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If you could only have one saw.......

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If you could only have one saw.......

Postby firedfromthecircus » 13 Jan 2015, 19:55

OK, so this is a complete clueless newbie question so please forgive me. :oops:

If you could only have one power saw what would it be? And why?

I'm thinking the choice is between circular, table, mitre or outside possibility of a bandsaw. I already have a jigsaw. Please enlighten me with your expertise. :mrgreen:
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Re: If you could only have one saw.......

Postby 9fingers » 13 Jan 2015, 20:12

Not everyone will agree with this but....

A big badass cabinet tablesaw. cast iron table 10" blade minimum 3hp. Does not have to be expensive - a used wadkin, startrite, sedgewick etc. add a sold mitre gauge and full length fence and supplementary short fence.

With this you can cut all sheet goods, rip and crosscut timber at almost any angle of your choice. You can cut tenons straight of angled with jigs various. By setting up stops you can do repeat cuts exactly the same.

Add a dado head to speed up cabinet work.

Someone will be along later to extol the virtues of bandsaws but most of us will agree one or the other is the correct answer mainly according to the way they work.

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Re: If you could only have one saw.......

Postby TrimTheKing » 13 Jan 2015, 20:19

What Bob said! Both have their virtues, I love both of mine, but another option, which I also love, if you are limited on space is a decent track saw like the De Walt, Makita or Festool TS55 or TS75. I bought a SH TS75 and it's brilliant once set up and great for knocking down sheet goods to size without having to lift them onto a table saw.

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Re: If you could only have one saw.......

Postby Rod » 13 Jan 2015, 21:04

I find it difficult to chose between my BS & TS but if really pushed would probably keep my BS as you can do most things on it if properly set up.
I use a cheapo B&D circular saw and a straight edge as my track saw

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Re: If you could only have one saw.......

Postby DaveL » 13 Jan 2015, 21:07

I have a Wadkin 10" AGS with a 3hp motor, just like Bob said. Its a great bit of kit does loads of things with a few good jigs. Next would be a band saw, I have a BAS 315, it does get lots of use and for curvey stuff its the go to machine.
I do have a mitre saw, least used bit of kit in the shop, had it before the other two and am thinking it might well get the push, I could use the space for other things.
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Re: If you could only have one saw.......

Postby Andyp » 13 Jan 2015, 21:21

Does it depend, a little, on what you want to do?

Here's a thought. Will a bandsaw do everything a table saw can do (except dados) but not vice versa eg impossible to do curved cuts on a table saw. Oh and I suppose you can't cut sheets on a bandsaw.

I am no expert but I have survived without the bandsaw. For prepping rough sawn wood straight from the mill a combination of circular saw with home made track and the table saw has worked well.

For prepping turning blanks a bandsaw would be useful but I am getting by for now.
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Re: If you could only have one saw.......

Postby Mike G » 13 Jan 2015, 21:33

Bandsaw, for the reasons stated above.
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Re: If you could only have one saw.......

Postby chataigner » 13 Jan 2015, 21:38

Difficult question, perhaps best answered by saying how I use certain saws.

Almost never a mitre saw : limited capacity and inherently inaccurate (take hold of the handle on one and push it from side to side - the best ones only move a couple of mm, but they all move). I have one, but I use it less and less.

Sometimes a portable circular saw : doesnt cut straight, doesnt cut curves ! With a track can be quite good, but time consuming to set up. Mine is a big 3HP job that gets used for roughing out from oak planks up to 75mm thick that are too heavy to manipulate on the band saw or table saw.

Often a jig saw : doesnt cut straight, but very handy for non critical cuts in sheet goods that are too big for the table saw or the band saw. Cuts curves in panels too wide for the throat in the bandsaw.

Often a band saw : doesnt cut truly straight, even when guided by a fence the blade flexes and follows the grain a bit. However, it does cut curves very well and can resaw thick stock. Also because the blade is vertical, it can cut tenons and such things when properly guided by jigs. (See Steve Maskery's videos).

Every day a table saw : cuts straight, cuts to controlled depth. With a crosscut sled cuts precise right angles for tenons etc. (or any other angle with appropriate jigs/fixtures). With a good fence rips to size leaving a clean surface - just needs a quick pass of a smoothing plane to finish.

