What ‘Table Saw’

Im in the market for one. My old Axminster TS250, is just too heavy, and its got a(known about when i got it) alignment issue so it cuts 90deg fine -aligned to the fence etc, but 45deg it is squint to the fence.

Most of my cutting is 90deg, though plenty of times 45d or anything in between would have been handy.

So Im getting rid of that and was intending on getting a Festool, as it has saw stop technology, but it is really really expensive im struggling to justify it really.

So maybe one of the Bosch, Makita or even Dewalt. Basically something not as heavy, that can be easily stored/tipped up to mostly live in a corner. I was thinking of something like the Bosch GTS10

Any suggestions ?.

I won’t be cutting down full sheets, but will be working on half sheets, so the fence needs to do pretty wide 600+. And a decent depth of cut. Sliding table would be nice-tenons etc

I’m debating the same, might get the Rutland. It’s a rebadge from china but seems to be well thought out and cheap for what it is.

That said while I didn’t get to play with the table saw there was a Bosch display on our estate at work today and the mitre saw they had was really nicely made.

So maybe one of the Bosch, Makita or even Dewalt

Of those three – Dewalt hands down – just for the fence alone. If you can stretch to the DWE7492 thats especially good. Metabo sell one with a similar fence but don’t import the mains version into the UK for some reason, only the battery version

I used to have the Bosch GTS10 but the fence was driving me up the wall, its awful. Everyone I’ve worked with in the last few years as sold their Bosch’s and Makita’s and replaced with Dewalt after using my one.

I have the same dilemma. Need to upgrade my tablesaw and looking at the festool because of the sawstop. I can’t justify the cost financially but it’s so much safer and I like my digits.

If you’re using the tablesaw regularly, treat yourself!

I take that on board about the fence, the rack and pinion might be better, as long as they are calibrated together, and i can see they can go out of alignment. The bosch one is just to similar to most and its whether that is the deal breaker or the other features on the bosch more than make up for it.

One of the criteria the dewalt is going to fail on is it is a brush motor, which are traditionally loud as hell, and thats before you cut anything. Induction would be far better as its for indoor use.

So possibly the motor along with the sliding table might make the bosch more usable over the dewalt. Both are of similar price at £750 or thereabouts.

I have the same dilemma. Need to upgrade my tablesaw and looking at the festool because of the sawstop. I can’t justify the cost financially but it’s so much safer and I like my digits.

If you’re using the tablesaw regularly, treat yourself!

Having seen the after effects of fingers versus saw blade you do lean towards the festool ,and it does have a lot of very nice features, though for £2k the features are minimal, and its the sawstop facility you’re really buying. So is it worth it for that 😕

Im really bad at managing cash. Bought one of the CRC cheap frames, added Hope pro5 wheels, t4v4 brakes, GX groupo,fox factory all very nice stuff and about the same price the festool saw would have cost me. I dont actually need the bike, but i do need the saw. Another dumb move to add to my long list of dumb moves.

I think if i can sell off some collected bike bits,i could probably raise half the cost, which makes it more of a goer.

Thanks for the replies though. Gives me something to think about

Dewalt. I’ve had one for years. The fence is superb and it stands upright against the wall of my wkshop. I’ve ripped air dried oak thicker than the cutting depth and then flipped the wood to complete the cut Does it without any fuss and you can make a very nice plywood extension that hooks on to the frame. Very nice bit of kit and well worth the investment. (Not to mention the fact that it fits in the van easily and will cut 800mm to the fence).

If you’re serious and want one that lasts….

Mafell Erika 60

Really solid.

Feels like a proper tool and not a plastic jobby.

i have the slightly smaller bosch tablesaw
https://ffx.co.uk/products/bosch-bosch-gts635216-240v-1600w-table-saw-246493

as my first table saw i dont have mich to compare it too, but it does the job fine. i bought a sled for it to do small parts but i seem tondefault to a mitre for those. its mostly been used for cutting down timber to size like fence posts for outdoor projects. for thick stuff you just flip it over and cut

mine is used outdoors so it needed to be portable which this kust about is. its pretty heavy and awkward to move. id imagine the next size up bosch is going to be a right pain to move around the workshop

i really like festool stuff (i have a track, extractor and sander) but cant see the value in spending 4 times the amout. i get the not wanting to loose your fingers, but, if you use it properly thay shouldnt be an issue.

if i had loads of spare cash i would probably treat myself but sadly i dont! i think i paid less than £300 from ffx a few years back…..prices have jumped loads like everythjnt else

If you’re serious and want one that lasts….

