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Re: Tables saw for a newbie

To: GA Carnut <gacarnut@hotmail.com>, shop-talk@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: Tables saw for a newbie
From: Don Malling <dmallin@attglobal.net>
Date: Mon, 08 Dec 2003 09:38:29 -0500
I've done a lot of woodworking. Made furniture, all the cabinetry in my 
house. Made all the molding out of rough sawn lumber and the house is 
covered with raised panel wainscoting and chair rail.

Did it all with what I would consider to be junk tools. Home made 
shaper, sears 10" table saw and 6" jointer, Bellsaw thickness planner.
Taiwan Delta clone band saw.

After having been through it, my advice would be to get a 12" table saw 
  of almost any brand and then get a good ($$$) fence to with it. I 
spent most of my time adjusting the fence.

I would also spend some money on tools to align the blade with the 
table's miter groove. Perhaps some of the good table saws have 
adjustment capability on the blade/arbor mount to align the blade with 
the groove. Blades are usually not completely flat, so alignment can 
become a chore.

I would get a 12" table saw because of resawing. After jointing one side 
of the board you will need to resaw it to the correct thickness. You can 
run it through a planer, if you have one, but it takes a long time and 
makes a ton of shavings. With a 10" table saw you only get about a 3" 
deep cut, so you can only resaw 6" boards (two passes). With a 12" you 
can get more -- hopefully enough for an 8" board. Be sure to check the 
max cut depth. I found resawing with a band saw to be too slow. Maybe my 
blades were not very good.

Get an 8" jointer. The beds are longer, and it will go with the 12" 
table saw.

Get a thickness planer with a fixed height table and moveable cutter 
blades rather than fixed height cutter blades and moveable table. If the 
table is fixed height, you can make extensions for the outfeed table.


Buy good quality blades -- carbide.


Don Malling


GA Carnut wrote:
> 
> Amateur norm-wannabe, looking to get into some woodworking/furniture 
> making (shelves, tables, etc.).
> 
> I need a table saw, and was looking at Lowes the other day - Delta has a 
> $99 table, a $179 table, and up.
> 
> Would the $99 table fit my immediate needs, or do I need to look into 
> something fancier (and/or used, etc.)??
> 
> I'm going to surf over to the Harbor Freight sight and check stuff 
> out...  ;-)
> 
> I'm of the buy it cheap, if I like it/use it, buy another more expensive 
> model later - although I generally keep my old cheap tools for years...  
> sorta like cheap furniture - that stuff never seems to go away...
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Chip
> 
> Chip Mautz
> 
> '88 BMW 528e
> '65 Austin Healey Sprite
> '03 Chevy Suburban
> 
> I don't know.  I'm making this up as I go - Indiana Jones
> 
> _________________________________________________________________





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