I have just been using my rather old and basic WolfCraft saw table
with a Skil 'Classic' circular saw mounted in it. I'd not used it for
a long while and had to re-learn a few things but it saved me lots of
time and effort cutting up some wooden worktop material to make a
desktop and some shelves.

I have quite a bit of other similar work on the horizon and I'm
thinking of getting a dedicated table saw. I'd hope that this would
be a bit more accurate and squarer than the WolfCraft but it's
difficult to decide what's good and what's not so good looking at the
reviews on Screwfix etc.

For example the Screwfix Titan table saw:-

https://www.screwfix.com/p/titan-ttb...questid=549396

It gets lots of good reviews but looking at the bad reviews it would
seem that the guides are not particularly accurate, fine for cutting
up dry-lining timber but not much good for carpentry as opposed to
joinery.

I want something that will enable me to cut accurate right-angled
cross cuts and parallel rip cuts. 'Accurate' means to something less
than 1mm along a long rip cut and properly square for cross. My
WolfCraft table isn't this accurate unless you are very careful and
help it somewhat!

I don't want to spend a lot (hence looking at the Screwfix Titan) but
on the other hand I don't want to waste my money on something that
won't do what I need. Somewhere around the £200 mark is probably my
upper limit. If I'm not going to get what I want at that sort of
level then I'll muddle on with what I've got.

Recommendations please!

--
Chris Green
·

On 24/04/2019 21:26, Chris Green wrote:
I have just been using my rather old and basic WolfCraft saw table
with a Skil 'Classic' circular saw mounted in it. I'd not used it for
a long while and had to re-learn a few things but it saved me lots of
time and effort cutting up some wooden worktop material to make a
desktop and some shelves.

I have quite a bit of other similar work on the horizon and I'm
thinking of getting a dedicated table saw. I'd hope that this would
be a bit more accurate and squarer than the WolfCraft but it's
difficult to decide what's good and what's not so good looking at the
reviews on Screwfix etc.

For example the Screwfix Titan table saw:-

https://www.screwfix.com/p/titan-ttb...questid=549396

It gets lots of good reviews but looking at the bad reviews it would
seem that the guides are not particularly accurate, fine for cutting
up dry-lining timber but not much good for carpentry as opposed to
joinery.

I want something that will enable me to cut accurate right-angled
cross cuts and parallel rip cuts. 'Accurate' means to something less
than 1mm along a long rip cut and properly square for cross. My
WolfCraft table isn't this accurate unless you are very careful and
help it somewhat!

I don't want to spend a lot (hence looking at the Screwfix Titan) but
on the other hand I don't want to waste my money on something that
won't do what I need. Somewhere around the £200 mark is probably my
upper limit. If I'm not going to get what I want at that sort of
level then I'll muddle on with what I've got.

Recommendations please!

A lot depends on the size of stuff that you want to cut. Although I have
a Clarke table saw that I inherited from my father in law, I very seldom
use it. But then I very seldom need to rip. For cross cuts, I find a
sliding compound saw much better. If I am doing long cuts, it tends to
be on plywood and then I use a circular saw, sawboard, and two workmates.

You really need a table saw to be fixed firmly to the ground for rip
cuts. My late father in law made an ingenious combination of dexion and
timber, with a single "leg", attached to the base of his table saw. In
the garden, he had two dwarf walls at right angles, separating a path
from slightly elevated lawns. His gadget fitted in the right angle so
that the saw was very securely located when he was cutting substantial
timbers.

For accurate ripping go for a fence that is secured at both the back and front edge of the table in other words a full table length fence, it is the deflection of the fence near the blade that causes most inaccuracies.

Richard

newshound wrote:
On 24/04/2019 21:26, Chris Green wrote:

Recommendations please!

A lot depends on the size of stuff that you want to cut. Although I have
a Clarke table saw that I inherited from my father in law, I very seldom
use it. But then I very seldom need to rip. For cross cuts, I find a
sliding compound saw much better. If I am doing long cuts, it tends to
be on plywood and then I use a circular saw, sawboard, and two workmates.

