T/saw or B/saw?

[wrightclan]

I'd love to have a good bandsaw, but I can live without it until I can afford a decent one. Couldn't live without my tablesaw.

Brad

 

[martlewis]

Hi mate,

hopefully I can also be of assistance.

A couple of years ago I bought my first shed to be used as a workshop. This was 8ft x 10ft. Until then I had always had to work outside and put all the tools away at night. Although very useful, the shed was limited mainly by height as others have said. Recently I bought my first house, and within 2 months I had built a new shop from scratch. A slight increase in size, 8ft x 16ft limited by available space and the misses in doors. The main improvement was an 8ft high roof. My advice... build build BUILD! Also cost half the price of the original shed leaving money to insulate and wire.

When I setup the first shed I bought a contractor style table saw and a 14" bandsaw. Everyone is right, this depends on what sort of woodworking you are going to do. I mostly make cabinets and small furniture. The table saw was in use almost every project. The bandsaw has only ever had one new blade in 3 years... not a lot of use but occasionally comes in handy. I have not upgraded to a cast iron t/s and it is worth every penny. My advice on this one is buy the table saw if you are planning a lot of sheet work, cabinets etc. At the end of the day you need to sit down and work out what you are interested in making. Maybe post a list of some of your ideas on here and we'll be able to advise which tool we'd use for each project?

Hope that helps and good luck with the new shop.

Martin.

 

[Alf]

For good or bad, some observations as I see it in the bandsaw/tablesaw thing:

Making lots of square things - tablesaw
Making curved things - bandsaw
Lots of workshop space - tablesaw
Limited space - bandsaw
Lots of money and space - both
Willing to remove guards - tablesaw
Safety conscious - bandsaw
Hand tool user - bandsaw (fwiw I regard mine as a powered handsaw)
Predominantly sheet goods - tablesaw (if you have the room for the necessary support. If you don't then you're probably better off with a circular saw and guide system)
Soild wood - bandsaw (thinner kerf for less wastage for a start. Re-sawing, cutting joints etc)

FWIW it seems to me a tablesaw, unless you're happy to remove guards and start utilising it for cutting joints etc, really doesn't score very well in the value-for-space-taken stakes. But then I seldom do dozens of identical cuts, never mind runs of the same project. For me, using hardwoods on one-off projects and everything getting finished off with hand tools anyway, the bandsaw's flexibility will always win. But that's just me. If I need it I can always use the circular saw and cutting guide to do tablesaw tasks on sheet goods, and the SCMS does all the accurate crosscutting I desire. But if someone wanted me to make a load of veneered plywood carcasses I'm pretty well stuffed. It really is horses for courses.

Oh, and never assume someone's comparing apples with apples when they diss the bandsaw in comparison with the tablesaw. Often it turns out to be a comparison between a £200 benchtop bandsaw and a T/S costing at least five tmes as much, which is hardly fair.

Cheers, Alf

 

[garywayne]

Thank you everyone for your replies. I really appreciate your input and time.

As I intend to mainly do cabinetry and furniture, and with the wood situation, use veneered boards with solid wood frames. I conclude the table saw to be the more appropriate. Now I need to sought out a good one with a cast top and sliding table. If using veneered boards, should I be looking at a T/saw that includes a scoring blade?

Re workshop:
I shall start a new thread later requesting help and advice on the planing stage and the build. If that's all right with you lot?

Thanks for listening. Chow. TTFN.

 

[Colin C]

I use a rail system with veneered boards with no problem and cut timber too.
Just to add

 

[seaco]

A good table saw is the heart of any workshop...nuff said... :wink:

 

[Scrit]

If using veneered boards, should I be looking at a T/saw that includes a scoring blade?

Not so much veneered boards as melamine/laminate faced boards. If you don't intend to cut a lot of MFC (melamine faced chipboard) then a scorer could be overkill - better to spend the extra dosh on a bigger/better saw IMHO. Veneered boards can be dealt with just as easily by using a zero clearance insert or a high attack angle triple chip blade, as sold for machines like the Scheppach.

I'd also bear in mind the amount of space you'll need to handle even smaller sheets such as 8 x 4fts to do a long rip requires about 1.2 metres of run off table behind the saw, about 5.8 to 6 metres length work area and I know of very few non-trade saws which can handle a 1.2 metre (4 ft) crosscut on the carraige. In reality unless you can afford an industrial-sized saw you'll probably still end up better off doing the initial breakdown with a hand circular saw and a batten/straight edge/rail system.

I think that Alf has it pretty much taped as regards the pros and cons. As to which I'd do without if it came to it then I'm pretty sure it would be the bandsaw which would go as my power jigsaw could do much of what the bandsaw does, albeit less accurately and a lot slower, but that's becuase I'm one of those people who tends to carve up sheets of plywood, MDF, etc to make lots of boxes.......

Scrit