Axminster TS200 - First impressions

[sploo]

What's ridiculous is living cooped up like a hen in an egg factory. If you can swing it, always live as far away from a city as is plausible.

That doesn't really reflect the reality of house prices (and sizes) in the UK. Also, even if you have the land, the cost of building a sufficiently large workshop may be prohibitive.

I honestly think that if conditions are that cramped then a table saw shouldn't be on the wish list. A different solution is needed and if it were me I'd get a track saw.

Really ? Just how good are track saws at cutting tenons on window or door frames ? waving around metre long tracks needs a fair bit of space in itself.

Yes, the TS200 & 250 are cheap and that compromises build quality, but as has been seen here time and time again it can be easily fettled into a good accurate little saw that can be really useful in a compact workshop.

It's inevitable that with limits in space and budget something will have to give...the solution just becomes a competition between compromises. My personal experience with the TS200 is that its a compromise so far that I will never again subject myself to its hideousness.....how other folks view it is of course entirely their prerogative and I sincerely hope they have a better experience than I. To document all the things a tracksaw cant do well is just underlining the compromise we're already discussing. I see little value in "selling" one idea over the other since they both contain compromises. The question is which compromise are you prepared to endure.

Like so much far east stuff, the build quality is very variable, with plenty of "Friday afternoon" examples coming out of the factory. Much like British cars, TBH.

I do get the feeling that the newer TS200s are better built than the old ones, and I'd disagree that only having the space for something of that size means you shouldn't bother. I would however see value in a saw of that size, but built to a 50 to 100% cost increase (better motor, standard sized mortice slots, higher quality etc). However, the apparent lack of such models probably means there isn't a market.

 

[paulm]

I honestly think that if conditions are that cramped then a table saw shouldn't be on the wish list. A different solution is needed and if it were me I'd get a track saw.

Really ? Just how good are track saws at cutting tenons on window or door frames ? waving around metre long tracks needs a fair bit of space in itself.

Yes, the TS200 & 250 are cheap and that compromises build quality, but as has been seen here time and time again it can be easily fettled into a good accurate little saw that can be really useful in a compact workshop.

For those examples I tend to use the bandsaw or gang them up and use a router. I had a good tablesaw until recently but never used it for those applications, although it could have been of course.

Cheers, Paul

 

[DennisCA]

What's ridiculous is living cooped up like a hen in an egg factory. If you can swing it, always live as far away from a city as is plausible.

That doesn't really reflect the reality of house prices (and sizes) in the UK. Also, even if you have the land, the cost of building a sufficiently large workshop may be prohibitive.

Now I wasn't seriously suggesting to the OP he'd move out to the country just so he can have a bigger table saw, but still I thought you had some cheap rural places where you could live more cheaply, or did the aristocracy turn all rural land into private pastures and hunting ranges?

 

[sploo]

For those examples I tend to use the bandsaw or gang them up and use a router. I had a good tablesaw until recently but never used it for those applications, although it could have been of course.

Horses for courses. I'd probably also plumb for the bandsaw and router for those tasks because I'm more familiar and comfortable with those tools, but I have found that even the TS-200 will give me cuts so much cleaner than I get on the bandsaw that it too has its place in the workshop.

One other consideration is that the TS-200 is way quieter than a hand held circular saw (or mitre saw) so in a residential setting I have found I can "get away" with some work at times that I'd feel uncomfortable firing up non-induction powered tool.

Now I wasn't seriously suggesting to the OP he'd move out to the country just so he can have a bigger table saw, but still I thought you had some cheap rural places where you could live more cheaply, or did the aristocracy turn all rural land into private pastures and hunting ranges?

Well, yes, there are cheap(ish) areas to live, but often they're because there aren't many jobs. I could move back to my "home" area and get way more real estate for my money, but as I then wouldn't have a job the advantage would be short lived.

 

[Bodgers]

I honestly think that if conditions are that cramped then a table saw shouldn't be on the wish list. A different solution is needed and if it were me I'd get a track saw. Of course they're not quite as flexible for repeat cuts etc as reference points like fences and stops are a moving feast but some compromise is inevitable if space and/or budget is a limiting factor.

