Saws for all seasons

There’s a strange-looking beast on the shelves of home stores in Europe. It’s a miter saw with a table saw on its back, and it has been available there for some time. These ‘flip saws’ are made by familiar names such as Metabo, Ryobi and Bosch. The concept is that the 12” miter saw blade can slide up through the top of its housing, where the manufacturer has added a small table saw complete with a fence. Here in the U.S., we spotted one at virutextools.com (model TM33W). It’s an intriguing idea, where a woodworker can bring one tool to a jobsite and then have two available.

While flip saws can be large, the biggest trend in table saws is still diminutive. More and more manufacturers are offering smaller battery and corded saws that outperform their meager dimensions. In the shop (as opposed to the jobsite), the key to getting the most from these units is to maximize the table size. That’s done by mounting the saw in an aftermarket or shop-built stand that offers infeed, outfeed and side support. The downside is that these smaller saws have somewhat limited torque, so they’re not going to rip thick hardwood boards all day. But with adequate support, they can certainly size sheet stock into panels.

A good example is the new ProFactor cordless saw from Bosch (boschtools.com), which should be available in a few weeks. Measuring just 24” x 24” x 13”, it includes a one-hand carrying handle, a brushless 18-volt motor, and a full 25” of rip capacity to the right of the blade. That’s made possible by a rack-and-pinion rip fence that cantilevers past the actual width of the table.

Delta Machinery (deltamachinery.com) offers several configurations of its 10” floor model contractor’s saw, and three ways to buy the company’s 10” corded portable unit. There’s the machine only, or with a scissors stand, or with a folding wheeled cart. This machine also has a rack-and-pinion fence system that delivers 32-1/2” of rip to the right, and 22-1/2” to the left.

DeWalt’s FlexVolt cordless saw has gained a solid following among carpenters. The manufacturer (dewalt.com) also offers a corded 15-amp model DWE7491X with a scissors or rolling stand options.

Craftsman’s (craftsman.com) 10” corded table saw is another bare bones machine designed to be very light and portable. As with many jobsite saws, it has a roll cage instead of a sheet metal housing. It also comes with a detachable X-shaped folding scissors stand, which makes it easy to move and quick to set up. Despite its limited rip capacity (12” to the right of the blade and 10” to the left), model CMXETAX69434502 also has a lot of umph with a 15-amp motor.

Supporting the small saw, big table trend, Triton (tritontools.com) offers a folding bench system called Workcentre that lets a woodworker drop in their 10” contractor table saw, a 5” project saw designed for tasks such as miters and cross cuts in laminate flooring, or a router table.

Rousseau (rousseauco.com) offers a couple of Portamax stands that let a woodworker install one of the smaller table saws and convert them from a benchtop to a floor model. Plus, several manufacturers such as DeWalt and Ridgid offer wheeled, collapsing stands that can be model specific (one size may not fit all saws, so check the dimensions).

Woodstock International (woodstockint.com) makes a 2-hp benchtop table saw with a 27” rip and a folding wheeled stand. The W1875 saw has a single control wheel up front that adjusts blade height, and when pushed in can be used to change the tilt. There’s also a micro-adjustment for the fence.

The Milwaukee 2736 runs on M18 Fuel batteries but generates the power of a 15-amp corded saw, according to the company (milwaukeetool.com). The saw has software that ensures maximum performance and protection from overload, overheating and over-discharge. There’s a rack-and-pinion fence, onboard accessory storage, and a riving knife. Milwaukee says that this is the industry’s first table saw that wirelessly connects to a smart phone to track and manage its performance and location.

Northfield (northfieldwoodworking.com) makes table saws with customizable sliding tables for mounting various jigs. Oliver (olivermachinery.net) makes a 10” jobsite table saw that among its many features can accept a sanding disc.

Ridgid (ridgid.com) offers half a dozen table saw configurations, including the 10” jobsite model R4540 that comes on a scissors stand without wheels.

In addition to four sliding table saws, Maksiwa (maksiwa.com) makes an interesting portable jobsite saw called the SC.650.I. It has a built-in laser above the blade that shows on the work where a cut will be made. Other features include a folding wheeled cart, a sliding table for crosscuts, and pull-out support tables.

For shops looking at more torque in a small unit, Skil (skil.com) offers both 8-1/4” and 10” versions of its worm-drive table saws. The larger machine is offered a rack-and-pinion fence and stand with 16” wheel.

The Masterforce 10” jobsite saw from Menards (menards.com) also has large wheels and a maximum rip capacity of 32-1/2”. The wheels on Metabo HPT’s C10RJS (metabo-hpt.com) are only used to support the saw in transit (it has four legs), while the company’s 36-volt model C3610DRJQ4 boasts a 35” rip capacity.

