Inevitable tools

[johnridley]

I gave up and bought a portable table saw today. I've been putting off several jobs for months if not years, and doing a few jobs poorly, due to not having one. I actually own a table saw but I ran out of room to hold it and gave it to my brother, who's across the state.

I was considering a sliding compound miter saw, which would have been good for the immediate job at hand, but not as generically useful, and pretty much just as big as a jobsite table saw to store, so I bit the bullet and went from $80 (for the Harbor Freight 10" slider) to $300 (for a Porter Cable jobsite table saw). There are cheaper models but the Porter Cable is the cheapest saw that wasn't obviously a piece of crap.

In the end, it's hard to not want a table saw for a project once in a while, especially if you've owned one in the past.

Now I need to build a crosscut sled for it, for the job immediately at hand.

Comments

[rono-60103.livejournal.com]

I ended up with a small table saw that one of Tara's co-workers had to leave behind. I've never used it.

But, in part because it is what my dad has and we used when I was growing up, if I wanted a job saw I'd probably start out trying to find a radial arm saw. But they are hardly seen any more. Everyone wants table and/or miter saws instead.

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

I actually have a radial arm saw that was given to me by my father-in-law. I gave it away to a friend who does a lot of woodworking. He tries to give it back to me every time he sees me. IMO a radial arm saw is a compromise that does nothing all that well, and the thing honestly scares the hell out of me. There are too many failure modes with them the result in kickbacks and other possibly mangling injuries.

My father-in-law gave it to me with the same caveat; he didn't use it anymore because it was just too scary, not as controllable or predictable as the alternatives, and it's never necessary if you own a table saw and a hand saw.

If you want a radial arm saw, I happen to know where you can get one for free. It's in southeast Michigan...