#108

new in this thread but I’ve done a little woodworking. table saws are a wonderful thing and a foundation piece. not many have the space for an outflow table but that makes the folding table saw a good thing for those of us with more intermittent projects. I like Craftsman tools, just bought one of their jigsaws and it’s a good deal better than the Harbor Freight equivalent, for sure. I settled on the Bosch folding table saw, it’s considerably more expensive but it’s been a rock. but I think with a fine saw blade and some care, even my old Ryobi table saw was somewhat capable. having that folding stand, not trying to cut a 10’ 2x8 on the ground, is huge. I wouldn’t be able to tell you why the Bosch might be better…not sure if it is. :stuck_out_tongue:

edit: the @karst suggestion of a crosscut sled is a very good one, everyone should build one for any table saw. not only will it allow you to do finer and more accurate cuts, it’s safer.

edit 2: even on large table saws with outflow tables, cutting sheet goods is sketchy, hard and highly dangerous. get into the havit of using clamp fences with a skilsaw, you can get very accurate cuts that way and it will be the best way to cut a sheet that needs to be 3’9” at the top and 3’8” at the bottom.

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#109

Yep…I tend to not skimp on tools coz its very annoying when you’re fighting bad tools, but I’m thinking for the amount I’m planning on doing, it makes more sense to go budget. I have a bosch drill that is great. Maybe if I start doing a lot more I can figure out access to a proper woodworking facility or build more of a workshop of my own, but I don’t think I’m at that point yet.

Thank y’all for the advice! I think this is the path I’ll go down.

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#110

gotta admit, I own a lot of Harbor Freight tools. their Multimaster clone is freeking awesome for $20, their grinders are great and cheap as well. anytime I have a one use tool, I HF it. currently I own their biscuit cutter and it does have some problems for a tool that needs to be accurate, but for as much as I use it, it’s competent. I also have their mini router (on loan, didn’t even have to buy it!) and for what I do it’s great. the plastic tightening screws are soooo sketchy, they’re gonna strip at any moment, but somehow it holds.

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#111

so @karst @fourhoarder to understand what the table saw can’t do…if I need to do something approximating the dimensions of a table top or large sheet, or cut down a very tall plank of wood*, the table saw, would not be good for that.

*though I’m guessing I’d probably be okay doing something like using my jig saw to cut hypothetical very tall plank to approximate size and then using the table saw for accuracy.

Okay cool, so the idea here is that you are basically building a guide that the side edge of a circular saw rides up against for cutting?

#112

my dad has been trying out a few small table saws to see what he likes, i can post a pic of what he ends up getting

but yea similarly i think i might get one of these when i move to an apartment with a back porch - it seems like the most flexible for dimensioned lumber work. maybe that & a basic circular saw for bigger pieces.

++ a handheld power sander has been working miracles for me

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#113

If you can splurge a little, a track saw style circular saw can basically replace a table saw for most small (and even some very large) projects, that and a sacrificial sheet of MDF for the top of your work table.

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#114

so that table saw’s actual table is 27” x 22”, so it helps to imagine the physics of manipulating large item (like, say, a 96” x 48” sheet of plywood) on such a small surface.

if you want to use the fence on that table saw, ripping (cutting along the grain or lengthwise) will work fine but there’ll be a size limit and the longer the stock, the more unwieldy it will get. if you want to crosscut, a sled (as previously mentioned) will help a lot, but if you’re cutting 6’ pieces down, you’re still going to be dealing with managing some uneven weight while trying to get a clean cut.

most really good table saws have better cutting mechanisms, but a lot of what your paying for are the weight and surface area to safely cut larger items (or sliding tables for super controlled cuts). a lot of people build outfeed tables to supplement smaller tablesaws, but I’m imagining you may not have the space for that.

a track saw (or rigging up a fence/track for a circular handheld saw) is great for sheet materials (better than a table saw), but much less helpful if you’re planning to work with lumber.

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#115

yeah…that’s definitely going on the list. I did my cassette shelf manually sanding and that was a lot. I recently replaced my hand-crank coffee grinder with an automatic one and now I am obsessed with power tools to make things easier hah.

the thing with the track* saw that kept me from looking into it was it seems like it’d be a pain in the compact/storage factor. though I guess I could get an mdf top like you mention, keep the tracks fastened on it, and put it on my saw horses when I’m ready to work. I’m not sure you can do the angled/mitre stuff with one?

#116

Ah, yes, the miters! I forgot about that one. With some track saws you can lay the blade over to 45 degrees. For smaller miter work, I generally use a compound chop saw, so I forgot about that…

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#117

the idea with a fence you might use with a skilsaw is to just have something the saw can run against. so for a not square cut where I have to eat up a couple inches over 8’, I might chalk line from the top to bottom, measure off the width from my saw blade to the edge of the saw on each end, and clamp my fence to those points. then you can take your time, get a nice clean line that can be really long and not be trying to maneuver that piece on a 22”x24” table saw top. much smaller package to store, as well.

