Table saw

[jazzjune18]

I am still getting into the building arena, so acquiring tools as I go. My friend has offered me his table saw. What uses have you gotten out of the table saw??

Thanks for your help!

[Joe Mendel]

I use one to cut fret slots & truss rod slots.

[sunburst]

I use my table saw for all sorts of things, including fret slots and truss rod slots. I start with rough lumber for a lot of things so I use my table saw to dimension stock for tops, necks, backs, sides, etc.. It's one of my most used power tools. It comes in handy for other projects besides instrument building too.

[Dave Cohen]

Plus one on everything John said. For years, I had an old Rockwell contractor's saw that I upgraded with cast iron extension wings and a Biesmeyer fence. It was fine, and I used it a lot. But a few years ago, I treated mysef to a new Powermatic PM2000. I am told it is not quite as nice as the old Powermatic 66, but it seems really nice to me, and I probably use it even more than I did my previous saw. Even made me less ornery, for about a week.

http://www.Cohenmando.com/

[jazzjune18]

Awesome. Thank you for the responses. Will put it to much good use

[sunburst]

Dave mentioned his Powermatic saw and it reminded me; he's right about a good saw being a big advantage. Mine's an old, cast iron Rockwell Unisaw with a (newer) Unifence. Having a solid, accurate saw with a solid, accurate fence makes a big difference. Use good blades too, BTW.
I don't know what saw you've been offered, and it's hard to imagine that it would be worth refusing as a gift, but if it is a flimsy, cheap, underpowered saw with a poor, inaccurate fence, it can be a source of frustration and danger.

[amowry]

I have one, but I never use it With most tools I own, I wonder how I ever got by without them. The tablesaw is the one exception.

[Dave Cohen]

Well, there ya have it. there's no rule that says you have to use a table saw. The most recent issue of American Lutherie has an article/transcription of John Greven's 2011 GAL convention talk. He doesn't have a table saw at all, & makes ~48 well-respected guitars per year. He does have a radial arm saw though. I couldn't imagine what I would use a radial arm saw for, but I suppose that if I had one, I might find some uses for it. Otoh, I would feel handicapped without a table saw.

http://www.Cohenmando.com

[sunburst]

No radial saw for me either. I'm one of the few luthierologists I know who doesn't own a router! (I do have a laminate trimmer that I use rarely.) It's that way with folks who use tools. Some like one, some like another.

[j. condino]

You don't need a tablesaw. I built a lot of instruments, including my first fully carved upright bass without owning a tablesaw or almost any other power tools. That said, I use mine almost every day now and have no intentions of getting rid of my pimped out offroad 1953 unisaw. It replaced a Sawstop that cost me 10x the price of the Delta.....

j.
www.condino.com

[Steve Sorensen]

The stuff that dreams are made of . . .

[Rick Lindstrom]

Table saws are great, and I'd definitely have one if I had the shop space for it. They can take up a lot of room, but also can give you extra useful work space if the table is big enough.

One caveat- I have found the direct drive type of table saws to be noisy, annoying and generally more trouble than they are worth. This also includes the models that are driven by a geared transmission. If the one you are being given is direct drive, you might want to pass on it and invest in a nice belt driven machine.

[Pete Jenner]

In a previous existence building sets for TV, film and exhibitions, I used a table saw and radial arm saw every day along with industrial thicknessers and huge spindle moulders. My favourite was the radial arm saws except for when we had two of them with trenching heads attached spread out along a 30 metre bench. I spent what seemed like weeks trenching 6"X3" Radiata Pine. Every now and again, in a lapse of concentration, I would hit a knot in the pine and BANG!!! The whole bench would shake, a wave would travel down to the end of the bench and back dislodging the other saw from the hand of it's unsuspecting operator and ripping the handle of my saw from my hand as the arm and saw head sped back towards the wall of the workshop and I leaped 10 feet in the other direction, propelled by adrenalin and pain.

I only have a bandsaw and handsaws now but I do have a router which I use for binding and cutting the channel for CF neck bars.

Oh and I have a thicknesser which I rarely use.

[billhay4]

Tablesaws are quite useful, but not necessary. But I'm going to add that they, like all woodworking tools, can be very dangerous if used incorrectly, set up incorrectly, or allowed to get in bad shape. I urge you to get someone who really knows how to use one to teach you if you don't already know.
Bill

[kkmm]

I use one to cut fret slots

In order to cut fret slots with table saw, what is the thickness of the saw blade to be used ?