Mafell Erika 60

Really solid.

Feels like a proper tool and not a plastic jobby.

Not sure how id get on with that pull action cross cut. Probably lose a finger first time out and given its the same money as the festool, wouldnt that be ironic 😆

i really like festool stuff (i have a track, extractor and sander) but cant see the value in spending 4 times the amout. i get the not wanting to loose your fingers, but, if you use it properly they shouldnt be an issue.

Yup. though accidents happen, with is pretty much why theyre called accidents. completely unplanned for.

I’ve certainly heard enough stories and seen the aftermath and thats with people who have been working professionally for 30,40 years without so much as a scratch.

Bit of a fan of festool myself. got the track, sander, planer. Its pretty good. Not quite in the mafell league, but thats really heavy duty German carpentry, timber framing etc.

I have a DeWalt. It’s excellent. The fence is superb and extremely easy to square to the blade. Not that it ever goes out of square.

I managed for years with the cheapest one I could get from Screwfix and when it broke thought bugger it, I’ve space for a bigger one.

Not perfect, but solid and it’s done the best part of 10 years now – and as said, I’ve loads of space 🙂

Charnwood W629 10 inch Cast Iron Table Saw – W629

I’ve loads of space

I’ve got  SCM minimax with 3m sliding bed thats surplus to requirements 🙂

Only needs 6m x 5m of floor space (and a Hiab and flatbed truck to move it) 🙂

Not sure how id get on with that pull action cross cut. Probably lose a finger first time out and given its the same money as the festool, wouldnt that be ironic

I thought that at first, but once you know what you want to cut and how the machine works it’s really intuitive and much more versatile than other tablesaws.

Solid bit of kit.

A mate has one of the Festool tablesaws. It’s nice, but doesn’t do anything the others don’t do other than cost a lot more.

Only needs 6m x 5m of floor space

Altendorf?

Altendorf?

SCM Minimax – but same sort of thing

I have a DeWalt

Certainly Dewalt is getting the votes over the others and i suppose a sled could be used in place of a sliding table. Not ideal, means something else to take up my limited space, but needs must i suppose.

Not perfect, but solid and it’s done the best part of 10 years now – and as said, I’ve loads of space 🙂

Charnwood W629 10 inch Cast Iron Table Saw – W629

I’ve the Axminster tools equivalent of that and its that im hoping to replace. About the same weight, plus about another 20kg for my wheeled base Its in a spare room and ive been having concerns about just how much weight im putting on the floor, which is wooden with joists.So its not just really the space it takes up in my 12’x11′ space.

Saw as is about 130kg, my planer/thicknesser at another 90kg, bandsaw add 45kg, morticer another 40kg, drum sander add 45kg, bobbin/disc sanders probably add up to another 40kg, then the benches inc 2 of these multi drawer engineer type cabinets as well as every powertool imaginable.

Maybe too much is my thinking. best part of 450kg, excluding me. So im going to change it all for smaller, but professional standard on the main bits at least.

A mate has one of the Festool tablesaws. It’s nice, but doesn’t do anything the others don’t do other than cost a lot more.

Thats true with a lot of their stuff, power tools at least. kapex and track saws are better kit than most, but others are effectively bog standard pro with some green bits. The only thing that interests me in it is the sawstop. anything else saw stop is attached to a 200kg table saw which is obviously no good for me.

I’ve the Axminster tools equivalent of that and its that im hoping to replace. About the same weight, plus about another 20kg for my wheeled base Its in a spare room and ive been having concerns about just how much weight im putting on the floor, which is wooden with joists.So its not just really the space it takes up in my 12’x11′ space.

Saw as is about 130kg, my planer/thicknesser at another 90kg, bandsaw add 45kg, morticer another 40kg, drum sander add 45kg, bobbin/disc sanders probably add up to another 40kg, then the benches inc 2 of these multi drawer engineer type cabinets as well as every powertool imaginable.