Another big trend in table saws is safety systems, with technologies such as Felder’s PCS (Preventative Contact System) and Altendorf’s Hand Guard taking the lead. The Altendorf system (altendorfgroup.com) has two cameras that collect data, and as soon as intruding hands are detected, the blade is immediately lowered and stops within a quarter of a second. The machine can be reset and back in operation in a few seconds. The Felder (felder-group.com) system detects human tissue in the danger zone and makes the saw blade disappear in a few milliseconds. It’s currently available on the Format4 Kappa 550 line of sliding table panel saws that also have intuitive touchscreen controls.

The original safety system, SawStop (sawstop.com), has evolved into a complete line of table saws including compact, jobsite, contractor and cabinet models. The company’s Jobsite Pro (model JSS) has the safety system on board, which stops a running blade on contact with skin in less than 5 milliseconds. This is a small saw with big features, including a full 24-5/8” table depth, efficient dust collection, and a blade that can be lowered or raised with a single turn. There’s an extension shelf for added support, a riving knife, and a two-step fence for thin or thick workpieces. There’s even an onboard computer that constantly checks that all systems are working safely.

Dust collection at the blade is becoming more popular, and this is a feature on all five models of Harvey’s table saw line. Harvey (harveywoodworking.com) also offers a couple of saws with a permanent titanium nitride (TiN) coating on the entire tabletop for rust protection and slickness. Blade and bit manufacturers have been coating their products for years, so don’t be surprised to see more machines with this option.

Another interesting safety (and durability) trend is the use of totally enclosed, fan cooled (TEFC) motors, such as those used in Laguna Tools’ new line of Fusion brand table saws (lagunatools.com). TEFC prevents dust-laden shop air from traveling through the inner workings of the motor, so they usually require a separate fan to blow air across the outside of the housing to keep things cool. The Fusion line provides dust collection at the blade and onboard accessory storage. Laguna has also added a digital readout as standard equipment for tilt on its Fusion F2 and F3 saws.

Rikon’s 10” contractor saw, (model 10-205, rikontools.com) features a magnetic table insert that removes without tools and a J-belt for smooth power transfer. Ryobi (ryobitools.com) has added the PBLTS01K cordless saw that can rip up to 240 linear feet per charge using a pair of 4 Ah batteries, according to the company.

CNC controls are becoming a lot more affordable and available on smaller model machines. For example, Cantek (cantekamerica.com) offers half a dozen traditional cabinet saws with blade diameters from 10” to 16”, but the company’s top seller is a 10” sliding table saw, model D405ANC, with a programmable fence and eye-level control panel lets a woodworker set the rip width, blade height, and blade angle.

As always, software is a leading trend in table saws and wood machinery in general. SCM (scmgroup.com) offers an optimizer/sequencer app called Thundercut, available for iOS and Android, that allows a woodworker to optimize panels for a table saw, and then guides the operator through the cutting sequence. The advantages are greater cut speed execution, less material waste, and minimized odds of making mistakes.

Stiles Machinery (stilesmachinery.com) offers Tapio, a cloud-based digital platform that includes intelliDivide for optimizing cutting patterns, and Machine Board, which remotely monitors and controls table saw and other machine data and functions in real time.

Casadei-Busellato (casadeibusellato.com, available through Atlantic Machinery) now offers eight sliding table saws, four of which come with the option of machine controls on the front of the machine within easy reach of the operator. Several models, including the new Xenia 70A, also have start and stop switches on the carriage.

Martin Woodworking (martin-usa.com) makes five sliding table saws, four of which have eye-level touchscreen control panels. The top-of-the-line model T75 PreX features left and right tilt, a vacuum hold-down table that is activated or deactivated via radio remote control, and a 3-axis scoring blade.

For shops that don’t feel they can justify the expense of a large sliding table saw, Lobo Machine (lobomachine.com) offers an inexpensive sliding attachment for its line of 10”, 12”, 14” and 16” cabinet saws.

Launched in 2021, the new line of table saws from South Bend (southbendtools.com) features two models with blade height, angle, and distance to fence blade digital readouts.

Grizzly Industrial (grizzly.com) offers the full gamut of table saws from a 2-hp plug-in benchtop model that comes with or without a roller stand to a full-featured 10-hp, 3-phase, 14” slider with a digital readout and CNC controls. New to the line is the G1023RLA40, a 5-hp cabinet saw that comes with a built-in router table and a two-way fence (saw on one side, router on the other) with replaceable HDPE faces.

The Powermatic (powermatic.com) line from JPW Industries features model 2000B, which has a router lift, a digital readout on the tilt, and an arbor lock that’s accessible from above the table. There’s also a quick-release riving knife and extra height in the new castor system to handle thresholds and other obstacles.

Genesis (genesispowertools.com) is a new player in the table saw field, and the South Carolina-based importer so far offers a corded 15-amp, 10” saw with a stamped metal leg set and an oversized miter gauge. It’s distributed through The Home Depot, Walmart, and other retailers.  

This article was originally published in the May 2023 issue.