Does anyone have a preferred table saw?

[Steve Regier]

If you must have a table saw I'm with Leland. However, for your budget I highly recommend the Festool FS 55 pluge cut saw see http://billfitzmaurice.info/forum/viewt ... 14&t=12170 . Now it seems that I only use my tablesaw for ripping small strips. The rest of the time it does duty as a table. I love my Festool. It is fast and easy. The angle cuts are simple. I can build faster and better with my FS 55 than I ever could with my table saw. When I'm done the system can be stowed in a very small space. You can even bring it to other locations (say to help a friend build some SLA's) and still get mill quality cuts.

[UROK]

I think people with big workshop spaces and guys with cab building and woodwork experience will know if they need a table saw. The fact I couldn't decide told me something. I was gonna buy a (quite expensive - Metabo PK255) table saw but the TS55 thread plus research (tons of youtube vids, for example) has changed my mind. Above all safety. There's a a table saw injury every 15 minutes or something like that. TS55 pluses are small necessary workspace, accuracy, zero clearance guide, bevel cuts, and very easy-looking plunge cuts as well as extensive accessories for future tool junkie hits. The TS55 does indeed seem almost to have been designed with BFD cab builders in mind! I am ordering mine this month.

[Rick Lee]

Well... I was about to recommend the HF 10" table saw if you have to have a table saw but the price has gone WAY up! The Festool is at the top of my drool list but my HF saw has been a workhorse the last 8 years for me. I bought mine new, delivered for $329. It's a heavy and heavy duty traditional saw. If you have to have a decent table saw on a tight budget this might be one to look at.

[Bruce Weldy]

: I can build faster and better with my FS 55 than I ever could with my table saw. :

With all the repetitive cuts necessary (especially on subs), I don't see how having to reset the Festool and clamp it down for each cut could be faster than a table saw that stays set to one width for all the cuts until you are ready to move on to the next measurement. Unless I'm missing something, it would take you 10 times as long to turn out all the cuts necesarry for a Titan as it would on a table saw. With a table saw, I never once has to adjust the saw to a width that I had already cut - they were all done at once.

The Festool looks like a great tool for crosscutting large panels down to size, but I just don't see how it could possibly be faster or easier than a table saw for repetitive cuts. And there is no way you can get it exactly the same width every time for repetitive cuts.

I'm not knocking the tool - but if you have the buget (and at the price of the Festool, it wouldn't be much more), buy a table saw - even a quality used one.

[Rune Bivrin]

With all the repetitive cuts necessary (especially on subs), I don't see how having to reset the Festool and clamp it down for each cut could be faster than a table saw that stays set to one width for all the cuts until you are ready to move on to the next measurement. Unless I'm missing something, it would take you 10 times as long to turn out all the cuts necesarry for a Titan as it would on a table saw. With a table saw, I never once has to adjust the saw to a width that I had already cut - they were all done at once.

The Festool looks like a great tool for crosscutting large panels down to size, but I just don't see how it could possibly be faster or easier than a table saw for repetitive cuts. And there is no way you can get it exactly the same width every time for repetitive cuts.

I'm not knocking the tool - but if you have the buget (and at the price of the Festool, it wouldn't be much more), buy a table saw - even a quality used one.

Not that I've yet built a sub, but one Omni12 TB, two Jacks, three WedgeHorns and two DR250 are nearing completion. For those the number of repetitive cuts are quite few.
I have a Makita SP6000 with guide rail, and the thing is I don't have to clamp it. The rubber strips on the guide rail keep it in place very well, and then all the cuts that are angled and not parallel or perpendicular to an edge are actually faster than with your average table saw. Measure, mark, place rail, cut. I just wish I'd bought it a year ago before building the wedges. Those would have been sooo much easier to do with the Makita!

[Rick Lee]

Bruce, those are my thoughts exactly. My saw is setup for large panels with an outfeed table, etc. so cutting the panels to size is very quick. Like I said earlier the Festool is on my drool list but a table saw set up properly is hard to beat.

