Tuesday, September 08, 2015
A Strange Miter Saw Table Saw
Tools of the Trade: Combination saws contain a single motor and blade and can be used as both a table saw and miter saw. I’m most familiar with the flip-style saws, having once worked with a carpenter who owned one. The table flipped; when the motor was up it was a miter saw and when the motor was down a table saw.
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2 comments:
If nothing else this tool seems like it is a good way to save space in the workspace. I used to do a lot of work remodeling the inside of mobile trailers as part of my father’s business and there were lots of times where our handheld circular saws just couldn’t get the work done or just made our work that much more difficult than if we had had access to a full shop. That is not to say that this saw is a replacement for the full set of shop saws. I think it fulfills a similar role to the multi-tool. Your multi-tool gives you a screw driver, pliers, and knife in a convenient package at the cost some of the quality or usability of the tools contained. This doesn’t necessarily make it the inferior tool although in many situations other tools would perform better its simple convenience still lets the multi-tool win out in many situations. While in a shop with enough space and that uses their tools enough to justify having a full compliment of saws this saw is mostly pointless in mobile, mostly minor, construction applications it could be exactly what is necessary for the job.
People keep trying to find ways to merge a bunch of tools into one and I hate it. This tool might be good for some people, I have no doubt. A really small shop that makes small things? This is great. But I think that is where this tools usefulness ends. The Shopsmith opened the doors to a wave of combined tools but the Shopsmith did something that these present day combos don’t do. The shopsmith made each tool its own tool all working off the same motor. That way if you were using a table saw, you didn’t have to make compromises. A band saw still worked the same as any bandsaw. Today, a jointer/planer combo lessens the quality of the jointer and planer because the structure of the machine must be adequate for both. This miter saw/table saw is in the same boat. The tool must be incredible heavy, the table saw must be a pain to use, the transition can’t be easy and the quality can’t be good. If you want one tool that can do it all find a shopsmith on craigslist, otherwise, buy an individual tool, not combos.
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