Dale, great post. Can you talk a little about cutting dados? I've never really grasped how to get the right depth with a circular saw or table saw either. Thanks!
Bill Stephan Kansas City, MO (816)803-2469 William Stephan -----Original Message----- From: "Dale Leavens"<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: 11/1/07 8:43:07 PM To: "[email protected]"<[email protected]> Subject: Re: [BlindHandyMan] Circular or table Hi Dale, I had a table saw long before I finally got a circular saw however I did have a jig saw which I used a lot for reducing plywood and other sheet goods down to manageable sizes. Thing is that even with a very big and top end table saw, wrestling sheet goods, even relatively light ones like quarter inch plywood around on a table saw is not only difficult but does add significant injury risk. You can add infeed and outfeed tables if you have enough shop space but it is still damn difficult and although I did quite a bit of it as a younger man I don't much fancy it today. If you are likely to do a lot of cabinet work into the future or where you need a high degree of accuracy to finished panels the table saw is what you want. Excellent work of most types can be accomplished with a hand held circular saw and a little care. It becomes somewhat more difficult to reproduce a series of identical cuts than with the fence on a table saw but again using jigs or other measuring sticks and such it certainly can be done. One can even cut dados and rabbets with care but it is more difficult. One can of course buy both a decent circular saw and a router or two and still have a pretty good chunk of change from the price of a decent table saw. A table saw certainly can be used safely by the blind. There are different techniques depending on your confidence and skill complement of course. You may wish to use path finding techniques to ensure safety, knowing that the blade is always in the same place means if you need you can locate some safe part of the machine like the far right near edge of the wing and near rail of the fence then follow that back to the fence and down to the switch for example. If on the other hand you are a little more sure of yourself you might, as I usually end up doing, kick the power switch on with the toe of my shoe. My saw is a 1975 vintage with a standard light switch for power. Kicking it off while controlling work and waiting for the blade to spin down sometimes requires a little imagination. Modern machines usually have something like a recessed push button for on and a big square panel you can hit with about any body part to turn it off. The beauty of a table saw is that it is relatively easy to set the rip fence to a suitable distance with a ruler or what ever, even an already cut piece can be slid up against the blade and the fence slid up to it. Using a circular saw with a decent shop made jig can be quite accurate too provided it is the sort where the base comes out where the saw has cut it flush so you can tell exactly where the blade will cut. Otherwise you must include an offset to the edge of the shoe for aligning the guide as I have to do since I still haven't got around to making such a jig. I recently saw a jig designed for cross cutting with a pivot for locking in an angle. It is interesting in a way, I well remember observers goggling my makeshift jigs in some kind of wonder and now 30 years later they sell them in major department stores albeit rather more refined (and expensive) than the blind pioneered of necessity. Unless you expect to continue a vigorous hobby into the future I think I would hold off the table saw. You will always want a circular saw anyway. It is well worth while to buy a good quality one. This can be said of all tools and it is also true of a table saw only a decent table saw will cost in the range of 800 to 1000 dollars. A cheaper one will disappoint and you won't be wanting to use it a lot. If you really get into the work you will soon regret not having bought a better one and your money will be wasted. It may discourage you from continuing. You can get a darn good little 7 and a quarter inch circular saw for a hundred and fifty bucks or less, I really like my little Makita MAG model for about a hundred and twenty five, good quality, light, toolless blade change, it is available in right and left side blade and should remain accurate as it is a well made tool. Doubtless there will be other opinions, there are a lot of stamped steel table saws for a couple of hundred bucks out there and I don't intend to get into a debate on that. I have used them occasionally on a job site and they work well enough where 8th inch accuracy is adequate, light to shift onto the bed of a pickup truck and not a big loss if they get knocked around a bit but beyond construction carpentry I don't like or recommend them. I hope this is helpful. Dale Leavens, Cochrane Ontario Canada [EMAIL PROTECTED] Skype DaleLeavens Come and meet Aurora, Nakita and Nanook at our polar bear habitat. ----- Original Message ----- From: Dale Alton To: [email protected] Sent: Thursday, November 01, 2007 8:20 PM Subject: [BlindHandyMan] Circular or table Hi gang, I am contemplating purchasing a circular saw or a table saw. I know I have to cut some plywood to make a counter for the wet bar I am in the midst of, and yes if you like keg beer come on over. I am also thinking about making a little cupboard type of thing to put by my front door. The thing I don't know for sure is which saw would be better for me. Are table saws safe for a total to use? I think I would get the use out of either but don't know what would be best. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Dale [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
