My wife wants to start making wood crafts again. What kind of saw do I need to buy to use to cut out the small pieces? I have a table saw and a circular saw.
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My wife wants to start making wood crafts again. What kind of saw do I need to buy to use to cut out the small pieces? I have a table saw and a circular saw.
If it's not a lot of thick cutting a scroll saw is very helpful. A table saw is best for straight cuts. Is she going to be cutting curves or straight or ??? Band saws are good for curves. Circular saws are not as accurate unless you are really careful.
I have a small band saw that works fairly well for many projects. If ytou wife wants to make a lot of intricate cuts I'd use a scroll saw.
Well we will be cutting out craft patterns and some of them are large pieces and some really small and odd pieces. I will look into the scroll saw and the band saw. Are either of these small saws? I want something that I can hold in my hand.
For the larger pieces you could probably use a saber saw. The scroll saw and band saw are both table mounted but for intricate pieces I think you'll find that the scroll saw is ideal.
Holding small intricate parts in your hand while sawing on them is a very bad idea irrespective of the kind of saw you try to use, unless of course you can regenerate fingers.
I have a good variable speed (and otherwise adjustable) Makita saber saw that is good for some of what you describe (just not holding things where the blade would get within 3-4 inches of your hand/fingers.)
I have a DeWalt scroll saw I got as a refurb to save $ and it does nice work. It too is something intended to do what you describe.
I had a 10 inch floor stand mounted Craftsman band saw which would be a good saw for some of what you will be doing. I sold it and got a 5 HP 24 inch band saw that weighs about 700 lbs, probably NOT what you want. A smaller floor stand band saw say at least a 12 inch (14 inch is a very good size) would be very nice addition to the other saws listed above.
Unfortunately there is NO SINGLE power saw that will do everything you need to do. If you stick with this hobby for a while you WILL WANT a saber saw, scroll saw, and band saw. Beware of the NAME CHANGES re these tools. A band saw is still a band saw but...
It used to be that a jig saw was a saw with a blade fastened at both ends with a small table to lay the work onto and do intricate cuts and a sabre saw was a hand held device with a reciprocating blade and a base plate to do free cutting of patterns or straight cuts.
The terminology has changed now and what used to be called a jig saw is now called a scroll saw and what used to be called a sabre saw is now called a jig saw. Some still call them by their old names and some don't. I guess some terminology has come from ignorance and some to just confuse. Is a Sawzall a jig saw or a sabre saw or a saw of it's own?
Anyway... you WILL want all three if you do much of this for very long. A table saw and skill saw will also be useful for "rough"and straight cuts. Nothing will spoil someones interest in this sort of a hobby faster than poor non productive substandard tools. They are more dangerous too. Regarding danger... do you like your wife with fingers on her hands? Adhere rigidly to safety practices!!!
A local lady who has been a professional wood worker for years (she and her husband own/operate Debbie's Raised Panel Cabinet Door shop made a boo-boo last year and cut off half of the first three fingers of her right hand and they were not re-attachable. I have 9.9 fingers. My left thumb is a bit slimmer than the right and I try to be very careful. I don't even know exactly how it happened (which bothers me) it was over so fast... be careful with table saws and other power tools.
I have a Saw Stop brand table saw (Industrial cabinet saw) and if it were not for its protective features I'd have cut off several fingers of my left hand. As it was I just barely nicked a 1/16 by 1/16 inch spot of skin to a depth of just the first layer of skin. After several seconds it bled a single drop of blood.
Sorry to not be able to advise you on which single tool you need to do what you want but I don't think it is possible.
Pat
A jig saw can be very useful for cutting curves and holes in items. For small items, perhaps there is such a thing as a scaled down, small jig saw.