I have the luxury of having all of these, but if I had limited space it would be the table saw for straight cuts and sheer accuracy, backed up by a jig saw for curves. A bandsaw would be better than the jig saw if space permitted.
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Re: If you could only have one saw.......

Postby RogerS » 13 Jan 2015, 22:54

Nope...can't answer that. Today I used the Festool TS55 to rip down a very long heavy awkward board. It would never have gone on the table saw and not enough throat on the bandsaw.

I cut some boards to the right length easily and simply using my accurate but cheap Bosch mitre saw. (90 degrees - bang on and no slop, David!!

I needed to trim 5mm off a pre-glued moulding and used the bandsaw for that (the big one) and the a short while later, trim a smaller bit off a smaller moulding and used the baby bandsaw.

Then I needed to rip a few floorboards down and used the table saw. Much easier, quicker and better supported than using the big bandsaw.
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Re: If you could only have one saw.......

Postby Phil » 14 Jan 2015, 17:50

RAS - very versatile in cross cutting straight, angles etc. etc. as well as ripping.
The table is a PITA to set 100% accurately and heaven help you if you bump it!

Ripping is a very serious operation with that blade spinning close by, and if you for forget the kick-back guards, oooooooooo sh-1-t it throws that piece of stock 8m backwards effortlessly.

I do have the luxury of the RAS and TS.

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Re: If you could only have one saw.......

Postby TrimTheKing » 14 Jan 2015, 17:54

I don't know what TS you have Phil but mine was simple to set up (when you know how) and if I bump into it the only thing I have to worry about is how bad the bruise will be...

I can kick mine and not rattle anything on top of it, it's rock solid.

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Re: If you could only have one saw.......

Postby Phil » 14 Jan 2015, 18:03

TrimTheKing wrote:I don't know what TS you have Phil but mine was simple to set up (when you know how) and if I bump into it the only thing I have to worry about is how bad the bruise will be...

I can kick mine and not rattle anything on top of it, it's rock solid.

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Mark, the TS is solid and yes lots of bruises. It is a Rockwell 9" contractors saw.

It's the RAS which is the problem.

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Last edited by Phil on 14 Jan 2015, 18:04, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: If you could only have one saw.......

Postby TrimTheKing » 14 Jan 2015, 18:03

Ah k :)

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Re: If you could only have one saw.......

Postby chataigner » 14 Jan 2015, 18:04

RogerS wrote:Nope...can't answer that. Today I used the Festool TS55 to rip down a very long heavy awkward board. It would never have gone on the table saw and not enough throat on the bandsaw.

I cut some boards to the right length easily and simply using my accurate but cheap Bosch mitre saw. (90 degrees - bang on and no slop, David!!

I needed to trim 5mm off a pre-glued moulding and used the bandsaw for that (the big one) and the a short while later, trim a smaller bit off a smaller moulding and used the baby bandsaw.

Then I needed to rip a few floorboards down and used the table saw. Much easier, quicker and better supported than using the big bandsaw.


I should qualify my remarks about mitre saws - fixed head ones, especially quality versions, are not too bad in my experience, but I've never found a sliding mitre saw that was rigid enough to be considered accurate. If you have a table saw, there is no need for the extra capacity of a sliding mitre saw and the mechanism just adds extra flexibility and therefore inaccuracy.
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Re: If you could only have one saw.......

Postby 9fingers » 14 Jan 2015, 18:20

+1 for avoiding sliders.

Unless you can run to a Kapex or similar, avoid sliding mitre saws for accurate work.
I had a cheapy Ferm non sliding compound mitre saw for many years until the plastic mouldings got some sort of "moth" in the course of its last year parts just kept falling apart - most strange.

I replaced it with a Makita which is superb and once set is super repeatable - very impressed.


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Re: If you could only have one saw.......

Postby kirkpoore1 » 14 Jan 2015, 22:32

All I know is, I use my RAS more than my TS. But then again, normally I only rip on the TS and crosscut on the RAS. And of course curves, stop cuts, and most resawing happen on the bandsaw. So the only time I can see me down to one saw would be sometime in the future when I get really old and sell off the least safe tools--probably leaving me with a bandsaw.

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Re: If you could only have one saw.......

