www.popularmechanics.com: Given the choice of two power tools of varying capacity, I’ve always erred on the side of sizing up. I mostly attribute that to the notion that I’m probably going to do more with the larger tool down the road as my skill set improves.
3 comments:
This article brings up an interesting discussion about how much of a saw you actually need. As a small, not particularly strong person, I appreciate when things are not overly cumbersome. Especially for something like a miter saw I personally feel that being able to transport it easily outweighs the ability to cut slightly bigger crown moulding. I would say that the best set up is probably to have both, so one can travel around and one can remain more or less stationary for the times when you really need to cut a lot of wood. Overall I think most standard theatrical scenery does not require a massive blade, and would probably be better suited to a more portable size that can be taken to various places based on where the needs of that project are. Though, for other tools like a table saw, I would probably argue that bigger is actually better.
After reading this article I found that the conclusion it came too is roughly the conclusion I was expecting just by reading the title of the article. Bigger saw blade equals ability to cut larger pieces of lumber. The detail from this article that I found most interesting though was that a 10" saw could not cut a 4x4 comfortable while a 12" saw could. This makes total sense and the simple fact was not what I found most interesting. The aspect of this fact that I found interesting was that it makes for a very easy and concrete question to ask ones self when buying chop saw. When buying one do you think you will be cutting 4x4 regularly or at all, and if the answer is yes then you have to get at a saw with at least a 12" blade. Then the follow up question to that could be if you don't think you will be cutting 4x4s regularly could you see yourself cutting enough of them to warrant buying a saw with a 12" blade.
This is focused mostly on a homeowner/garage builder perspective, and I think less on a professional industry basis, but I think that the same principals still apply. A theater shop is most likely going to be, at some point, cutting large moldings or other oddly shaped lumber not found in standard construction, and as such, is probably going to want a 12" saw somewhere. But most of the time, we aren't cutting anything larger than 2x6, so the reality is that a theater shop can mostly use a 10" saw, and when space in a shop is at a premium (which it always is) or you have to move the saw to the stage or just around the shop, that difference in weight and size is critical---anyone in a theater shop can tell you the difference it makes to be able to squeeze around things. All and all, my conclusion from this is that a theater shop should probably have 1 12" saw, but otherwise, for day to day work, a few 10" saws should be the workhorses of most theater shops.
Post a Comment