ALDI - TableSaw £89.99

[custard]

If it's all you can afford then you certainly can't go wasting money.

If you want to do the occasional bit of household DIY and don't mind gappy mitres then it's probably great value for money. If you want to produce decent quality furniture then it's probably a waste of money, and you'd be better of spending your hard earned cash on a decent bench and some hand tools.

 

[nev]

Edited. Please continue with the helpful discussion.
cheers

 

[kostello]

I now have a better saw but many years ago I had 2 or 3 saws a bit like this....and they served me well.... Considering

Sent from my E2303 using Tapatalk

 

[Palletmangler]

Bit old topic maybe but I bought one of these and as a novice I can say I'm fairly happy with it!

Yes the top is a bit flimsy, the mitre track thing has a bit of play in it and the parallel guide seems a bit short to me but as the more I use it the better I'm getting.

I'm not going to get an amazing finish I know but considering all the wood I use is from dismantled pallets it comes out looking a lot better than it goes in! Square and if you don't try to force it, ripping long lengths stay pretty straight. I'm going to try a jointing jig to see if it can be better.

Features wise, the height adjustment and tilt work fine. The laser line isn't particularly helpful to be honest and I don't even know what part of my shed I threw the extension wings and waste bag into! Big floppy flaps of pressed steel and too many screws!

Probably the thing that would scare people was my rip blade had two missing teeth and a bent tip :? It did come with two blades though so not a massive obstacle.

However though, as a beginner it gives very encouraging, pretty accurate results. I'm using it to square off and tidy pallet wood so I can make shelves for the house. With a jig I can get decent tenons for a table I'm doing and I'm looking forward to rigging up some tapering and crosscut sled things.

I mostly bought it because I don't have the loot for a decent branded one but it does a much faster and better job than me and a handtool so if you don't have a table saw and are curious to try one or need a back up maybe, I don't think £90 is too bad and each time I use it I get inspired to try more projects! Next time they run it, give it a chance, if it doesn't impress then just return it but I think you'll be pleasantly surprised

 

[marcros]

sorry, but in summary for £90 you get a saw with a flimsy top, inaccurate mitre track and a fence capable of getting wood only "pretty straight". the extension tables are useless, the laser is practically useless and 50% of the blades supplied with it have missing teeth.

I would recommend that anybody else holds out and spend the same amount on a better, secondhand saw. I appreciate that not everybody has hundreds to spend, which is fair enough, but based on the above I think that you have wasted £90.

I have just seen that it is your first post, so welcome to the forum, and thank you for posting a review. I dont agree with the conclusion, but first hand reviews of a piece of kit from somebody who has used it is always valuable.

 

[Palletmangler]

Lol well I may have listed more cons than pros...

I don't consider it a waste though, anything under a 100 quid probably won't get you what you really really want whether it be a new phone, camera, TV or anything.

Maybe I'm just very enthusiastic and easily impressed by anything woodworky. When I've put up new shelves, got a nice coffee table in the lounge, rebuilt the larder cupboard and so on, if I'd bought all these things just from a home shop I'll have spent hundreds and had no satisfaction of making them myself.

If by the time I've done all that I think I should deserve a better piece of equipment then that's when I'll start putting the serious pennies in to it. I felt the same when learning the guitar, i wanted the USA built Fender but had the Chinese one and i didnt invest until i knew i was actually worthy of it and could get through all of Hotel California without fluffing it. If you can do good stuff on a substandard piece of gear - and it does do alright, niggles aside - imagine what you can achieve with the best!

So: flawed, of course. Unusable, not at all. Value for money, big yes.

By the way, its identical to an Einhell branded model in Argos for 160 with only one blade!

 

[alan24]

By the way, its identical to an Einhell branded model in Argos for 160 with only one blade!

I wonder if there is any real difference between these Chinese-made site saws that seem to be ubiquitous and from an army of resellers.

If not, one could argue that the aldi is the best value for money because it is the cheapest and very similar to the other models.

I started with a similar saw from Lidl, but I bought mine second hand and sold it for what I paid a year later. So I guess its always worth have a juke at second hand.

Sent from my XT1039 using Tapatalk

 

[Titus A Duxass]

I once bought a "tablesaw" from a Germany supermarket called plus.

60 euros it was, didn't even make a good boat anchor.
I kept the motor out of it and threw the rest in the skip.

I've just ventured into the cheap tablesaw market again (although 189€ is not what I consider cheap) as I have just bought a Bosch PTS10 with some money I made selling cable looms.

 

[graduate_owner]

There is another potential problem with cheap table saws and that is the poor quality bearings which cause the blade to wobble, always assuming that the blade is flat anyway and it may not be which would make things even worse. So you get a wider kerf which needs more power, and if the motor is already somewhat under powered then it's going to struggle. Don't expect to be able to make deep cuts therefore.

Overall, there has been plenty of useful advice on this thread, so I suppose you can now make up your mind armed with some sensible knowledge. Such a useful forum, I'm so glad I discovered it.

K

 

[HappyHacker]

Having used many cheap and not so cheap saws over the years I have found most benefit from a decent blade.

Kevin

 

[Kadushu]

My dad bought a Clarke tablesaw, I can't remember the model number. It's bloody awful: the fence is wobbly, the top is warped, only 3 legs touch the ground, various bits of plastic guard broke and the motor is woefully underpowered. You can forget about ripping 2x2 because anything thicker than 1" will stall the motor. That said, we've stripped off all the rubbish, including the riving knife, and used it a lot to cut thin sheet materials, which it does accurately as long as you concentrate. It's still more convenient than using a handsaw or circular saw. I'd assume the Aldi saw would be similar but for less money.

 

[will1983]

These are back in now if anyone is in the market for a cheap table saw. At £90 I wouldn't expect it to be amazing but as others have said if you don't like it Aldi are usually very good with refunds.

 

[Geoff_S]

I find that if you go for a quality, more expensive tool, you see a lot more of your mates who don't.

 

[Steliz]

I've bought a few things from Aldi in the past (pressure washer, tyre inflator etc) and I've had to take them all back as they failed on first use. No arguments about the refund though so, very good in that department!

 

[whatknot]

I had to smile at some of the comments, I then noticed the dates of posting so stopped reading them ;-)

I bought this table saw about a year or more ago, I do not use it a lot but it does what I require of a saw

How anyone can complain at this price I don't know, if you expect a rolls royce for the price of a second hand mini you are going to be disappointed but if you want a cheap saw that has a blade guard, riving knife, cuts wood fairly well and as accurately as I would expect it to you will be pleasantly surprised with it

Its hard for me to compare as I have never owned a different saw but the fence is solid, doesn't move and does what I expect a fence to do

If you have a business which needs a table saw for continual use its not likely to be for you but for general use its fine

For me it was a case of a cheap table saw or no table saw

I have had several different workzone items, and so far I have no complaints, as they are cheap I don't expect them to be gold plated but they do have a good warranty anyway

If I had a complaint (tongue in cheek) it was that I bought it at the £90 price, and a couple of weeks later they had a couple left over and they were reduced to £70, but for my £90 I also got free delivery

I just had a quick look on ebay and see several table saws that look virtually identical to the workzone one, they range from £169 upwards, a scheppach is £195 (aldi also sell the rebadged scheppach scroll saw under workzone)