Choosing a Table Saw.

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If there is a single piece of machinery I couldn't do without in my workshop, it's the table saw. It's the first machine I bought when I set up my first shop nearly four decades ago: an old used Craftsman saw I bought for $35. From day one, I used that saw for all the basic cuts I needed for my first cabinetry projects and custom furniture commissions.

Woodworking expert Sandor Nagyszalanczy turns to the Table Saw to give you the nitty-gritty info you need to know about this workshop mainstay.

Even though it wasn't the best saw in the world-- it had a weak motor and a puny 8 ″ blade that was difficult to tilt-- that vintage saw did yeoman's duty, ripping and crosscutting boards (i.e., cutting them both with and across the grain), cutting miters and bevels and grooves and dadoes. As I took on more complex projects, I discovered just how versatile a table saw could be. Using both store-bought and shop-made jigs, I expanded my saw's repertoire to include cutting tenons and box joints, raising panels and more.

Just What Can a Table Saw Do?

A standard miter gauge fitted in a Portable Table Saw miter slot is just right for cutting mitered corners on moldings used for small picture and mirror frames.

This versatile machine is capable of such a wide variety of cuts, it's no wonder that a table saw is the centerpiece of most modern shops.

Using nothing more than the basic equipment that comes standard, you can perform all the basic cuts needed for an endless number of traditional woodworking tasks and home improvement projects:

Using the miter gauge, you can cut 45 ˚corners for picture and mirror frames and small boxes, cases and drawers. The rip fence is used to cut stock to width, panels to size, or to recut boards, thickness wise, to make your own veneers or split stock to book-match the grain for decorative panels. Working with the saw's blade tilted, you can take compound cuts for frames, chests or planters with angled sides. Fit the saw with a dado blade and you can cut all manner of grooves, dadoes and rabbets, perfect for simple cabinet joinery, say to build a bookcase or display shelf.

By employing a variety of jigs and fixtures, a table saw can perform a vast array of tasks including:

-- Cutting large sheet goods to size. Sliding tables, crosscut sleds, and long extension tables can all be used for safely sawing full-sized sheets of plywood and large panels to final size when building cabinets and furniture.

Cutting tenons on frame members used for mortise-and-tenon joinery is done with a dedicated jig that firmly supports the stock as it slides past the saw blade.

-- Sawing tenons for mortise-and-tenon joinery. Tenons are cut by passing frame members vertically past the saw blade using a sliding jig.

A box joint jig and a dado blade mounted on the table saw are all that are needed for creating interlocking joints, which are great for building drawers, boxes and more.

-- Cutting box joints. Milled with a dado blade and special jig, box joints are a series of alternating fingers and Bandsaw For Woodworking to form the corners of boxes, drawers, blanket chests, etc-- Tapering. A tapering jig is used to cut tapered furniture legs and other parts that need to be wider at one end than the other. Bevel-cut tapered staves can be used to build projects with angled sides, like stands and planter boxes.

-- Panel raising. By running the edges of a panel vertically past a slightly tilted blade, you can raise them (where the edge is thinner than the middle) for classic looking classic-looking raised panel doors. Smaller panels can be cut using the standard rip fence as a guide; larger panels require a jig.

Using a special fence jig, stock is run at an angle over the top of the blade, thus cutting an arc-shaped hollow cove in a series of shallow passes.