A Table Saw Buying Guide For Beginners

Jet 3HP Cabinet Saw

A table saw is one of the essential tools in a workshop. Table saws are versatile cutting machines, ranging from small, light and portable tabletop saws, to large, kitchen table sized, quarter-ton behemoths. They’re capable of ripping 4-foot by 8-foot sheets of plywood, with a single, long and precise cut, or cutting tiny slivers of wood smaller than the thickness of a pencil all to the same identical size.

If you’re planning on upgrading your table saw, or starting to build out a new workshop, you will find the information you need to make your decision here.

The 4 Categories of Table Saws

There are 4 main categories of table saws: Jobsite, Contractor, Hybrid and Cabinet. Each one has benefits and drawbacks, but they all try to find a balance that works for their particular woodworking niche. Portability, table stability, cut accuracy, and motor power all work against each other, so each category of table saw uses a different balance of these factors.

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Zero Clearance Inserts- Everything You Need to Know

wooden zero clearance inserts
Wooden zero clearance inserts
(photo credit: Mathias Wandel/Youtube)

A zero clearance insert (ZCI) is a one of the most beneficial accessories you can use with a table saw. It’s a replacement for the throat plate that comes with your table saw. The purpose of a zero clearance insert is to bring the distance between the saw blade and the nearest supporting surface down to zero. As in zero clearance. In other words, there is no gap between the table saw top and the saw blade. The insert is as close as it can to the saw blade without physically touching it.

The Benefits of using a Zero Clearance Insert with Your Table Saw

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What is the Difference Between a Ripping Blade, a Crosscut Blade and a General Purpose Blade?

Ripping Blades

Ripping, or cutting with the grain is an easy cut. Before there were motorized saws, you had hand saws with 10 or less large teeth for ripping plywood sheets as fast and straight as possible. The saw “rips” the wood apart. It is easier than a crosscut because you are cutting with the grain of the wood.

rip cut axe
The axe is into the top of a log. Behind the axe, there are long fiber length cuts of wood from splitting a log with the grain.

Picture swinging an axe into the top of a log that is standing up. When you hit the log, the axe is ripping the wood apart through sheer force. But you can hit the log without much force and still split the wood. In this example, you’re splitting the wood with the grain. You can pull off fibers of wood where the axe has split it. It’s possible to pull off a single wood fiber that is the entire length of the wood. That is the idea behind rip cuts- you cut with the grain to minimize effort.

Freud 10 inch 18t rip blade
Freud 10 inch 18t rip blade

Rip blades are optimized to cut through wood with, or along the grain. Typically used for initial cuts, they clear long fibers of wood where there is less resistance than when cutting across the grain. Using a flat top grind (FTG) tooth pattern, low tooth count (10T- 24T), and a hook angle of at least 20 degrees, a ripping blade cuts through wood along the grain quickly and efficiently with a high feed rate.

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Is Your Saw Blade Dull? Find Out How to Tell

Determining When it’s Time to Sharpen or Replace a Dull Saw Blade

miter saw blade that was sharpened or replaced
DeWalt Miter Saw cutting trim

What can tell you that your saw blade is dull? You might wait for your car to tell you when it’s due for an oil change. Maybe you change the oil every 3,000 or 5,000 miles. But your saw will not send an alert to your cell phone to notify you that the blade is worn out. There aren’t automatic notifications, or a set number of uses to tell you when it’s time to replace your saw blade. You make that determination using your own good judgment.

It doesn’t matter if you use your saw every day, or only a few times a year; eventually the blade wears down to a point where it needs sharpening or replacement.

Factors That Determine a Saw Blade’s Lifespan

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Tips for Picking Saw Blades: Choosing the Right Blade

forrest table saw blade

Using the right saw blade is like having the right set of tires on your car. If you’re driving a Corvette, you want to have high-performance tires on the car. You want to take turns hard, and go fast. That fits the purpose of a sports car. Performance is what you’re looking for. If you live in Minnesota, you want snow tires on your car in the winter. You want a better grip on the road when it snows and gets slippery. Traction in bad conditions is your goal on snowy roads. Here are some tips for picking saw blades that will help you choose which is right for you.

Just like cars and tires, all saw blades are not created equal. You get what you pay for when it comes to saw blades, and all tools in general. Better saw blades use better materials. Better steel, better manufacturing, better quality control are all things you are paying for. You also have to take the kerf of the blade, and the tooth design into consideration when you put the blade to work. Both of which affect the quality of the blade and the quality of the cut it will make.

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