[Steve Regier]

Here is my point. You guys with big table saws with outboard tables are correct, you can rip down large panels at the same width if you have such a saw. I do not have the budget or the space at this time. I have retired my homeowner grade table saw because the bearings are worn and it is no longer capable of a precise cut. I know I need a pro quality tool but if I buy another tablesaw it needs to be pro quality. I don't see that happening on a$ 400 budget. My Festool replaces my table and circular saws. It makes mill quality cuts. It rips large panels to size in no time and YES THEY ARE ALL THE SAME WIDTH. I do not have to clamp the guide. I would say that what I lose in speed in ripping down large panels(which I now have my hardwood shop rip for me) the Festool kicks the tablesaw's @as for speed and accuracy of angle cuts which are just as previlant as ripping large panels in building subs not to mention the wonderful plunge cut feature. The Festool system also includes a worktable, dust collection system, circle cutter, jig saw, and plunge router. All at the cost of a decent table saw.
Maybe I am suffering from tablesaw envy , that Delta in the Berlands catalog sure looks sweet, but for now I'll stick with the Festool system.

[netwerks]

My experience is that building OT12 and T39 I can make every cut needed on the TS55. No table saw required and it's as accurate and faster than a table saw.

At the end of the day the diffference in cost vs. a good table saw is negligible, ripping big sheets by yourself is easier, it makes plunge cuts and it doesn't eat up my garage when i'm not using it.

To me it's was a no brainer.

[LelandCrooks]

I want to know how you handle the small parts, for example a horn throat brace with the festool. I'm not knocking it, just curious.

I have a couple of different panel ripping systems, I very seldom use the table saw for large panels. I rip it to an easy size with the circular then finish on the table saw.

[netwerks]

Leland I can rip boards down to barely nothing. I can lay down a small board even an inch or two wide i want to rip down next to and up against to a larger board so the saw rail system has something to lay on and support for the back side of the saw. I wish I could take a picture but I am on business travel today. I think someone posted a pic once before. It works pefectly. I have taken a leftover piece or ply say 4-5 inches wide and ripped it down to 1/2" strips all the way until there less than 1/2 inch left. But obvously if you have a small piece you can do the same thing just make sure there is a piece of ply next to that small piece you need to lay the guardrail on.

For my workbench I use a piece of 3/4 MDF and two old folding sawhorses. I can cut to whatever depth I want right flat on the table at any angle, obviously being careful not to cut to deep..

[LelandCrooks]

I can see that kind of cut. I think my choice of parts was poor. I'm thinking parts like the 4x5 supports behind the throat in a Jack or an omnitop. Non rectangular small pieces.

[netwerks]

So in that case I would compare it to how I cut bracing for the T39. I just place the small piece of bracing against the larger board, swivelling the larger board to the direction I need to and then lay the smaller piece against it, lay the rail system across both boards (lining the rail up where I need to on the smaller board for the cut) and cut away. I wish I was at home, I could do a quick youtube but I wont be home until friday. I will do it then for the "social proof" value. I will go in the plans and cut that exact board in the video so you can see how I approach it.

[Rick Lee]

I will go in the plans and cut that exact board in the video so you can see how I approach it.

Cool!

[jswingchun]

Not to get into another Festool versus EZ guide rail thing again, but EZ has a bridge system that will allow you to do anything a tablesaw can do including repetitive size cuts without using clamps on the rail. Here is a video that does a decent job showing how the system works.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBvxhvVJ ... re=related

The EZ-One table is pricey, but you can buy parts and build your own table to attach the bridge to.

EZ doesn't do the angle cuts as nicely as Festool, but there are ways around that and it is cheaper.

Guide rails with a circular saw are much safer than a whirling blade sticking out of the top of a table.

[Steve Regier]

Festool table can also do repeditve cuts. I not not care for the EZ rail system since I would have to use my crappy standard circ saw. By the time I buy a pro circ saw it is back to Festool price territory. To each his own. If it works for you use it! I just am sold on the Festool system. 'Best money I ever spent!