Table Saw Buying Advice

[RiOrus]

Hi all, new member here. I'm after a bit of buying advice with regards to table saws.

So, I'm after a sturdy table saw, around the £400 mark, I can stretch a little further if necessary. Its going to be in one place in a shop so doesn't need to be 'portable' and would rather have the rigidity and reliability of a cast top rather than a pressed steel / folded aluminium top etc. Ideally accuracy is first and foremost, so a robust fence and reliable guides are essential, lastly it would be nice to have the longer arbour for dado heads. I appreciate the latter opens a can of worms and I'm pretty sure I understand the facts about dado heads, so a new debate on that isn't really what I'm intending to start.

I've tried doing a bit of homework and it looks like axminster and sip provide decent 'heavyweight' saws and I've seen a few name drops of xcalibur which (rather cryptically) is linked to ukworkshop - or so other forums have said. Not to mention having a slightly confusing website?

Anyway, regardless of this, neither of the manufacturers / distributors above, have a saw at 400 to 500 quid. There are 200 to 300 site saws then £1000+ cabinet saws.

Any thoughts?

 

[wizard]

second hand ebay if you do not want junk from china

 

[marcros]

Welcome!

if you are looking for something that will take the dado head, you have few options:

go old
go for something that has a US clone, from where you will probably need to get the extended arbour from. This will take some researching.
go expensive- excaliber. This is not affiliated with this site, but a couple or more members have them. I agree that the website is aweful, and that there are 2 versions of it- one is hopelessly out of date.

Are you a commercial shop, with employees- this may have a bearing on what you can buy, ie i believe that it has to be braked.

A startrite used saw might not be a bad starting point to start your research on. I dont know whether it will take the dado head. Brand new, you are probably going to struggle with what you are looking for.

I know you dont want the debate- is a dado head a nice to have or essential? If you can do the tasks in an alternative manner, it does free up the options a bit. One of these alternatives may be a radial arm saw with the dado on (just to show that I am not against them)

 

[Zeddedhed]

If you're interested I am selling my Wadkin AGS 10 in about a month.
It'll take a Dado head and is solid as a rock. I'm selling it because I need a larger saw now with a sliding table.
It hasn't been drilled or messed with in any way.
I've added a box on the side to improve dust extraction but as I said I didn't drill any of the castings - if you want to remove it it's held on with Gripfill.
Let me know if you're interested.

 

[RiOrus]

No, not a commercial shop.

My confusion first came about after finding both the Woodford sites. The older and presumably out of date site does have a 450 odd quid table saw capable of taking a dado set. You are correct though, it's a luxury rather than a necessity. As mentioned in the OP I'm keen to get something accurate that stays accurate.

I'm not against considering the Xcalibur, I understand that they don't do much under 700 quid now. I haven't had much luck contacting anyone on the number listed on the website.

 

[RiOrus]

If you're interested I am selling my Wadkin AGS 10 in about a month.
It'll take a Dado head and is solid as a rock. I'm selling it because I need a larger saw now with a sliding table.
It hasn't been drilled or messed with in any way.
I've added a box on the side to improve dust extraction but as I said I didn't drill any of the castings - if you want to remove it it's held on with Gripfill.
Let me know if you're interested.

I'd consider it, I'm not too familiar with the site, presumably you can send private messages, maybe send me a bit more info, some pics or something? Cheers.

 

[marcros]

The wadkin would be well worth a look.

i looked at the £450 excaliber- it wasn't even the previous model when i was looking, it was the model before that!!!! I don't think that there is anything new in your budget that will take the dado blade.

 

[Zeddedhed]

I'll get some photos of mine (not too easy at the moment as the workshop is full of s***e) and some links so you can see what kind of machine it is. Give me a couple of hours though - SWIMBO's just come home!

 

[RiOrus]

No worries i'll be working tonight anyway so just get the pics up when you can. Definitely interested.

 

[wizard]

go for the wadkin its the dogs bollox

 

[wizard]

i would aviod Woodford they have just ripped me off

 

[Zeddedhed]

This is a piccy of an AGS 10 of a similar vintage to mine, although mine's in colour :lol:

I'll get some images of the old girl later tonight (the saw that is - not the actual old girl. Although come to think of it you can have her for £400 quid. She's louder than the saw though)

 

[RiOrus]

So, I've been in contact, and still am in contact, with woodford via email due to the bad line. They've been reasonably helpful but I'm pretty confused.

It seems that the only saw they have sub 1 grand is a £799 reconditioned saw listed on ebay. Thing is it says there are 6+ available.

I'm aware of the chap who just got stung on the dado set but if there are a few Xcalibur users about, or anyone that is more familiar with how they do business, can you shed a bit of light?

Quite honestly I'm not sure if I'm prepared to part with that much cash on a reconditioned unit, particularly when the literature has not been particularly forthcoming.

In comparison I could get a new Axminster AW10 for the same price (albeit without the dado capability).