Multiple machines just for convenience...

[LancsRick]

I really like my RAS, always have. I'm also growing to like my table saw more and more, and no longer take the view of it being a poor relation. I could never see myself just having one saw though because of the time taken to change blades. My RAS has a 60T 250mm blade on it, and the table saw a 16T 210mm for rips. Do other people share this view, or are some table saws very quick and easy to change blades on? It's a 5 minutes work to swap my TS blade, which adds up unless you're able to group all your cuts.

 

[marcros]

i dont disagree with what you say. the other major consideration though is space

 

[Lons]

What Marcros said

Plus it very much depends on whether you're producing for a living or retired and just faffing about like me where changing a blade is also an opportunity to clear the sawdust accumulation. :lol:

Bob

 

[dkaardal]

What kind of table saw do you have? And what kind of wood/thicknesses are you dealing with?

I tend to keep a 40T, high quality general purpose blade on my Wadkin 10" tablesaw. It give a fast, clean cut both ripping (up to around 38mm thick hardwood) and crosscutting (up to about 75mm thick hardwood). That's with a 3hp (2.2kW) motor though.

I'll change to a specialty blade if I need to, and on most tablesaws I've used blade changes take about... 30 seconds?

If you have the space though, I'd always recommend having tools dedicated to a specific job. That way you spend more time making stuff and less time fiddling with machines.

 

[paulrockliffe]

And if you're batch processing often it's useful to have two different setups for the same 'job' that mean you're not changing setups all the time.

 

[mbartlett99]

I bought my new table saw with a view to get rid of the SCMS but couldn't do it - just the hassle of faffing with it all. I trick I definitely missed is my blades have different kerfs so messing with the riving knife makes a cheeky swap a pain.

 

[LancsRick]

I only have a single garage, so I'm definitely sacrificing precious space for the luxury.

The TS I've got is an Elektra Beckum PK200. Lovely machine, but changing blade is 4 screws to remove a section of the table, a spanner to remove the blade cover, then I can get at the blade, and reassemble in reverse!

 

[skipdiver]

I barely use my TS now and do most stuff with a tracksaw and SCMS and occasionally the bandsaw, but my TS still comes in handy if i have a lot of narrow rips to do, which happens every once in a while. Most of the time, it is shoved away in a corner taking up valuable space that i could utilise more efficiently. So with that in mind, i am thinking of moving it on and buying a small portable site saw that i can hang on the wall when not in use. Trouble is that i am having a hard time justifying the £500 i would need to spend on a decent one, just to use now and again.