Table saw or Panel saw?

[F Flinstone]

Started to get prices together for some new equipment, but Iam stuck with the choice of one of the above, I will be cutting some "Contiboard" but not miles of it looking at 315mm blade, 4Hp motor. What are the advantages and dis-advantages and what is the difference? Thankyou Ff

 

[deema]

There are in my humble opinion three types of saw.
1. Table saw
Very easy to make zero clearance table inserts.
Normally cast iron tops across the entire cutting area on both sides of the blade. Making alignment / uneven wear not an issue.
Can cut panels, however can be bit very difficult to load and keep the boards stable.

Moving table and sliding table saws
These saws fall into two categories. The first is a table saw with the addition of a sliding table. The second has part of the saw table that also slides. However crucially the table does not slide right up against the saw blade.
Both have all the advantages of the table saw. However the second option can often have an additional scribe blade which is very useful. The other advantage is that they bring the movement closer to the saw blade, reducing any drag that can cause the stuff to move and therefore create a cut that isn’t square and true. Both of this type of saw and usually limited to a cross cut or c 50” or wide enough to cut sheet material in width rather than length.

The last category is the panel saw.
These have a sliding table that moves against the blade. They invariable have a scribe blade. The big advantage is that the stuff does not drag on the fixed table enabling much longer cuts to be made with no risk of the dragging causing misalignment.
The big disadvantages are they take up a lot of room, you can’t make zero tolerance table inserts, alignment of the sliding table to the fixed table can be an issue on older ‘cheaper’ brands of saw.

For me, I wanted to be able to cross cut up to 50”, rip up to 5 1/2”, take blades down to 10” in diameter, a scribe blade that would disappear under the table when it used and take up not much more room than a Sedgwick when the table extensions are removed - which must take no more than a minute.

I had a limited budget and found that a secondhand SCM Si15 was the perfect saw. It’s built IMO better and more robustly than any Wadkin I’ve come across, and if anyone breaks into my workshop they won’t be running off with it as it weights c750KG. It cuts with zero vibration and the cuts are almost as good as the finishi get off my planner. The best bit was that it cost me c£1K

 

[LBCarpentry]

For me, my much used fielder K500 panel saw is (currently) irreplaceable. Good for a smallish workshop. Cuts up to 90mm. Scribe cutter for cutting boards. Only minor is that it can’t rip full length 8x4 sheets but I have made adaptions to it so it can do it. Sliding xroll table is awesome needs very little maintenance

 

[shed9]

You can get decent sliding table saws with scribe blade and outrigger options. Best of both worlds - depending on budget and space.

The Hammer K3 can be fitted with a scribe blade and there are outrigger options available.

The main issue you will see between table and panel saws is the actual real-estate footprint. A table saw's space requirement is already fairly large whereas a panel saw will be significantly larger - by a huge factor. Download the specs of the saws you are looking at and check out the space requirement - it often knocks a lot of purchases on the head right there and then when space is a consideration. A panel saw not earning it's keep on a regular basis is going to demand a lot of your work space.