Hello, first post here – looking for some advice on the right tools to use. I’m looking to build some simple modern-looking bookcases/shelves and maybe shoe racks out of 3/4″ baltic birch plywood on a budget. I recently purchased a portable/jobsite table saw (Craftsman 10-in Carbide-Tipped Blade 15-Amp). I have used large professional table saws several years ago but have no experience with the portable ones. After reading some threads on this forum and elsewhere, I am realizing this might be the wrong tool for what I am trying to do. For example, the first cut I would need to make is to crosscut 12″ off a 12″x60″ stock piece. The table saw and miter gauge are too small to really fit (miter gauge wiggles a lot at that starting distance). It seems that in order to make this happen with my table saw, I would need to invest significantly in auxiliary tabletops and sliding tables etc. Am I better off returning the table saw and getting a budget track saw with some saw horses instead? It seems more versatile, safe and still possible to get accurate and fairly clean edges (which is key as I’m hoping to minimize sanding). Another limitation I have is that I’m working in a one-car garage, so the ability to stow the whole setup away when the car is parked is key. Any advice from more experienced members much appreciated.
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I would return the craftsman and look for a used table saw on Craigslist. You could find a better job site saw or, if you can manage the space, a cabinet saw on a mobile base.
If you think there is any chance you will want to continue into other projects, get the best equipment you can afford, rather than waste money on something you will immediately outgrow.
You can cut the plywood to almost size with a tracksaw or simple circular saw and 2x4 guide and then make the final cuts on the table saw. Without a really good setup, it's very difficult to get really repeatable square cuts to the same exact dimensions with a track saw. If your pieces are wonky, it's hard to get good results.
I agree about both there being better options than the Craftsman and the limits of a track saw. My recommendation to new woodworkers is always going to be Sawstop. The learning curve for a tablesaw can be painful and life changing so the Sawstop technology is priceless. Smaller underpowered jobsite saws are more dangerous in my opinion than my 30 yr old Unisaw despite its lack of even the most basic safety features.
Since I'm too old to wrestle 4x8 sheets through my Unisaw the way I did when I was younger the track saw is greater for breaking down sheet goods into manageable pieces but since it requires measuring and human judgements it will never be able to give the accuracy or repeatability of a good tablesaw.
As for your dilemma of crosscutting a 12"wide panel the miter gauge on any saw is a rough tool at best. Those types of cuts should be done with a crosscut sled which you easily make yourself from plywood. A myriad of plans and instructions are available here on FW and YouTube.
Regardless of the saw's quality, it is always going to be a big ask ripping a big board on a small saw.
I have a medium sized sliding table saw and still use a circular saw to reduce boards to safer sizes to handle. It is not so much the size of the saw as the difficulty getting really accurate cuts - as the board gets over the size where it is easily supported all round, there is an increased tendency to twist. I find it safer and more accurate to dimension the boards to rough size first.
Before I got the big saw I used a circular saw and guide for all sheet work over 10" wide - it really isn't hard to get accurate cuts and make good things. Worst case is truing up an edge with a router...
If you want to make this a permenant thing... sawstop! If you are testing the waters by a good circular saw with a 40 tooth Freud blade. Then go to YouTube and learn how to build a simple saw guide for the circular saw. Maybe one for cross cuts and one for ripping. Lastly if your lines are not perfect and you need to trim buy a handheld power planer. You will have what you need for under $225. Plus buy a big sheet of 1 1/2" insulation for laying the sheet goods on for cutting. I have a big $3,500 SawStop but I still cut most of my sheets with a $49 circular saw and home built guide.
I had a crappy table saw like that for several years. Cost me 99 bucks new at Lowes. I built some really great furniture using it and a miter saw for crosscut. I still do very little prosecuting on the table saw. I've never owned a track saw.
There are lots of ways to work with lots of different tools. Make the most of whatever you can afford. If you have the dough, you'd be silly not to buy a Sawstop. If all you can afford is what you already have, you can do amazing things with it.
1. Take the craftsman table saw back
2. Buy a plywood blade for your circular saw
3. Build a jig to guide your circular saw. The Woodwhisper site has a good video but there are a bunch out there
Or for $45 get a kreg circular saw rip jig. Worth every penny when working with sheet goods.
What sharper^ said is probably the brutal truth.
That said, if you build a big enough extension/out feed table around it, that would work,
But my then again you need to cut plywood don’t you? LOL
Track saw or straight edge
I have similar shop (garage corner) limitations and use a circular saw with a homemade straightedge. I cut a hair wide, then using the straightedge again with a guide bushing on my router, I will trim back to my needed size. I will sometimes stack plywood/lumber and trim multiples at a time if possible to get a uniform cut. It is slow but has been effective for me to get near perfect joints when building cases and cabinets.
I have an Industrial Sawstop and a great crosscut sled, but would still use a tracksaw for crosscutting a board that long - basically I find even with my sled fitting into the miter slots well I get just enough torque with such a long board to throw it off square - just a fraction of an angle off but enough to be problematic over a foot width. A tracksaw with a plywood blade does a great job!
Thank you all for the comments - very helpful. I am leaning towards not having a table saw just because of my space constraints and the fact that I'm just testing out the waters right now rather than working towards a full shop setup. This thread has also made me think more about how I can make repeated identical cuts which will be important. I am also wary of building jigs and how accurate they will be given that I'm starting from scratch. For those reasons, I am tempted by something like the Triton TWX7PS001 project saw module, which is a setup that enables sliding crosscuts and stationary rip cuts (feeding like table saw). I know it's mostly used for flooring but if I keep getting my plywood in 12"x60" pieces it should work pretty efficiently. I could somehow clamp a stop for repeat crosscuts. One downside compared to a track saw is that it only allows thru-cuts, so if I want to make dado joints (which seems a bit of a fantasy), I'll have to get a router. But is that the preferred method for dados anyway? The other thing I'm wondering is if there is a significant difference between the cut quality of the 5" project saw blade vs a 6 1/2" track saw? There aren't that many reviews online so I'm curious if people here have any experience. Thanks again.
I know it doesn't answer your question directly, but as far as i'm concerned, I've given up on cuting plywood sheet by myself. There is a fantastic industrial pannel saw at the lumber ward. It's dead precise, fast, totaly safe and at 1$ per cut, you can make a lot of cuts... Tablesaw aren't ment to cut big sheet and circular saw aren't that acurate!
My 2 cents :)
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