Hi Colin
I think that rail systems are not appropriate for ripping solid stock such as parting an 8 foot long 4 x 2 into two 2 x 1-3/4s because you have to start packing-up the back edge of the rail (and you may only have ONE 4 x 2 in the shop at the time) and so on. In that sort of scenario a table saw is a lot easier to use, safer and more accurate and with the right blade you might well get away with just sanding off afterwards. When I'm out installing stuff I frequently have a DW742 flip-over saw with me and I find it a heck of a lot easier to use that, in saw table mode - and providing I've got a helper to support at the back - than use the Bosch plunge saw and straight edge system that I also happen carry. On the other hand the Bosch system is much more convenient to use when I'm carving-up sheet stock out on site. Intermediate-size stuff like flooring planks fall somewhere in the middle with their being no clear advantage either way so far as I can see. Having had the two the alternatives to compare side by side for some years, that has been my experience.
I haven't used the EZ system, but I've had the Bosch system for about 5 years now and I have looked into the deWalt, Mafell and Festool systems. Repeatability with the Bosch rail system and others seems to be down to the user's ability to lay-out accurately and align the rails to the marks and when you are cutting MFC or MF-MDF planing or belt sanding to fit just isn't much of an option as the edges will break-out on you in all probablilty. I have toyed with the idea of building a measuring/setting jig for the rail system, but to be honest I tend to make almost all the critical cuts on the table saw in the workshop, even if that means re-ordering the work and taking stuff back to the shop at the end of the day to do the cutting.
The need to align the rail before every cut is where errors can inadvertently creep in. A table saw fence should be solidly fixed and there is no issue of misreading of a line in that case - just the need to push the stock against the fence whilst making the cut and the need to calibrate the rip/crosscut fence rulers and carraige squareness periodically. If you know the table saw is square the fact that your repeat cuts require no checking between cuts makes the operation much faster on the table saw. And the nature of sheet goods is that you do tend to be make a lot of repetitive cuts.
In terms of the cut quality on your old table saw being poor on sheet goods, Colin, the cut quality probably has three major factors influencing it: the stiffness/rigidity of the rip fence, the ability of the table saw set-up to support the sheet stock adequately and the choice of an appropriate blade on the saw. Of those the first two are paramount and it sounds as though your saw was lacking in both departments
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Alf":1fbj4gyx said:
... something's been bothering me about the "takes longer" argument against them. If you're using sheet goods in an amateur workshop how many folks are really set up to break down a sheet of ply or <cough> MDF straight on the table saw? Safely, that is... I assume, and I may well assume all wrong, that you first do a bit of breaking down of the sheet into more managable hunks.
Alf
That is sort of what I tried to say in an earlier post - but by breaking down I was not implying any particular level of accuracy, and if that's the case and you are going to trim to size on a table saw then a cheapish portable circular saw and a piece of 3 x 2 PAR will be adequere to get down to stock sizes you can handle on the table saw unaided. Very often this is just one or two cuts to get to that stage and perhaps I was making an assumption that the original poster would already own a portable circular saw, but almost everyone here would seem to have one lurking somewhere in the workshop....... It's when you get to building a kitchen or bedroom, as some of out contributors have done in the last year or two, that the differences really start to become apparent: 10 carcasses with six to ten components each (a small to medium kitchen) adds up to a heck of a lot of parallel and 90 degree crosscuts. If you have the room in a workshop then it should be possible to set-up even a small table top saw like the Ryobi BT300 to handle an 8 x 4 sheet - by adding run-on, run-off and side supports, but the question is how many people have the room? So initial "off-line" breaking down becomes quite attractive - I even do that myself with jumbo sheets (2.6 x 2 metre ones) because they're too darned big to handle safely any other way and it's the only size you can get in certain materials :roll: . I feel that a table saw with a carraige will certainly make a more consistent, less time consuming and frustrating job of crosscutting the original poster's speaker cabinet components than a rail and saw system. Assuming that these cabinets might be for sale, then accuracy and speed could be a factor in his decisions.
In any case, are you sure you haven't been overly influenced by having the Maxi with that wonderfully floppy rip fence? :wink:
Scrit
