Replies

1. 
   BG | Mar 02, 2006 04:04pm | #1

   Webby,
   Here is my experience, perhaps others have similar thoughts.
   I went from the no-name bench top TS to a cabinet saw...what a difference..nice clean repeatable cuts, glue up quality, etc.

   To take the quality of your furniture to the next level beyond the cabinet saw, you need to employ planes with shooting boards, workbench, etc. to really get the seams to disappear on joints and panels. If your going to go for that quality, and use planes, I suspect the quality of the table saw becomes much less important. A good example is Rob Millard, he hangs his TS up on the wall in his garage after the initial cuts.
   If space is really tight, you'll probably get more utility from a good BS and a few jigs.

2. 
   Lataxe | Mar 02, 2006 06:09pm | #2

   Webby,

   I owned a Metabo TK 1066 table saw for 5 years and found it excellent.  This saw is actually an Emco Moritz (Emco and Knapp are from the same Italian company) but Metabo take them from Emco and re-badge them.

   The saw is a modular design that allows you to add:

   *  tables to the right of the blade (as many as you like, each one adding 12 inches of cutting width to the initial 1.5 feet).  Support legs can be obtained if you add lots of these table extensions.

   * a sliding table to the left of the blade, with maximum 2.5 feet cut in front of the blade.  The cross cut fence attached to this assembly extends to over 6 feet and has a precision stop.  The table slide is ultra-smooth

   * a rear take-off table.

   * a stand with wheels and height adjustment; or a wheeled cabinet with drawers etc..

   All these modules come off the saw in seconds, using butterfly bolts.  The connecting mechanisms are precision made so reassembly does not require any new setting up - all settings are perfectly retained.

   Being a European design, it comes with a proper riving knife and saw guard that travel up and down/tilt with the blade.  You cannot fit a dado blade to the arbor however (they're illegal in Europe as they are regarded as inherently likely to kick back).

   There is provision for dust extraction from the saw body and the blade guard.

   The saw comes with a precision fence to which hold-downs and other attachments can be mounted via various T-slots; a good general purpose blade and so forth.  It really is very precise indeed (1/10th of a millimetre on both fence and crosscut fence).  It can be set up to cut straight and square with no bother; and it does not go out of adjustment easily.

   I replaced it only because I started to need more power and cutting capacity for large scale projects.  In fact, the size (and hence the the cutting capacity of 65 millimetres at 90 degrees) of the saw is its only limitation - but this (and its modularity) are what make it very easy to  transport. 

   Emco and Metabo market a size-up saw of even higher quality but correspondingly heavier weight and higher price.  But the bigger saw is still modular and probably still transportable (just).  I nearly bought one but went for a Sheppach instead (even more power/capacity for the money but no longer transportable because of its 200 kilo weight).

   I don't know if you can buy this saw, in either Metabo or Emco guise, in the USA.

   Here is a web site (its a British one though):

   http://www.metabo.co.uk/metabo/uk/en/produkte/tablesaws/tablesawingmachinemagnumtk1066_6_01267_00.html

3. 
   GDH2 | Mar 12, 2006 08:52am | #3

   Suggestion: investigate the Ryobi BT3100. It has two special features:

   1) It has a sliding table that actually works pretty well. The whole rig is pretty versatile.
   2) You can join the zombies at BT3Central - a great forum, superb bargain alerts, and articles showing dozens of different custom cabinets, custom fences, sliding miter table mods, etc. (I am one of the zombies) How many small saws have their own forum?

   HD sells them. The price has dropped over the years from $600 to about $250-300.

4. 
   forestgirl | Mar 16, 2006 12:14am | #4

   "what level of work I could reasonably expect to do with say the bosch portable saw or the dewalt...."  A sample of one:  I got into a conversation with a man at Lowe's one day while looking at table saws.  He was retired, and had been using the DeWalt for about 2 years.  Built numerous pieces of furniture for his "retirement home" right there in his garage and was quite satisfied with its performance.  He was not "gushy" about it, just very practical. 

   forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-) 
   

5. 
   Joby | Mar 23, 2006 07:06pm | #5

   I have the Bosch and I can't say enough good things about it (obviously within the limitations you would expect for a bench top saw.) Again within the limitations, it is powerful, sturdy, the fence is fairly accurate. If you know that a contractor or cabinet saw is not in your future, the Bosch is definitely a good choice.

6. 
   Jimmbo | Mar 25, 2006 01:06am | #6

   You asked for experiences ... I had the cheap Delta bench top and it did not last long.  The motor overheated and melted the brush holders.  I would rate that saw a 2 out of 10.  Your suggestions of Bosch may be a better quality.