Probably a mix similar to me, but just recently (and probably soon)
I've more panels and such to cut. I too have a sliding compound saw
which can cut up to 30mm wide or so but can't manage cuts across 500mm
or 600mm panels, it's not so easy to handle large pieces into it either.


You really need a table saw to be fixed firmly to the ground for rip
cuts. My late father in law made an ingenious combination of dexion and
timber, with a single "leg", attached to the base of his table saw. In
the garden, he had two dwarf walls at right angles, separating a path
from slightly elevated lawns. His gadget fitted in the right angle so
that the saw was very securely located when he was cutting substantial
timbers.

I'm lucky to have lots of 'indoor' (i.e. garage) space, I have a two
car long by two car wide garage which houses just one car and all my
woodworking stuff. It's easy enough to move the car out when necessary.

--
Chris Green
·

Tricky Dicky wrote:
For accurate ripping go for a fence that is secured at both the back and
front edge of the table in other words a full table length fence, it is
the deflection of the fence near the blade that causes most inaccuracies.

Yes, that makes a lot of sense, can anyone tell me which (if any)
'budget' table saws have this? Presumably though this makes setting
the fence a little more work as I guess there would be two clamps.

--
Chris Green
·

On 24/04/2019 21:26, Chris Green wrote:

I want something that will enable me to cut accurate right-angled
cross cuts and parallel rip cuts. 'Accurate' means to something less
than 1mm along a long rip cut and properly square for cross. My
WolfCraft table isn't this accurate unless you are very careful and
help it somewhat!

I don't want to spend a lot (hence looking at the Screwfix Titan) but
on the other hand I don't want to waste my money on something that
won't do what I need. Somewhere around the £200 mark is probably my
upper limit. If I'm not going to get what I want at that sort of
level then I'll muddle on with what I've got.

Recommendations please!

Reading between the lines, it sounds like you are after a contractors
style table saw rather than a full sized one. (although if you have
space for a full sized one, a second hand pro level machine from ebay
etc might be a better bet).

Of the cheaper contractors saws, the lower end Charnwood often gets a
mention:

https://www.charnwood.net/products/table-saw

The cross cutting performance with the included mitre guides can often
be a bit suspect on smaller saws, however so long as you can get the
blade parallel to the guide slots in the table, then its easy to make a
cross cut sledge that will give repeatable accurate cuts.



--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

On 25/04/2019 11:21, John Rumm wrote:
On 24/04/2019 21:26, Chris Green wrote:

I want something that will enable me to cut accurate right-angled
cross cuts and parallel rip cuts.Â* 'Accurate' means to something less
than 1mm along a long rip cut and properly square for cross.Â* My
WolfCraft table isn't this accurate unless you are very careful and
help it somewhat!

I don't want to spend a lot (hence looking at the Screwfix Titan) but
on the other hand I don't want to waste my money on something that
won't do what I need.Â* Somewhere around the £200 mark is probably my
upper limit.Â* If I'm not going to get what I want at that sort of
level then I'll muddle on with what I've got.

Recommendations please!

Reading between the lines, it sounds like you are after a contractors
style table saw rather than a full sized one. (although if you have
space for a full sized one, a second hand pro level machine from ebay
etc might be a better bet).

Of the cheaper contractors saws, the lower end Charnwood often gets a
mention:

https://www.charnwood.net/products/table-saw

The cross cutting performance with the included mitre guides can often
be a bit suspect on smaller saws, however so long as you can get the
blade parallel to the guide slots in the table, then its easy to make a
cross cut sledge that will give repeatable accurate cuts.




The £159 one looks identical to the one I used to have from B&Q. I paid
£30 for that one.

It was useless at anything other than ripping and the table bent.

It was heavy so I gave it away to save space in the shed.

My neighbour has a table saw if I need to borrow some time on one.

On 25/04/2019 08:57, Chris Green wrote:
Tricky Dicky wrote:
For accurate ripping go for a fence that is secured at both the back and
front edge of the table in other words a full table length fence, it is
the deflection of the fence near the blade that causes most inaccuracies.

