The main advantage of belt drive is more useable power. I have the delta contractor's saw mentioned above. It is belt drive and will zing through 2x stock all day without a wimper. It was about $500-600 if I remember. I've used their economy direct drive model and although it did the job, it wasn't as easy to use and to me (subjective) lacked power although they are rated nearly the same hp wise. The fence felt very cheap and clunky compared to the contractor model. I should say my only other experience prior to using the direct drive model was with a Delta Unisaw and my Delta Contractor.
I have the Jet contractor saw, and have been very happy with it. It runs right around $500; there were 2 things I liked about it as opposed to most other saws in this range. First, the fence is pretty solid, and equally important moves and locks into place easily and smoothly. Also the motor is TEFC (totally enclosed, fan cooled), meaning that the internals are sealed so you don't get sawdust inside.
Thanks for the advice so far. Now I have an idea of what to look for. My brother has a cheap craftsman (they sell stuff from $100 - $1,500 what a range!). He complained about the fence.
Related question, Are the extensions that most manufacturers sell worth it? I can see the benefit of 48" of "capacity" vs. the "standard" 24" or so. I do have a circular saw that I can use for this application.
Central PA, Near the site of the Largest Inflatable Dam in the US.
Posts
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Re: AFFORDABLE table saws
Hi Hazmat,
When I saw your post, I remembered one of the Woodworker Magazine, that I get had a review on Tablesaws. Well, I couldn't find that issue. Sorry. It may still be in newstands.
I've got a cheaper Craftsman Table Saw, which I paid around $150 for. It cuts great, but there is a couple of things that are not so good. As said here before the fence is not very good on it, and you need to use a tape to make sure the cut will be right. Also the table is a bit small for longer, and wider boards. I made a wooden table, which I can move, and attach to the saw to make the table surface bigger. And as mentioned the blade is very important. I wish I had bought a bigger, more expensive saw, but at the time that I bought it, I didn't know, that I would use it so much.
As far as the magazines go, I get Woodworkers Journal, American Woodworker, and Handy Man. The article is in one of those magazines. If I run across it, I'll let you know which one.
<font color="blue"> Related question, Are the extensions that most manufacturers sell worth it? I can see the benefit of 48" of "capacity" vs. the "standard" 24" or so </font color>
At our shop, we always bought the extension tubes and table leaves for the Unisaws, then cut them to different sizes. One saw would do 49", another 37", and the third 31". We rarely used the 49" capacity, only for cutting sheet material in half. A circular saw does this just as well and saves you the bux.
The fence extensions were primarily useful as a stop, using a cut-off box on the saw, and you can get past this by nailing a long strip of wood to the cut-off box.
As long as you can get to the center of 4x8 sheet material (24"+), that should be all you'd ever need.
Geez, I've got to get some work done today, and I haven't even visited TBN yet [img]/forums/images/icons/frown.gif[/img]
<font color="blue"> What is a "cut off box"? Feel free to answer after you get your work done </font color>
But this online community is far more enjoyable than work, and I still haven't made it to TBN yet.
I sort of tried to 'splain a cut-off box in the table saw thread. It is the single most useful addition to a table saw I ever used, and we used one 90% of the time on our saws.
Since I don't have ProEngineer, I'll just have to try words. Perhaps you can draw it [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
Start with a 1/2" plywood bottom, about 14" wide by 30" long. You want the flattest piece you can find. Screw and glue some nice hardwood strips to the bottom (teak is good because it's naturally oily). These are sized to closely fit your table grooves, so now the plywood rides in both table grooves, more or less centered over the blade.
Carefully wind the running blade up at the front and back of the plywood, to establish a center line.
Now take good stable 2x4 wood to place across the back and front edges of the plywood, perpendicular to the blade. These will be on edge, and have to stand up high enough to be a good inch or more higher than the maximum height of the blade. The back piece is your fence, and must be exactly 90 degrees to your center line. The back piece will run full length of the box (30"), while the front piece can be about half that, to keep the weight down. This front and back wood holds the whole thing together once you cut the plywood bottom entirely in half (which is your final step).
Now you have a box that holds stock at 90 degrees to the blade. What you can do with this is unlimited; I continued to find new ways to use it right up until I quit to become a computer guy. Cut off stock, cut tenon shoulders or any kind of cutting close in to the end of a board, tilt the blade and make angle cuts, put dado cutters in and work with them, but angle and dado cuts mess up the box by making a wider "hole" in the bottom. You can use your saw's fence as a stop for cutting off stock over 15" long, and for shorter stock, this is a really safe way to cut off little pieces to a stop, or to work with little pieces in general.
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