Comparing Table Saws

You'll need to compare table saws in order to get the best value for your budget and your needs. There are tons of various brands, and I admit, it's all very confusing. Just buying what your next door neighbor has is usually not a great idea. You can spend as little as $150 to ten times that much, so you need to learn what you're buying and why.

To begin with there are four sorts of table saws. We'll compare all four types so that you can see what each one is. There are contractor saws, cabinet table saws, benchtop saws, and hybrid saws. As a way to fully compare table saws, let's look at each in turn.

Contractor table saws are supposed to be somewhat portable and also to withstand lots of punishment. They're accurate enough for trim work, but maybe not as accurate as you will need for cabinetry or furniture. You can get a good contractor table saw for about $500.

A cabinet table saw is what you need for fine woodworking. If you are into building furniture or even fine kitchen cabinetry, a cabinet saw is probably what you would want. Cabinet saws are not at all portable. They need to be heavy to be able to be accurate. They're also expensive. Many top $1,000.

Benchtop saws are portable. They don't possess the legs that a contractor saw would. You have to set them up on a bench or a tailgate of a pickup. But they cut well, can withstand a great deal of on the job punishment, and also a portable enough to be able to carry it from job site to job site without cursing!

A hybrid saw fits the gap between cabinet saws and contractor saws. It's rigid enough to cut accurately, at least for the majority of applications, and it doesn't cost as much as a cabinet saw. It's about as portable as a contractor saw.

Now, to compare table saws, what you ought to do is to pick which type you want. When I purchased my saw, I got online and looked around. I went to several stores, too, but I purchased my saw online because it was so much cheaper. And they would deliver it!

Lee Cole is an avid builder and hobbiest. Click this link to learn more about table saw reviews. Also, if you want even more information about table saws, check out Lee's blog Table Saw Reviews Guide.

Another thing you need to know about are sliding table saws. Here's some more information about them.

Sliding Table Saws are saws that are fitted with a sliding device, which makes the saw much, much safer. You wouldn't know it looking at a saw like this, but it's quite a dangerous tool. Probably the single most dangerous in a woodworker's shop. That 10-inch saw is rotating at hundreds, not thousands, of RPM's and if it catches a piece of wood, it can send it rocketing across the shop, perhaps to hit someone in the face or the eye.

To answer this particular element of danger, the table that slides was invented. This is basically an addition to a table saw, which lets you position a piece of wood you want to crosscut (cut across the grain) and control the wood so that it has less chance of turning into a hazardous projectile.

So, a sliding table saw is a saw that already has the sliding attachment on it.

Rikon has an excellent saw with an integral sliding attachment. You can take a look at it, by clicking the link. The Rikon sliding saw sells for over $2,000, but if you're a cabinet maker or a fine furniture maker, it's well worth it.

DeWalt has a sliding table attachment that goes on a variety of their saws. You can take a look at it, here. The DeWalt attachment costs as much as some low-end table saws, but it's well worth it for cross-cutting wood.

Table saws are among the most useful of woodworking tools. They also can be dangerous. Having the right attachments like a rip fence or a sliding table make them much more user friendly. Interesting, European table saws generally come with all of these attachments because of more stringent safety regulations in Europe.

You can get a sliding saw, or a sliding attachment for your current saw. Either way, make sure you're safe! Paying a little more for a safe saw or for safety attachments for your saw is much better than losing a finger.