Maybe too much is my thinking. best part of 450kg, excluding me. So im going to change it all for smaller, but professional standard on the main bits at least.

I put in the workshop floor for the barn when we moved here – chipboard flooring sat on 100mm joists sat on a matrix of 300mm x 300mm concrete ‘pillars’  no more than a metre from each other.

I’ve an equivalent level of gear as you in there plus a few ton of very heavy & hard wood from when I dismantled a +100 y/o thresher and other assorted ‘crap’.

My OH always says I build like IK Brunel is watching over me 🙂

well if sawstop is a mandatory requirement doesnt that rule out a whole bunch of tablesaws? so the convo about bosch etc…is kind of moot?

I think it’s a shame that sawstops patent has be used the way it has. As a piece of technology it’s discrete from the rest of the table saw. It doesn’t add any competitive quality to a saw – make its more powerful or more reliable or more accurate or more portable or allow cuts to be performed that other table saws couldn’t do – it just makes it safe.

They could have taken a decision to license the design to all saw manufacturers and frankly done very well by doing so and all our piano playing careers would be safe. But instead they packaged it in their own machine, and didn’t show much interest is selling that machine outside the US. The only way it got to Europe was because Festool bought the company. But I’d still like to see it broadly licensed. The sawstop cartridge itself only cost £90. Imagine if all saws had them, only cost £100 more than they do now and Festool / Sawstop still got say £20 for each one sold – they’d be doing pretty ok! Probably better than selling their own saws (which people would still buy – they bought them before they had Sawstop), but getting a few quid for every table saw sold would be more than lucrative

Volvo invented the three point seatbelt and patented it. But also wanted all cars to have them, not just their own. Imagine if they’d applied their patent in the same way way. They allow the patent to be used freely – but imagine if they just charged a quid per vehicle they’d be making £75million a year.

this dewalt is in the 15% off ebay offer at the moment
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/392480013937?mkcid=1&mkrid=710-53481-19255-0&siteid=3&campid=5336549684&customid=2703569281&toolid=10001&mkevt=1

If they’d bring the compact sawstop over at under a grand I’d probably buy one. But I’ve heard rumour after rumour about the brand coming over (not just in a flimsy festool one) over the years and still nothing.

I hardly use it since getting a tracksaw but my dewalt dw745 is still a great bit of kit.

“They could have taken a decision to license the design to all saw manufacturers and frankly done very well by doing so and all our piano playing careers would be safe. But instead they packaged it in their own machine, and didn’t show much interest is selling that machine outside the US”

I’m pretty certain that’s exactly what the guy tried to do….

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SawStop

Before buying any new power tool I always take a look at what Lumberjack tools have got. They get a lot of their stuff from the same Chinese factory that Axminster do.

well if sawstop is a mandatory requirement doesnt that rule out a whole bunch of tablesaws? so the convo about bosch etc…is kind of moot?

Well yes and no.

Fair point. so much in the equation though.

Do you need Sawstop?

Why not just don’t use a table saw like a North American? 😉

What about Elu / Dewalt radial arm saws? I did a lot of work with mine and they are multi-purpose (cross cut, mitre, compound mitre, rip saw), accurate, solid bits of kit and not expensive 2nd hand.

My OH always says I build like IK Brunel is watching over me

It’s not just me then! 😆

RustyNissanPrairieFull Member
What about Elu / Dewalt radial arm saws? not expensive 2nd hand.

Thats because they’re scary to use 😆 People buy one, use it for a bit, then want shot of it in a just get this ‘scary thing out the workshop’

I’d say in judging the festool as a table saw, is that its not really that good. It has the power for 90% of jobs, ideal for sheet or 3″ of timber but its missing miter slots so shop made jigs- cross cut sled, tenons, etc etc aren’t going to work with it, and i think thats to its detriment. The only thing it really has going for it is the safety feature.

Im actually waning more towards the dewalt based on the replies you chaps have given. Its lighter, has a good table, a very good fence, plenty of power,has mitre slots so ideal for jigs etc, but its downside is it is a brush motor which is pretty loud.

I’ll see what I can sell in accumulated bike bits, might make the decision a bit easier.

Yeah the dewalt is certainly quite loud. Luckily my neighbours aren’t that close and the relative time i actually have it on for is relatively little compared to measuring etc.