[Dave Cohen]

Tablesaws are quite useful, but not necessary. But I'm going to add that they, like all woodworking tools, can be very dangerous if used incorrectly, set up incorrectly, or allowed to get in bad shape. I urge you to get someone who really knows how to use one to teach you if you don't already know.
Bill

True enough. Most woodworking machines can bite. If you are not a little bit scared every time you turn a machine on, you should stop and allow yourself to get scared, and think through how you will be cutting, feeding, possibilities for kickback, etc., etc. Use a guard whenever possible. When it is not possible to use a full guard, use a riving knife. Riving knives can be had or modified to have a low profile, enabling unhindered slotting and dado cuts, & etc.

Tablesaws are responsible for a large number of accidents, including amputations. Of those accidents and amputations, the lion's share of those happen with the portable "jobsite" type tablesaws. Those are the underpowered, imprecise things about which other posters have already warned.

http://www.Cohenmando.com/

[barry k]

Mandolins can be built with other then the BEST tools money can buy, some of us just can't afford the Caddilacs of tools. Just be careful with ALL things that have sharp moving parts, and slow down ,take your time and think about what your about to do before you do it .BK

[sunburst]

In order to cut fret slots with table saw, what is the thickness of the saw blade to be used ?

I got the Stewmac fret slotting blade, though it was rather expensive (overpriced, I'd say). It was cutting .020" slots when I got it, and that was too narrow for my fret wire, so I added a little set to the teeth and now it cuts .024".
Those are just blades that are ground down thin at the edge and there is no set in the teeth. They burn and smoke and they get encrusted with burned resin from the wood, so a little set in the teeth helps with that too.

[amowry]

I used my tablesaw for fret slots for a long time (that was the one thing I used it for), and I used the LMI blade with a set of inexpensive stabilizers, like the Freud ones. I think mine are around 4 1/2" in diameter.

It worked great.

[buckhorn]

I do a lot of other things besides A and F style mandolins, so a table saw is an important tool for me...a Craftsman 10in with a factory left hand sled and the mitre guage is a part of the sled..about 15yrs old but cuts wonderfully with good sharp blades..takes a while to get used to using the sled thu...the band saw is my most used power tool for mandos but the table saw takes on everything else...I've started building 'hidden compartment' furniture and shelving along with mandos and parts...and Dr Dave hit it when he mentioned that you should have a built-in fear when ever you turn on a table saw , or any other power tool...still have all of my fingers , just to be able to pick the 8 string.........

[Jim Adwell]

When I was making ukuleles I made a fret slot blade by grinding down the outer edge of a circular plywood blade and then adding some set to the teeth. it took forever, and after I spent all that time making it I discovered that StewMac sold them. Sigh. I used mine in a radial arm saw that wasn't useful for anything else I was doing (other dedicated tools were more accurate). Worked pretty well, actually. If I were doing production runs now I'd probably buy the StewMac blade and use it in a sliding arm miter saw, but I make so few fingerboards I'd rather cut them with a hand saw.

Tablesaws are responsible for more injuries than any other power tool. Be careful.

[sunburst]

Tablesaws are responsible for more injuries than any other power tool. Be careful.

I don't have the statistics in front of me, but I though jointers were the source of most power tool injuries. Regardless, all power tools and all hand tools are dangerous to one degree or another, and we do need to be careful whenever we use tools, and we have to realize that in almost all cases the tool is not responsible for the accident, the operator is.

For cutting fret slots, the table saw method outlined in Bob Benedetto's archtop guitar book works really well. It involves making a two-part jig, but once that's done, we can saw fret slots on the table saw with excellent, repeatable accuracy. It's also a very safe method.

[Pete Jenner]

Don't sit on them while they are spinning. ...just thought that was worth saying.

[Tom Haywood]

I use the table saw more than the band saw, but I don't use either one much for instrument making. The table saw works great for cutting braces and tone bars out of spruce blocks and for anything that requires a sure 'nuff straight cut. They are real dangerous, so think twice before you use it.

[belbein]

Take the tablesaw. It's useful for all sorts of things. It might be the most useful thing in my shop, once I made several jigs for it (a cross cut jig, for example; a box jig, for another). Sure, you can do without it. And yes, it's dangerous. But so is everything else in the shop.