a question on types of table saws

[goatmanjon]

Hi everyone, im new to this board and just starting to get into woodworking as a hobby. Im a retired pipefitter/welder and don't know a whole lot about table saws. I have an old 1945 cast iron 8"craftsman saw that i got in trade and im in the process of restoring it. The one i have now has a tilting table top rather than a tilting blade. My question is what are the disadvantages of using a tilted table top over a tilted blade type. Thanks in advance and any advice would be appreciated................................ goatmanjon

[TassieKiwi]

Welcome to the forum.


I have an old 8" Tanner (NZ) that has the tilt top, and a 4" jointer off to the side. I am about to upgrade to a 10 or 12" tilting arbour (ie blade) saw for the following reasons:

Stability/accuracy - the tilt top always has the possibility of being out of square. This always happens just when you don't want it to.
Power - I cannot rip any more than about 40mm in Oz hardwoods - very slowly
Safety - I think that crosscutting on the angle is dodgy as gravity is against you too, especially on compound cuts. That said, one rarely has the table on an angle, and a SCMS will do all of the crosscut angle work (I don't have one though)
Dust - easier to collect with a modern saw.

[Gumby]

My beer would fall off if I had a tilting table. :D

[Original-Bart]

The saw your restoring probably has bronze bushings that you'll need to keep oiled instead of bearings. I still have a saw like it that was my Dad's first saw. Clean it up fix it up display it. Thats what I'll do with Dad's old saw when I have the room to display it. Then get a real good tilting arbor saw they are much safer. One day I'll have Dad's 1950's full sized Craftsman contractors table-saw. I'll gladly wait. In the meantime I use my 1953 Unisaw.

Your saw has a table about the size of todays portable table-saws + it tilts, for making bird houses & small case goods with small drawers etc they are ok, but are a pain for anything of any size. I actually made my first set of cabinets on my Dad's old saw they were for a 12 passenger Ford van that we brought back when I returned form a tour in the US Army. I built them in a carport in Georgia using 2 pipe clamps a Craftsman doweling jig & drill to put the face frames together & the old table-saw I even made lipped style overlay doors on that old saw. I had an old Craftsman router but no bits besides that I was scared to death of routers back then.

I have simply gone nuts about wood working & tools since
then.

Bart

http://bartswoodshop.freeservers.com/