rough but fast cuts.

Hack saws are not for woodworking. Their fine teeth are designed for materials much denser than wood.

Because I mentioned "bench hook" twice, I'll take a paragraph to explain it. Two narrow and long boards are placed on a wide and long board. One's on the top and the other's on the bottom. The narrow boards are on opposite sides (widthwise) of the board, forming what basically looks like a square bracket [ with one end reversed. Simply place the jig on your work bench, and your piece on the jig. When you push with the push saw, the board stays and place and allows the saw to cut.

Puckdropper

Reply to
Puckdropper

snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote:

"De Christoforo's Complete Book of Power Tools Both Stationary and Portable" (R.J. DeChristophoro) is a good book that may be in your local library. At least my tiny rural town library has a copy. Handsaws did all the wood cutting in the country up until power tools became available back at the beginning of last century, and they still work fine. It takes some practice to get a cut to go straight and stay square, but plenty of people have learned how over the centuries. Hand saws will make any kind of cut thru any kind of material. I have several good handsaws from yard sales for which I only paid a couple of bucks. Projects like a deck or an addition or finishing off an attic can be easier with a portable circular saw (skilsaw) which you can take to the job site. A table saw is very useful for things like book shelves, storage cabinets, kitchen cabinets, kid's toys, tables and chests of drawers, that you make in the shop and carry to where they go. An alternate tool is a radial arm saw. Both tools will crosscut, miter cut and rip cut. The chop saws , miter saws, and sliding compound miter saws give up the ability to rip in order to become somewhat lighter and simplier. Homeowners like your self need to rip boards to width, so I would look at a table saw or radial arm saw should I be into a stationary tool. Plenty of used table and radial arm saws show up on Craigs list for $100 or so. Well made power tools last forever. A table saw in our family was passed down thru grandfather, father, and son, and would still be cutting wood today except for a fire that destroyed to building it was in.

David Starr

Reply to
David Starr

wrote

Your first saw purchase should be the best quality "circular saw" that you can afford.

With it, a hammer, and the proper blades, you can build a house.

A quality circular saw can be used to cross cut lumber accurately at 45 and

90 degrees by simply using a good framing square as a guide, and, with a simple home made straight edge guide, you can accurately cut sheet goods to size, or rip lumber to project dimensions.

Consider a Makita or a Milwaukee brand ... or, if you really want to get serious, the Festool circular saw. Just buy the best you can afford and you'll be ahead of the game.

Reply to
Swingman

Some early projects to work on. Sawhorses (you need at least 2) workbench A place to store your future tools :-)

You probably want to get a framing square and a level.

A combination square is also handy.

Reply to
Maxwell Lol

Great advice!

Reply to
Frank Drackman

use:

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prodId=IrwinProd100270

That is a GREAT little saw

Reply to
yugami

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