Bill,
I will do you one better. With the original author’s permission, I spent the time to concatenate his work into one PDF file. Click on the ‘Cutting Scale Lumber’ here The Help Zone.
1 Like
Since I have all the wood cutting saws that will probably cut anything I need to cut, I would go for the table saw if I just wanted one. The Ryobi folding table saw that Home Depot sells, I have found it to really work well for all my ripping needs. If you go on YouTube you can find videos on ripping small strips of wood for hobbies, plus you can even cut circles on your table saw. These are easily done with a small jig you can make yourself and you won’t need a slide rule to make it. I have one like this that I purchase some 10 years ago and It’s still going strong and I’ve ripped a lot of 2x4’s into strips. https://www.homedepot.com/p/RYOBI-15-Amp-10-in-Expanded-Capacity-Portable-Corded-Table-Saw-With-Rolling-Stand-RTS23/309412848
Thanks Bob.
That was a quite well written informative article.
John, I can see my morning will be lost watching YouTube looking for for these… 
There are all sorts of things a table saw does. I would say the vast majority of what I do in wood working is done on my table saw. ALL other tools are accessories. In modeling I still use my table saw with a zero clearance plate and feather boards and a GRRipper (highly recommend this if you like your fingers) for making wood strips.
Someone mentioned circles, well it can also cut deep coves for molding by running materiel “across” the blade instead of “through” the blade. I have said and will always say the #1 shop purchase should be a table saw.
Don’t get me wrong, band saws are great and of course will do things a table saw won’t. So by all means a good wood shop should have both. (I need to get a new one, I lost access to the one I used to use) but at the end of the day nothing makes big wood into little wood which is then fed into all the other toys like a table saw.
Now for ShopSmiths. I love mine, I mean love it. Well right now I don’t because it needed to be rebuilt and I must have put it together wrong as it is not working right. If you have limited space (as I do) then it is just simply awesome. BUTTTTTT the one thing I don’t ever use it for is the table saw. Table is too small and they take a special blade. Or at least the way mine is set up it requires a different blade. It has a larger diameter arbor than standard table saws.
Bill,
I want to address this from a different perspective that may give you some food for thought. As you have seen pretty much everyone is telling you table saw. Dave recommended a small “benchtop” or “contractor’s” saw. IF you are not setting up a large dedicated wood shop with lots of available space then I second this. But with a side note. Consider building a rolling table/cabinet that you can set the saw into so that it becomes part of the cabinet. This does two things. One it gives you a much larger table for saw which is a huge problem with the small saws for working with larger pieces of wood where precision is needed. Second it gives you a “big” saw without taking up space. Lower the blade and it becomes part of the bench top. But make it moveable. This way you can position it so when you need to rip a 12 foot long board you can have both room to infeed and outfeed.
I am actually thinking of taking the wings and legs off my full size saw and doing this.
1 Like
Devon or others,
Anyone have a good suggestion for a replacement fence? I have an older Grizzly saw and I can’t get the fence to fully square up after many many attempts to adjust. I’m sure someone could fine tune it, but I often wonder if it would just be easier to replace/upgrade the fence setup.
I know there are aftermarket fences. I have no experience with them. I have on several occasions considered replacing my stock one also for the same reason. And the fence makes the saw. Its frustrating when it doesn’t square with the blade for sure.
I torn down the old saw many moons ago and replaced bearings. Last summer I finally took the time to go through it with the idea of fine tuning it according to the directions. Yah, the fence still bugs me and I can’t get it correct. I think part of the problem is the fence is only adjustable so much and doesn’t sit completely flat against the table face. So when cutting thin stuff like 1/8", it can actually slide under the fence. A bit annoying.
Craig… If the fence is consistently wrong… try adding a board to the blade side of the fence. You can then shim it to correct the parallel to the blade battle, and also flat to the table…
I wish mine was consistently off because that would be a good solution. Mine is so sloppy it is never off the same amount. So each time I use it I have to measure both the front and the back of the blade to the fence and tap it into position. Very much a pain.
I just can’t square my fence. I’m almost wondering if the fence rails themselves aren’t parallel to the table. Or the something with the fence design itself.
I’ll try screwing on a hunk of scrap wood at some point and seeing if that helps.
I did finally get the runout of the blade to be around .020" this past summer after spending hours tweaking it.im sure I could get it better but I figure that’s pretty good for just a general all purpose table saw.
So it’s not the blade that’s causing issues, just the fence.
Is your blade running parallel with the miter slots in the table?
Craig,
I came across this in a 2016 LSC post by a well known influencer who offered up the Biesemeyer name, but I couldn’t find Biesemeyer.
So a little searching revealed Biesemeyer was bought out by delta and Delta is still getting best overall reviews for fences.
Craig,
First step is to get the arbor shaft running true to the table top.
Second is to get the arbor shaft running perpendicular to the ‘T’ square slot in the top of the table. This is the base for the other alignments.
The last alignment is the fence to the blade/‘T’ square slot.
The accuracy of your saw will only be as good as your best alignment, so if .020 is the best you can get, that is the best it will be. I shoot for <.005 when I can. I haven’t done mine is some time, so it will be interesting to see how well the last alignment held.
For what it is worth, I use the thickest saw blade I have to minimize flex in alignment. Also check the runout on the blade so your reference is not flawed.
Yes, tight tolerances take time to achieve, but are worth the time spent when the saw cuts straight.
I would also look at your fence to see if it is out of true in both directions. If the fence is out you will likely never get it straight.
Both of these have good reputations. Stop by your local BAM and check out the magazine rack, they likely have a good selection of woodworking magazines who will have plenty of vendors to peruse through.
Good luck
Bob,
Thanks for the info. I’m not a big wood worker and don’t use the saw that much anyway but it would be nice to get a tighter tolerance. I really need to just tear it all down again and double check everything slowly as you suggested.
The only thing I forgot to suggest is the purchase of a dial indicator to check the tolerances with. Dad always taught me if it is worth doing, it’s worth doing right. I have found that to be very true.
Yes, I have a dial indicator and attachment hand. If I remember correctly I had less than .005" run out from the front to back of the blade. That’s what I was so frustrated when I got the fence because I knew the blade was within spec ( paperwork for the saw I think said between .005 and .008? )
Yeah good information, I have a craftsman saw that something is out of whack, and the more I try them more
Fixing it eludes me. Ready to dig into it one more time to find out where the actual Issue is and what components need to be messed with to make it straight again! Not having decent tools is frustrating