If sheet goods cutting is a strong part of the requirement I'd place them better than even a normal sized cabinet saw unless it had tons of outfeed taking up enormous amounts of space.

Not really.

This guy seems to do pretty well in an extremely cramped space with a TS200:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Z6DOt2SwCc

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

Just get one then...I'm sure it'll be fine

 

[sploo]

I honestly think that if conditions are that cramped then a table saw shouldn't be on the wish list. A different solution is needed and if it were me I'd get a track saw. Of course they're not quite as flexible for repeat cuts etc as reference points like fences and stops are a moving feast but some compromise is inevitable if space and/or budget is a limiting factor.

If sheet goods cutting is a strong part of the requirement I'd place them better than even a normal sized cabinet saw unless it had tons of outfeed taking up enormous amounts of space.

Not really.

This guy seems to do pretty well in an extremely cramped space with a TS200:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Z6DOt2SwCc

Just get one then...I'm sure it'll be fine

Again, it's horses for courses. The stand in the youtube video above is great for moving a small saw around a smallish workspace, but it's not going to help with cutting really large sheets - but then if you've got room in the workshop to move and get full cutting travel on an 8'x4' sheet then you've probably got room for a seriously large table saw. I'd definitely cut up such a sheet outside using a circular saw (or track saw, if I had one).

But, with the R/H extension, the TS200 is quite capable of cutting a 4'x2' into, say, a pair of 2'x2' boards, and doesn't require an obscene amount of space.

Personally though, I'd be more worried about the guy's aversion to the blade guard (in the video above). Just 'cause it's a tiddler doesn't mean it couldn't remove your digits in a second.

 

[Ghengis]

I have a ts200 and love it, less than 1 hour to fettle it, i also have a tracksaw for sheets, love this also

 

[sammy.se]

I just got a TS200 table saw set (with sliding table and extension). I spent 2 hours taking the cast iron top off, learning the lay of the saw, and then replacing and fettling. The fettling took 1 hour. Now the saw blade is parallel to the mitre slots and the fence is only a fraction of a mm out... i need to further fettle.

My only concern is that i can only get the blade to go to 90 degrees by turning the pivot handle quite hard - it wont go beyond that, even with the 'stop' bolt slackend. Has any body else encountered this? Feels like it shouldn't need so much force and tension to get the blade to stay at 90°...

Aside from that, very pleased with it.

 

[spiderlane]

Hi Sammy

You might remember that I also have a TS200 and had exactly the same problem. In fact I couldn't get the blade 90 degrees at all no matter how hard I wound the handle. Thinking that this couldn't possibly be right I found that if you take the left hand red side panel off you will see that there is an adjustable limit stop for the 90 degrees. Slacken this off and you should be able to get to 90 (or slightly further) with ease. EDIT : reading your post again, is this what you mean by the stop bolt?

What other sort of fettling did you carry out whilst you had the top off? Did you end up with a Mk I or Mk II model?

Cheers
Mark

 

[sammy.se]

Hi Mark. Hope you are well!

Yes, that's what i meant by the stop bolt. I tried again this evening but couldn't get it at 90° any more comfortably - i still need to turn the pivot handle quite hard. In any case, it's at 90° now so it's good to go.

In terms of fettling, i loosened the four hex bolts nearest to the blade (2 at the front and 2 at the back) and i also loosend the 4 bolts that hold the cast iron top to the base. Now that everything has some play, i just nudged the blade back and forth until the blad was parallel to the right hand side mitre slot (i didnt have any fancy equipment to measure the distance so i just used an adjustable trisquare and slid this across the mitre slot to check the distance at each end of the blade).

The other thing i did was loosen the bar that the fence clamps on to, and made the fence perfecly parallel to the right hand mitre slot and then tightened the bar. The fence is working really well now.

Finally, i lined the top part of the mitre guage aluminum bar with 2 thin strips of electrical insulating tape, to get rid of the slight play in the mitre slot. (Got that idea from a youtube video from a guy called Savvas i think)

I ripped a 1 meter long thin strip to test and the difference between either end was 0.06mm so im very pleased with that!!

 

[sammy.se]

I went for the mk 1...