Yes, that makes a lot of sense, can anyone tell me which (if any)
'budget' table saws have this? Presumably though this makes setting
the fence a little more work as I guess there would be two clamps.


You probably just need to make a plywod/mdf table to put the saw on and
use a guide on that rather than the one on the saw.

Something like..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5VonQwBGls

On 25/04/2019 16:13, dennis@home wrote:
On 25/04/2019 11:21, John Rumm wrote:
On 24/04/2019 21:26, Chris Green wrote:

I want something that will enable me to cut accurate right-angled
cross cuts and parallel rip cuts.Â* 'Accurate' means to something less
than 1mm along a long rip cut and properly square for cross.Â* My
WolfCraft table isn't this accurate unless you are very careful and
help it somewhat!

I don't want to spend a lot (hence looking at the Screwfix Titan) but
on the other hand I don't want to waste my money on something that
won't do what I need.Â* Somewhere around the £200 mark is probably my
upper limit.Â* If I'm not going to get what I want at that sort of
level then I'll muddle on with what I've got.

Recommendations please!

Reading between the lines, it sounds like you are after a contractors
style table saw rather than a full sized one. (although if you have
space for a full sized one, a second hand pro level machine from ebay
etc might be a better bet).

Of the cheaper contractors saws, the lower end Charnwood often gets a
mention:

https://www.charnwood.net/products/table-saw

The cross cutting performance with the included mitre guides can often
be a bit suspect on smaller saws, however so long as you can get the
blade parallel to the guide slots in the table, then its easy to make
a cross cut sledge that will give repeatable accurate cuts.




The £159 one looks identical to the one I used to have from B&Q. I paid
£30 for that one.

There are quite a few similar looking saws in the price bracket... e.g:

https://www.rutlands.co.uk/sp+power-...utlands+xt2300

Not sure I would want to try something at the £30 point though (unless
that was second hand?) given the scope for injury if something falls
apart on you in use.

It was useless at anything other than ripping and the table bent.

Small tables are always going to be limited for cross cuttings unaided,
but you can work round many of the problems with home built sledges,
jigs, and extension tables.

It was heavy so I gave it away to save space in the shed.

There seems to be a disconnect in that sentence somewhere ;-)

My neighbour has a table saw if I need to borrow some time on one.

Handy if there is one near - decent ones tend to come with free
electricity as well.



--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

On 24/04/2019 21:26, Chris Green wrote:
I have just been using my rather old and basic WolfCraft saw table
with a Skil 'Classic' circular saw mounted in it. I'd not used it for
a long while and had to re-learn a few things but it saved me lots of
time and effort cutting up some wooden worktop material to make a
desktop and some shelves.

I have quite a bit of other similar work on the horizon and I'm
thinking of getting a dedicated table saw. I'd hope that this would
be a bit more accurate and squarer than the WolfCraft but it's
difficult to decide what's good and what's not so good looking at the
reviews on Screwfix etc.

For example the Screwfix Titan table saw:-

https://www.screwfix.com/p/titan-ttb...questid=549396

It gets lots of good reviews but looking at the bad reviews it would
seem that the guides are not particularly accurate, fine for cutting
up dry-lining timber but not much good for carpentry as opposed to
joinery.

I want something that will enable me to cut accurate right-angled
cross cuts and parallel rip cuts. 'Accurate' means to something less
than 1mm along a long rip cut and properly square for cross. My
WolfCraft table isn't this accurate unless you are very careful and
help it somewhat!

I don't want to spend a lot (hence looking at the Screwfix Titan) but
on the other hand I don't want to waste my money on something that
won't do what I need. Somewhere around the £200 mark is probably my
upper limit. If I'm not going to get what I want at that sort of
level then I'll muddle on with what I've got.

Recommendations please!

I have one of these

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Only complaint is that it's noisy. Has an extension table to enable
wider cuts & it's pretty powerful.
The fence has knobs at each end to lock it in place, but I always check
with and adjustable square.

Also sold under the brand name Scheppach.

--
Dave
The Medway Handyman