Hey there,
I’m really new to wood working and looking for a book on table saws, any recommendations? I’m specifically looking for a book that covers safety, set up, and jigs. Thanks!
Discussion Forum
Get It All!
UNLIMITED Membership is like taking a master class in woodworking for less than $10 a month.
Start Your Free TrialCategories
Discussion Forum
Digital Plans Library
Member exclusive! – Plans for everyone – from beginners to experts – right at your fingertips.
Highlights
-
Shape Your Skills
when you sign up for our emails
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. -
Shop Talk Live Podcast -
Our favorite articles and videos -
E-Learning Courses from Fine Woodworking
-
-
Replies
Kia ora, and welcome. Hang around here and you will get good advice.
It is well worth getting an Unlimited subscription and listening to Shop Talk Live podcasts.
I am sure there are books, but I would only be giving you the results of my own Google search.
Instead, I recommend that you follow a few channels on Youtube.
Stumpy Nubs has a great many excellent videos covering jigs and table saw safety.
The New Yankee Workshop is also worth a watch. Many older woodworkers started because of Norm. Not all his technique is up to modern snuff, but it's a really good starting place.
I also recommend the following channels:
Rob Cosman
The Wood Whisperer
Quill Woodworks *
Rex Krueger
Pedulla Studio *
Bourbon Moth
EN Curtis *
Foureyes Furniture *
Shaun Boyd Made this *
Make Something
There are many others but this is enough to keep you going for a long time. * not beginner level, but awesome.
Most of these make extensive use of the Table Saw and jigs.
Dude thanks so much for your list! These are all awesome resources, also lots of ones I haven't seen before too.
If still available:
Complete Illustrated Guide To Tablesaws
Paul Anthony 2009 Taunton Press
Sweet! Just ordered it thanks man!
I second Rob 100%. Those are all incredible channels and people who will motivate you to improve and help you as well.
There are so many more, too, so explore them all. You'll resonate with certain people more than others.
Youtube will be your best friend and will teach you so much more than any book could.
I do not knock the books at all, but I've got a big bookshelf full of them, but the videos are just easier for me to consume, and I seem to learn so much more from rather than the books.
I've learned everything I know (not much, granted, but I can make some decent stuff) from Youtube and failures. I've been learning a lot being here, too.
Embrace all 3
Stumpy Nubs seems to do a LOT more videos on safety and setup compared to the others (likely due to the horrific and permanent injury he sustained) as well, so I'd start there.
Also, I don't know about you, but my SS manual is a THICK BOI...If you are trying to familiarize yourself with your table saw, and it's anything like my SS, I would start right there in the manual.
Also, to add to Rob's list, just a few off the top of my head.
Blacktail Stuio
3x3 Custom
Get Hands Dirty (her and 3x3 custom are some incredible female woodworkers if your tired at watching dusty dudes)
Oliver Gomis
Epic Woodworking
Lincoln St. Woodworks
Nice! More resources I love it, thanks for the reply.
I never got into the YouTube part of woodworking. I'm sure there are good channels. It's not specific to table saws but the "The Complete Manual of Woodworking" was the first woodworking book I read and I still go back to it. It starts with how trees grow.... beyond that book and a few more I'm self taught. Not always the best approach.
I think you can still buy"Table Saw Magic" by Jim Tolpin. It's been a useful book to me for many years.
The OP asks:
"I’m specifically looking for a book that covers safety, set up, and jigs."
One of the big problems with TS use (and use of other powerful WW machines) is that there's often contention between safe use and innovative use (with jigs or otherwise). Some remarkable TS techniques also introduce a large amplification of inherent TS dangers. Personally I avoid a lot of them if TS safety is unavoidably undermined by the recommended technique. It only takes one mistake to acquire a life changing injury, including the worst one (death).
YouTube videos .....
What a minefield for the unwary that place is! I do like to scull about looking for interesting WW items, more about making particular items than about generalised machine use. In doing so, hair-raising & shudder-inducing uses of a TS are commonplace. Yet such vids are in practice giving "advice" about TS use. Personally I would ban them ... but YouTube prefers to make their money from them so watcher-beware.
Although hesitant to raise it (again) I feel duty-bound to mention that a great deal of the USA traditions in TS use are themselves horribly dangerous, not to mention inefficient. Despite all the recent hoo-hah around Sawstop, government-mandated blade guards and even Mr Nubs taking an interest in safety, its still commonplace to see US TS users in vids doing things that make European TS users gasp in alarm at the pointless risks taken.
And even now, after decades of seeing the availability and superiority of European TS designs with far better safety built-in and included sliding tables for cross-cutting, primitive Unisaw TS design remains the norm for US table saws. Those things are from The Ark!
You might check out the Power Tool Institute, https://www.powertoolinstitute.com/pti-pages/tools/table-saw.asp
They have videos and other training material for the table saw as well as many other power tools.