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Miter saw or portable table saw?

NGrimberg

Banned
Joined
Apr 25, 2018
Hello everyone, great forums here and your advice has helped a lot in the past!

I am a beginner who has made a few small projects and I'm considering buying either a miter saw or portable table saw: I use our woodshop at work to cut a lot of my wood for my projects and would like to be able to do that at home. Been using the chop saw for cutting 1x2s, 2x4s. I have rarely used the table saw and have resorted to my circular saw and straight edge to cut small boards. Anyway, I do have limited space and thought a portable table saw may be more versital because I can cut flat boards as well as cut 2x4s? Any thoughts are appreciated.
 
Those little portable table saws are frequently just an upside down skilsaw on a cheap aluminum table. Not worth the trouble IMHO

I know you don't have space, but can I tell you what an enlightenment my Unisaw has been?

And on the Delta front, I also have a Delta[never ever Sears] radial arm saw, it can do things a chop saw cannot
 
With some creativity you can do most things a table saw can do with a circular saw, but precise miters not so much. If you had space for a real table saw I would say go for that they are night and day from a portable. go for the miter saw. check craigslist for deals. think carefully about what width boards you want to cut before buying a miter saw. or look into a sliding miter saw.
 
Yesterday I had to rip 12' long 6" decking to 5 3/8 ..set small table saw on the school garage floor and with a roller truck on the out end cut them perfect. Small table saw is best if it has a good squaring fence..so you din't have to double measure ever job..even an extra 100 (+) bucks is well spent for features that help make a job go smooth.
and faster.
Still a table saw is not a good chop saw..
making some fixtures can be handy.
 
I know several people who do very good work with 10" portable table saws such as the older Ryobi and Makita units. I'm not sure how good the modern ones are but the main thing is to learn the quirks of the tool and compensate where necessary.

Biggest drawbacks are very small table area and often marginal rip fences and miter gauges. The last two can be tweaked/tuned and for whatever unit you buy there are probably people out there who have done mods, so the internet search is your friend.

Mot that long ago I made a "table top" out of scraps to mount my Porter Cable magnesium saw for use as an improvised table saw when "out and about". The very top layer is 1/4" full temper masonite and I installed T nuts in the main plywood pieces before gluing so I can clamp the saw to the unit and the unit to two folding saw horses for use outdoors and away from home. For a rip fence I use a 24" Clamp-N-Tool Guide and I bought a miter gauge/T track I will install in a routed groove when I get time. It is nowhere near a substitute for the Delta/Rockwell table saw in my basement but it is worlds above using the saw handheld for ripping boards to width.

As with "craft" (manual) machining the skill of the operator is more important than the quality of the tool.
 
Amazing things can be done with a small table saw if you have the space to set up additional surfaces for outfeed and outboard support of workpieces. One of my woodworking mentors spent his early furniture-making days using a tiny INCA table saw set up with tables he made that could be easily broken down and moved. There's some additional setup needed to get good results from this rig, but he did beautiful work with it.

It's hard to specifically recommend anything without knowing what kind of projects you are doing. My experience is mostly with furniture-making and other crafts will have different requirements. That said, to me the big advantage of the table saw is being able to make it the shop centerpiece with tons of jigs, outfeed/support tables etc. I haven't had shop space to do that, so I get by with miter saws and a nice Festool track saw. It is clumsier than a well set up table saw and limits my capability but gets basic stuff done and can be stowed easily. I plan on eventually getting a Sawstop table saw once I have the space- after extensively using different Sawstops at jobs and educational settings, I'd be reluctant to buy anything else unless I had a specific need for a big sliding saw.
 
The are decent portable saws - both table saws and sliding miter saws - meant for job site use. As others have said, the Makita unit used to be pretty good -- maybe still is. Either one can fold up and be wheeled to a corner of a garage. Eventually you'll likely want both. I'd check Fine Woodworking and Fine Homebuilding magazines for reviews of current models.

If you need to rip lumber -- and most of us do -- the table saw is the choice.

I would point out that a sliding miter saw can cover a crosscut maybe 12-14" wide -- and by flipping the board can double that with moderate precision. So if any ripping work you have can be done at the saw at work -- and you have a lot of construction work to do that's better suited to the sliding miter saw (rough & finish carpentry, decks, etc.) -- then you might want to start with that.
 
Whatever you do, don’t buy it at a pawn shop.

Overpriced or worn out; there are no tool gloats at a pawn shop, usually.

And you will NEVER find a replacement rip fence for that Craftsman saw on Craigslist.

Will all you old farts give up on “fixing up” anything Craftsman? The part numbers exist long past the inventory.

I have two Dewalt Radials, 16” & 20”. Unless you are trying to accurately trim 6x6 or 8x8, use a chainsaw.

I suggest one of those Ryobi “contractors “ table saws for portability. If you find one “that stopped running”, get their best price, tighten the brush caps, and come back and thank me in your tool gloat.

Porter Cable is a great reputation, but their sliding miter with the rods at the bottom, is a dumb idea.

I have this cheap 8” sliding miter from Home Depot I drag around, because it’s half the weight of the 12” DeWalt sliding miter.
 
Table saw to rip, miter saw to crosscut.

That being said, they both have their strong points, and they both have their limitations. And of course, the radial arm saw combines the bad points of both. Until you get up to a Unisaw or (better stll) a panel,saw, the track saws are probably the most versitile for working with sheet stock.

There really is no one-size-fits-all answer. Your budget, your space, and your planned projects will drive your tool needs and acquisition. Have fun, and watch your fingers.
 
I'm considering buying either a miter saw or portable table saw:

There is no "either".

Unless someone is actually paying you to waste time and ruin the odd bit of material, BOTH - and yes, please "sliding" AND "compound" on the miter saw. Each is affordable enough to just schedule into the budget.

Backed-up, if/as/when possible with two sizes of circular saw, both a full-sized Milwaukee sawzall and the cordless mini, decent sabre saw, router, and corded and cordless oscillating saws.

That dasn't make you into a proper cabinet shop, but you can surely frame, renovate, build a pallet or demolish one, build a house or dog house, install windows or make them, frame doors, trim baseboards, fence a yard, throw together a storage shed, do repairs, emergency or otherwise and at least PRETEND rather decently at basic cabinetry if if you but cock yer head and bite yer tongue just so in order to hold accurately to dimension and line.

Now.. if "small projects" is all you really want? Jig saw or bandsaw, mini-circular saw, and oscillating saw can be stashed in VERY little space.

Hong Kong's tight quarters, my storage cabinet mounts a decent saber saw from underneath to become the "workbench" and I run it in the bathtub (dry, of course!) just to keep the mess in one easy-to-clean area. Mini-circular saw, laminate trimmer as router, oscillating saw, and a lightmetal "drillpress adaptor" for a Metabo hand drill motor have to do the rest. No workspace spare. No storage space to spare.

Do what?

Both bathroom vanities, queen-sized platform bed, desks, and the kitchen cabinets, for example.

All this can be hired custom-built to sketches, delivered and installed. But Chinese labour is too expensive.

Whomever called it "slave labour" was talking about the poor bastids as have to pay for it, not craftsmen in $150 USD shoes, and genuine name-brand, no counterfeits, if you please.

2CW. And two household's worth. Very different ones. The "Holiday Home" up in Zhongshan we DO hire everything done. Two or three times over 'til they get it right, some projects. You'd have to know the Chinese who don't make it into the coastal enclaves.
 








 
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