Thread: Table saw research

Spartan's initial post got me thinking about my recent experience in researching which TS to buy as a replacement for my Triton. For a newbie, it seems to me to be a challenging task and it's hard to get good info on the set of questions I found swilling around in my mind, which were:

1. What do I want the TS to do? (The only good answer comes with experience, which means you've already gone through one or two )

2. How easily do I want it to do that? (Functionality, accuracy, ease of setup, consistency of setup, usable power).

3. How long do I want it to perform? (Hours or days in the week over x years ... Durability, repairability).

4. How much am I prepared to pay? (Value for money; preference for high initial outlay v. staged upgrades; ability to wait for sales or good 2nd hand models).

All of these variables interact but how can you know in what way? (eg. if I go low cost how clunky or how unreliable will it really be?).

Some of these questions are hard to answer, eg. will I want the capacity to cut panels at some time in the future? Or where can I find measurements on the blade alignment of a particular saw or of its table flatness (and they're going to vary unit by unit as well!).

No rest for the wicked

[quote=rsser;520856]Spartan's initial post got me thinking about my recent experience in researching which TS to buy as a replacement for my Triton. For a newbie, it seems to me to be a challenging task and it's hard to get good info on the set of questions I found swilling around in my mind, which were:

1. What do I want the TS to do? (The only good answer comes with experience, which means you've already gone through one or two )

2. How easily do I want it to do that? (Functionality, accuracy, ease of setup, consistency of setup, usable power).

3. How long do I want it to perform? (Hours or days in the week over x years ... Durability, repairability).

4. How much am I prepared to pay? (Value for money; preference for high initial outlay v. staged upgrades; ability to wait for sales or good 2nd hand models).

All of these variables interact but how can you know in what way? (eg. if I go low cost how clunky or how unreliable will it really be?).


Now that I reckon sums up anyone and Everyone's answer to the purchase of a Table saw or with some restructure any other decent piece of Machinery Well done

I got 3 now but one of em is a Woodfast combo and I resurected my poor old Ryobi Thicknesser and just bought him a buddy Dewalt DW735-XE you never know I may walk in the shed one mornin and find a pile of little baby D'walts buzzin in the corner amongst the woodchips allthough them 4 Stihl things is stihl only 4