Advice on drop saw vs scms, please
I work a day or two a week, designing and installing small gardens, many of which involve a significant amount of woodwork. The last job I did I made a planter / bench combination from 90x19 hardwood, next month I'm going back to lay about 30m of hardwood decking, the job before that was mainly 200x75 sleepers. So I do a lot of cutting, including mitres, but only a day or two a week, and although I'll only do this as a profit maker for about 4 o 5 years, I will always value a decent saw.
I've got a cheap bosch circular saw, which never does the same cut twice, even with a cutting guide, so I was thinking of moving up to a drop saw, and then realised if I want to cut 200x75 I need an SCMS, which took me from a $200 circular saw to an easy grand.
Most of the tools I buy now are makita, but I don't think I can afford $1000 for the LS1013.
So here are my options:
- spend close to $1k on the LS1013
- spend about $400 on a drop saw and cut sleepers with the circ saw
- buy second hand
- buy a cheaper SCMS
- Buy a decent Circular saw and work harder on straight cuts and mitres. eg N5900B-2 for $300
Weight and size is also an option as I don't have a ute or trailer to cart a monster like the LS1013 around.
At the end of the day, of course I want top quality, but for a decent price, as well as powerful and versatile but not heavy or bulky.
So, priorities are:
- Quality
- Quality
- Quality
- powerful motor
- price
- cutting depth
- weight / size
- versatility
If I was workshop based, I'd just buy a table saw, but it needs to be highly portable.
The more I write, the more I'm inclined to go for a decent circ saw, and learn to use more cutting guides.