Circular Saw or Mitre Saw for furniture making (OR Both)!

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paul24dual

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Hi everyone, my next purchase will be either a

Circular Saw or Mitre Saw for furniture making (OR Both)!?

Can you advise?
 
what are you wanting to do with it- cross cut or rip down sheet material or lengths of timber longways. What is the budget?

A table saw might be better than either if you have space. You can do both functions with it, although cross cutting wont be so quick as with a mitre saw.
 
Consider a track saw rather than a standard circular saw if your budget will stretch to it. I bought one recently and it's changed my life :)
 
festool ts55 with qwas dogs will do everything for u. accurately drill holes in a mdc sheet 20mm holes in a square grid pattern plenty of vids show how to use the saw with the dogs gives u repeatability accuracy and speed. for cheaper than a good table saw. and its portable.
 
rdesign":1tme4k5d said:
festool ts55 with qwas dogs will do everything for u. accurately drill holes in a mdc sheet 20mm holes in a square grid pattern plenty of vids show how to use the saw with the dogs gives u repeatability accuracy and speed. for cheaper than a good table saw. and its portable.
I have to agree. The multifunction table ( MFT ) of which the above is a version is brilliant but the cuts will only ever be as accurate as the positioning of the holes and getting them accurate enough in a DIY version is a daunting task.
 
Looking through the the chap's posts, he's just starting out and has a limited budget. I don't think suggesting over £1000 of Festool gear is very helpful considering!

Maybe our first questions should be: "what is he planning to make?" and "how much does he want to spend?"

A hand-held circular saw can produce accurate cross cuts when used in conjunction with a simple jig. This could be all he needs for the time being.

Hope this helps!
 
don't know where u buy ur festool but got my set up for 520 euro and 450 after i got the tax back! then 80 for the dogs
yes the holes have to be very accurate! think i will get a company with a cmc to make it up then laminate it.

on a practical note when i started out! i bought a table saw, planner thicknesser and chop saw stand. and i still couldn't make what i wanted. the table saw was a piece of junk i paid 350 euro for it was a scheppach site saw. my ts55 was the first time i had accuracy again and in hindsight would never through good money at a bad saw and if u don't have the pace for a good one the ts55 is a great tool. now have a sip 01332 saw which does the few jobs my festal can't do.
 
mark aspin":1hbkoa1n said:
Looking through the the chap's posts, he's just starting out and has a limited budget. I don't think suggesting over £1000 of Festool gear is very helpful considering!

Maybe our first questions should be: "what is he planning to make?" and "how much does he want to spend?"

A hand-held circular saw can produce accurate cross cuts when used in conjunction with a simple jig. This could be all he needs for the time being.

Hope this helps!

Thanks for the reply. I'm starting off with simple projects like making simple photo frames then want to do some furniture for the house like benches, chairs and shelfs etc. Also want to do some small items like decorative wooden items. Basically anything around the house. At the moment i have a drill, jigsaw, workbench, work mate and a few tools. What do you think my next purchase should be? A pivot hole system like the kreg, clamps, a circular saw, mitre saw....as you can see the budget is quite tight. I'm buying something each month!

Also while we on it, clamps? What do you recommend i should buy?

Thanks
Paul
 
electric router and a hand plane.

You could then make a router table to fit on the work mate, and a shooting board. That will enable you to make picture frames, and will be useful in many of the other projects. an electric saw is useful, but is by no means essential, and for a limited budget, they are often dreadful. Learn to saw straight and prepare stock by hand, and you will go far without having to spend a lot!

Unfortunately, it is easy to use up the months budget on glue, finishes, abrasives, screws the list goes on.
 
You've not said anything about using sheet materials very much, so I suggest that a track saw, whilst a jolly useful piece of kit, is probably not going to be as much use to you as you would like. If I'm wrong, you don't have to go down the excellent-but-expensive Festool route, there are several more budget models around and indeed, there is a comparative review of some of them in this month's British Woodworking magazine.

A TS would be a good purchase, but good ones aren't cheap and cheap ones aren't good, so of the two saws you are asking about, I'd say that a good mitre saw would be the better buy, although it would not be at the top of my own list. A good quality small bandsaw would be.

Have you considered going down the hand tool route? You can do a lot with a handsaw (properly sharpened and set) a decent bench plane or two and a couple of shooting boards, 90 and 45 deg. It's much less money, you'll learn some good skills and it is very, very satisfying. And, quite frankly, even if you have a workshop full of machines, you will still need the planes and shooting boards if you want a professional finish.

S
 
Have to agree with Steve on this. Hand tools will be a better budget option in this case. Machines, well decent ones cost money and then there is the up keep with blades/ sharpening etc. Plus machines take up more room than a few good hand tools.

For clamps i think these are great for the money. :)

http://www.axminster.co.uk/bessey-uniklamps
 
Are Workshop Heaven still going, they used to be quite good on price for Bessey clamps.

Another option would be to investigate local college's and see if they run woodworking courses. Access to lots of different tools and suitable training to use them. Get to see what you like and what you think works for you and your objectives.
 
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