I have a small garage and don’t have room for a cabinet saw. I’m thinking about getting a compact or jobsite saw that I can roll away underneath a work bench. Does anyone have a newer model at home they are happy with?
I don’t need a stand. Just the saw.
IF you are careful with set up, and understand the limitations of the saw, you can accomplish a lot with any of them. I’ve been impressed the work my father has done on the cheapest of cheap skill compact saws. He has a good saw at his house, and my old skill compact at his weekend property, and I have seen some surprisingly good work he has pulled off with it.
That said, the more rigid the mechanism acting as a trunion, the better. Weight is generally your friend if you aren’t looking for portable.
I’ll have a good laugh if dad finally moves completely to the weekend place about the same time I get a weekend place and enough space for a compact saw.
Thanks. I understand that most of them are relatively similar. I’m hoping someone can share experience with some of the latest models. I’m currently leaning towards a newer DeWALT or Bosch.
There may be a ton of reasons not to do it, but have you considered the track saws?
Their tracks appear to store fairly compactly, and otherwise are circular-saw size/style.
I have zero experience, but I’ve wondered about having one instead of the table saw…
Here’s a video of the super-cheap Festool.
I absolutely have my eyes on a cordless festool! But I also want something for smaller materials. I would love the track saw for ripping sheet goods but for making smaller boxes I imagine I still need the tablesaw for smaller pieces. Compact tablesaw and a Track saw would fit perfectly in my garage!
Bosch by far if going portable, durable and quality. Bosch’s “gravity rise” stand is light years ahead of all readily avail “rolling” stands on the market.
@TLAR Thanks Tom. I’ll end up building a modular roll-away stand, so the stand is not very important to me. Online, people are raving about the Rack and Pinion fence. Do you think the quality of a Bosch outweighs the ease of use of the Dewalt fence?
I chortled at that. Perhaps there is a cheaper tracksaw within Festool’s lineup, but nothing about their wares are cheap from what I’ve seen.
@ESmith @jast Buying a cordless festool tracksaw, with extra battery, and corded adapter, and enough track to do 8’ cuts runs about $1000 all-in. But definitely easier to use than trying to do sheets goods on a compact table saw and I can hang it on the wall when I’m done.
I have the bosch - older model (no riving knife)
the fence on the bosch is accurate and very easy to use
Clayton - if you opt to buy local at lowes - I can meet you at the store and use my military ID for 10% off( any brand any item)
a straight edge - piece of scarp plywood, steel, aluminum, etc and a pair of quick clamps is far more economical to make sheet goods into more ergonomically sized pieces to cut on a table saw.
but if you have no budget - Festool is not a bad way to go.
Currently, I have a homemade straight edge. The track saw will likely come in a couple of years. For now I have the large table saw and track saw at the space.
For home use, I want a small table saw, which is why I’m hoping that someone has used some of the newer models and can give me some insight into my final purchasing decision.
the Bosch is a 10" - easy to find blades, and accessories like a dado insert etc are inexpensive on amazon
Well, I was ready to buy the Bosch, but it looks like it cannot accept a 3/4" dado set…so I’ll have to move towards the Dewalt.
That’s kinda surprising to me. My inexpensive Hitachi will do 13/16.
So, digging into the manual, the Bosch 4100 can accept 3/4" dado stack…okay, back to considering both a Dewalt and a Bosch again…
I’ve used my Diablo(made in italy) stacked Dado on my Bosch several times.
That Dado set was clearance priced at sears before sears opted to move away from better made tools. $27 was a steal-so I have two sets of stacked dados.
Biggest issue I’ve had using the two contractor-style saws I’ve owned is the small table size. Consider either making some support stands or an outfeed table (or both, or multiples) which matches the table eight (or 1/8"-1/4" lower if your floor is uneven).
The 2nd issue is power: mine does OK with nominal 2" thick stuff (e.g. 2x4’s, which are really 1 1/2" thick) but you really have to slow the feed rate with anything thicker. This, coupled with the smaller blade diameter makes dealing with 4X lumber more awkward.
That being said, I’ve tackled projects both large and small using these saws. From jewelry boxes to a couple of tack rooms for my barns.
They do have smaller tables hence the “portability” and the Bosch does offer a couple of side and rear extensions that slide out - not much but better than nothing.
It is not meant to be a cabinet saw tho.
I think Clayton could fabricate a folding storable outfeed surface for whichever saw he opts for.
When workplace space is at a premium the creative mind goes into overdrive making things work.
@TLAR That’s exactly my plan. Which is why it’s important to to purchase the better saw so that I don’t have to make another rollaway anytime soon.
@HankCowdog The use case scenario you described is the same as my intentions. I’ve got access to the space for bigger jobs if I get that far along.
