table saws?
- Thread starter ednoble
- Start date
Help Support UKworkshop.co.uk:
dibs
Established Member
You've opened up a big can of worms with this topic. I guess at this price range, you are a hobbyist or diy-er, like myself. So, I'll add my twopence worth...I have a B&Q Macallister saw, bought for about £150. The mitre gauge was useless, too much slop to get an accurate cut, but I have a mitre saw that I have come to understand its shortcomings, so it gives accurate enough angled cuts.
Aligning the blade to the fence was a little tricky, and involved adjusting the trunions (?) to give an equal spacing from front and rear of blade to the fence. The insert, the bit you remove to allow blade changes was a little too flexible and was reinforced by screwing a piece of laminate flooring to the underneath of the insert. I ignored the machines angle gauge, using an engineers square to set the blade to 90 degrees. For other angles, I would use an angle gauge set to the required angle, then line the blade up with that. The scale for setting the fence was out, by a couple of millimetres, but after a few test cuts,Ii could allow for that. More accurate cuts needed a steel ruler and some test cuts.
With the addition of a decent blade, I had a machine that gave me accurate enough ripping cuts, and with a few home made jigs I could do a lot more. I do keep an eye on the blade making sure it's at the right angle, but I don't recall having to make an adjustment once it's locked in to place.
So, apart from the mitre gauge, I believe I have a saw that gives me a decent rip cut, which is all I really ask of it. If this is all you want, your budget, plus another £30 or so for a decent blade, should get you a decent enough machine. It will however be noisy and produce lots of dust. Good luck with your purchase and remember that you can always ask for advice on this site. Rick.
Aligning the blade to the fence was a little tricky, and involved adjusting the trunions (?) to give an equal spacing from front and rear of blade to the fence. The insert, the bit you remove to allow blade changes was a little too flexible and was reinforced by screwing a piece of laminate flooring to the underneath of the insert. I ignored the machines angle gauge, using an engineers square to set the blade to 90 degrees. For other angles, I would use an angle gauge set to the required angle, then line the blade up with that. The scale for setting the fence was out, by a couple of millimetres, but after a few test cuts,Ii could allow for that. More accurate cuts needed a steel ruler and some test cuts.
With the addition of a decent blade, I had a machine that gave me accurate enough ripping cuts, and with a few home made jigs I could do a lot more. I do keep an eye on the blade making sure it's at the right angle, but I don't recall having to make an adjustment once it's locked in to place.
So, apart from the mitre gauge, I believe I have a saw that gives me a decent rip cut, which is all I really ask of it. If this is all you want, your budget, plus another £30 or so for a decent blade, should get you a decent enough machine. It will however be noisy and produce lots of dust. Good luck with your purchase and remember that you can always ask for advice on this site. Rick.
RogerP
Established Member
My advice is to save up just a bit more and get the basic Axminster TS200 then get the other bits for it as time and money allow. I'm sure you'll be much happier with something like this than one of the cheap noisy brush motored machines.