I think radial arm saws are kinda redundant with the above technique. anything smaller than 12” can be cut with either a 7” or 12” speed square, clamp and a skil saw. you never see radial arm saws in commercials shops for this reason, sliding mitre chop saws have replaced them and with anything really big you get a panel saw. panel saws are dope but are 12’x30’.

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#118

yeah I was initially looking at those pull down mitre saws, but then it felt like I could get more of what I wanted out of one of these folding table saws, like some longer cuts and the price was pretty equivalent.

Reading all y’alls posts has been very helpful, I was getting slightly overwhelmed with all the options trying to figure out what I wanted and the pros/cons of the different things…has definitely helped me understand the benefits of the various tools here, and where I might want to go with it in the future.

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#119

honestly, if you were mostly only concerned with making mitre edges for gear cases and cutting dimensioned stock to length, then a mitre saw would be the way to go.

but if you’re concerned with cutting lumber to width, then a table saw is the only real tool for the job. certain mitre cuts will be a bigger pain in the ass, but it’ll be more flexible of a tool in general.

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#120

you can definitely get by with just a table saw, although yeah a sliding mitre saw might be slightly easier to store. the woodworkers that taught me ended up on the table saw for everything and sometimes wouldn’t use a chop saw for months.

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#121

yes, white oak. Glad you caught the grain wrap, I glued up the pieces full length and then cut to size after glue up. Would have been nice if all the oak had been the same color, but giving it a sense of symmetry is the next best thing.

#122

how did you finish the oak? I feel like white oak can very easily go orange with oil finishes.

#123

Two coats Tried and True Stain + Finish in Java top-coated with two coats of Tried and True Original Wood Finish.

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#124

case part built
case part built4160×3120 1.69 MB
with power
with power4160×3120 2.06 MB
case 1 and 2
case 1 and 23120×4160 1.33 MB

white oak sides to make a vertical modular case- horizontal slats are beech I thing and back is ply. The cutaway at the base is to fit in better with my much more hastily constructed first case. Quite pleased with the result.

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#125

highly recommend this doc: https://nakashimadocumentary.com

goes way beyond woodworking but many of these moments are the best insights.

beware, it’s a full 2 hours and i may be a bit biased (our friend is george’s niece, we’ve visited the studio, etc)

9 Likes
#126

figured i’d do a crosspost here with some of the things I’ve learned after hand-drilling and cutting a plywood panel:

This is cheap 3mm birch ply. I still haven’t pulled the trigger on the table saw so I cut the panel with my jig saw…turned out a lot straighter than I’d done in the past…some quick sanding and I was good to go. I used masking tape on both sides, and an “xtra clean” bosch blade and it worked great with no splintering.

For drilling (just using my hand drill), I did the masking tape on both sides again. I did some experimenting with my leftover pieces and found out that stripping at the back was gonna be a huge problem, so I tried the “backing board” trick and it definitelly helped. There is still a fair amount of stripping but the tape and backing board definitely makes i non-terrible. The irwin unitbit set I have did seem to do better than the craftsman bit set I have in terms of stripping.

My dad gave me a bunch of quick vices and they made things go very smoothly…much better than the rotary vices i was using.

My approximate cuts weren’t exact to the parts, so I did some small tweaks with the dremel to get things to start to seat. Then, I took a pen and marked which holes and where needed to be enlarged to get things to seat fully. I took the unibit and I increased the hole sizes with some fairly light pressure in the direction they needed to open up. I couldn’t use a backing board for this, and so I was nervous, but luckilly no super bad stripping happened. This worked great, and the unibit was so much faster than the dremel.

One other trick with the unibit I figured out was if you do some masking ttape to the level you want to go, it makes it a lot easier than eyeballing or trying to feel for the clicks.

I’m pretty happy with how it turned out! Far from perfect, but I don’t think it’s too terrible. Hopefully this helps if anyone wans to experiment with drilling plywood panels for synth things.

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#127

Hi! I just discovered this thread and I’m eager to share a small project I did for my kids as a Christmas present. I try and make them something by hand every year and this year I spotted some coat hangers online that I tried to replicate.
These are cut from alder (I believe is the English name) from a piece I had left from a different project. I cut them out with a jigsaw (a cheapish Bosch) but predrilled round corners. The space around the horn was a bit of a challenge!

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image4032×3024 1.86 MB

I treated them with food grade bees wax and mounted a thingy I have no idea what is called in the back for easy mounting on screws on the wall.
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image4032×3024 1.67 MB

When I bought the hardware I didn’t realise it had a bit of metal protruding so I had to go quite deep chiseling out the recess. I did some heavy marking with a marking knife before chiseling it out to avoid chipping!

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