Postby 9fingers » 14 Jan 2015, 22:37

The thing is Kirk, the OP is starting out so it's more a question of what to buy next.

Fired - You've seen a range of views and I think the route is to decide between bandsaw and tablesaw according to your favoured style of woodwork and way of working.
Depending on the answer, the choice of saw number three then becomes the new question.....

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Re: If you could only have one saw.......

Postby chataigner » 14 Jan 2015, 22:44

Just a thought, but the key weakness of a bandsaw - that it doesnt cut truly straight, can be overcome by using it to cut a tad oversize, then correcting the edge with a router guided by a straight edge.
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Re: If you could only have one saw.......

Postby kirkpoore1 » 14 Jan 2015, 22:52

chataigner wrote:Just a thought, but the key weakness of a bandsaw - that it doesnt cut truly straight, can be overcome by using it to cut a tad oversize, then correcting the edge with a router guided by a straight edge.


Or a hand plane. Which in many cases would be faster.

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Re: If you could only have one saw.......

Postby Woodbloke » 15 Jan 2015, 12:33

Here's my 2€'s input,fwiw. The OP is starting out and want's to know the best saw and as Andy rightly said, it do dependeth on what you want to do, simple as that.

For the sort of work I like to do, both the table saws I've owned ( Original French made Kity and a Charnwood) haven't been accurate enough. If I could go to Felder or similar, then yes, but the cheap hobby range stuff simply isn't good enough.

The vast bulk of any sawing I do is done with two decent bandsaws (a big Startrite and a smaller Inca Euro) with good blades and I then rely on hand tools to bring stuff to size. Table saws also take up a lot of room in a small shop which could be better used for other kit.

That said, for sheet materials a track saw is great and I've just got hold of a TS55. I've never seen any point in a furniture 'shop for a sliding mitre saw..they're site tools that can be loaded into the back of a wagon. In a small 'shop they take up a disproportionate amount of room, same as a tablesaur.

There really is no right answer to this one, so you need to feel your own way towards what works for you - Rob
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Re: If you could only have one saw.......

Postby firedfromthecircus » 15 Jan 2015, 20:27

Firstly, thanks for all the replies guys. I suspected I would get some answers that come from well earned experience and I have not been disappointed. :D

I hadn't expected the bandsaw to come so high up in the polling though. And I don't think I thought the number one would be between a band and a table. Just goes to show, it is a worthwhile question to ask, even if it's a hard one to answer for some! I'd be the same if you asked me which bicycle I would have if I could only have one. :lol:

The next stumbling blocks after lack of knowledge and skill are lack of space and lack of money. (it's all tied up in bicycles!) I had a quick look on a popular auction site at 2nd hand Startrite and Wadkin tablesaws. :shock:

Might need to save up for a bit if I wanted one of them, but at least I have a better idea than I did 2 days ago. 8-)
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Re: If you could only have one saw.......

Postby TrimTheKing » 15 Jan 2015, 23:50

[quote="firedfromthecircus"]... I'd be the same if you asked me which bicycle I would have if I could only have one. :lol:

Ooooh a fellow pedaller (there's a couple of us here). Tell us more (in another thread, which I promise not to delete...) ;)

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Re: If you could only have one saw.......

Postby Wizard9999 » 18 Jan 2015, 23:28

firedfromthecircus wrote:The next stumbling blocks after lack of knowledge and skill are lack of space and lack of money. (it's all tied up in bicycles!) I had a quick look on a popular auction site at 2nd hand Startrite and Wadkin tablesaws. :shock:


Might be deemed heresy, but UKWorkshop has an active for sale board, given the large membership, probably worth keeping an eye on it.

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Re: If you could only have one saw.......

Postby philwilliams » 23 Nov 2017, 15:59

Yeah, I'm gonna have to go with a band saw, too. I used to have just a really cheap circular saw that often does a good job in cutting, but after purchasing a band saw, I'd say I've improved a lot. I

'd have to agree with the many reasons already stated above, although before I've converted into a bandsaw man, I've read up a lot about it first. Got into a couple of forums too and review sites (like this) and I've never looked back since.
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Re: If you could only have one saw.......

Postby Mike G » 23 Nov 2017, 20:27

Welcome Phil.
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