Hi all, to those of you who have built L-Girder benchwork which saw will be the most useful, a table saw or a compound miter saw?
If you are only going to be doing cross-cutting, you’d be best off with the miiter saw.
Table saw is most practical for ripping operations, especially large panels.
I’m not sure I knew about miter saws in the 1980’s. I built my L girder with a table saw. I’ve gotten a lot of use out of my sears 8’ table saw for other things, as well, and I would miss it.
If I was starting over today, I would find a good miter saw with the laser light and shop the estate and yard sales for a table saw.
I would say a compound mitre saw would be used more. A track saw is also excellent for cutting sheets of plywood and they don’t take up as much room as a big table saw when not being used.
A track saw is new to me. It looks like a squared off skill saw on a metal track.
Do you clamp the track to the plywood?
Unless you are ripping plywood to produce demensional lumber, a compund mitre saw. Or a skill saw.
Dave
I’ve taken a couple of looks at a track saw, I kinda like’em. I have lots of work to do this coming “work season” at home and at our place in the North woods.
I’ve always just used a skil, or actually a circular saw, because that’s what I’am used to.
But this track thing looks pretty good, of course along with my circular saw, and a decent miter saw.
Not having a track saw, or a table saw, if I was to do this it would be the circular saw. But’s thats just me.
Mike.
A good table saw will do every thing a compound miter will. IF you know how.
A $20,000 miter saw won’t replace a table saw
AS Mike said a circular saw will build bench work
In fact you could use a hand saw
I have a table saw. And I see no easy way to cut wood to length with it. Yes, it can be done, but not easily.
It is much easier to hold the wood stationary and bring the blade down to it, than have the blade stationary and move the wood through it.
To be exact a Ryobi combo 18volt. $79 gets you a circular saw, drill, battery and charger. Only other thing you else you need is a framing square, about $5.
A simple 10 inch miter saw is all you will need. You do not need a compound miter saw.
.
A table saw will work for cross-cutting dimensional lumber, but the miter saw is faster and easier to use.
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-Kevin
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.why not get a radial arm saw .
While a mitre saw would be nice, there’s not much that can’t be done with a good Skil Saw.
Wayne
In my work as a carpenter…
Nothing beats a good compound miter saw for safe and versatile cutting of lots of different stuff.
I used mine to cut out these bridge piers:
It will do whatever you need to do building L girder benchwork.
A good portable table saw, or small one on a stand is great for lots of stuff too.
Battery impact drivers and drills - we did carpentry before we had them, but I really don’t remember how…
Track saws - these are just a highly portable way to get at or near precision of a large table saw. I consider my Dewalt portable table saw a much more important tool. I would never invest $500 in a track saw.
BUT, I have a portable table saw, a big shop table saw, a good compound miter saw, circular saws - cord and battery, nearly a dozen battery impact and drill drivers, power planners, biscuit joiner, oscillating saws (we love these things), recipricating saws, jig saws, a number of routers/trimmers, pneumatic nail guns of every size…
And I’m sure I missed something…
I nail down my homasote roadbed with a brad nailer.
I don’t use L girder benchwork, as discussed in several other threads, I can build better open grid benchwork with less lumber, especially for the “style” of my layout.
A few shots of the old layout:
New layout starting in the spring if all goes to plan. It will not be double deck like the old layout.
Sheldon
Because they are big, heavy, and dangerous - nobody uses them anymore.
https://www.rockler.com/are-radial-arm-saws-a-thing-of-the-past
Sheldon
I have one of them also. I bought that before I bought the table saw. Had I known better I would have bought the table saw and a chop (or miter) saw.
The supposed advantage of the radial arm saw is that you can do more operations with it other than cross cutting. For example, the motor can be rotated 90 degrees and the blade fixed at a specified distance from the fence so that a piece of wood can be ripped to width.
However, like most (or all) multiple use tools, it doesn’t do as good a job as the tool it is supposed to replace.
In addition, it takes up a lot more space than a chop saw.
if nobody uses them why do they still sell them , i my self have never had a use for one but know several that use them alot
Sheldon, you are right. Radial arm saws are big, heavy and they can be dangerous if you don’t know what you are doing. However, I have used my radial arm saw for more projects than I can remember. I have built tons of cabinetry, furniture, moldings and more with my RAS and I still have all my fingers. Only once in 30+ years did things get a little precarious when one of the position locks came loose while I was making some door trim.
The bottom line is that you can hurt yourself with any tool, and you can be safe with any tool if you know what you are doing and respect it.
Dave
Does anybody have new ones for sale? I don’t see any in the tool stores where I shop?
There are only a few on the market, and the good ones are very expensive, like $4,000.
If you look up radial arm saw on Home Depot’s web site you get sliding compound miter saws…
Sheldon
I bought the Grizzly track saw ‘master pack’ 4 years ago when it was on sale for about $200. https://www.grizzly.com/products/Grizzly-Track-Saw-Master-Pack/T25552
And I bought the extra 9 ft track for another $50. A track saw is much easier and takes much less space for one person to operate and they make very precise cuts. For one person to operate a table saw to rip 8 ft sheets of plywood you need 8+ ft of space on both sides of the saw and you need a large outflow catcher table. The track saw was the best tool investment I made while building my layout.
Doug