After spending the weekend building a fairly loudspeaker with a circular saw I am not eager to repeat that experience. I was thinking about picking up this table saw:
10 in. 15-Amp Compact Job Site Table Saw-DW745 at The Home Depot
Decent price, good reviews on home depot but I'm sure none of these guys are using this to build speakers. Any opinions on how well this would work on speaker box design? Especially large ones?
10 in. 15-Amp Compact Job Site Table Saw-DW745 at The Home Depot
Decent price, good reviews on home depot but I'm sure none of these guys are using this to build speakers. Any opinions on how well this would work on speaker box design? Especially large ones?
A few years ago (12) I took a " how to make your own kitchen cabinets" course at a local college. I bought a cheap Craftex 10" 2HP 220volt cast Iron table saw ($600) with rollers on the stand. I have used it and abused it and abused it some more over the years and it is still running fine. If I was a cabinet maker it wouldn't be good enough. My brother has a cabinetmakers Delta something or other that he bought used. The Delta is a fantastic saw compared to mine, but the Delta fills half of his basement, he has extra large feed in and out tables so he can cut large sheets and boards without needing rollers. I fine tuned the Craftex saw and you should fine tune any table saw and found some very inexpensive surplus carbide blades over the years. I am pleased with the saw. With a small saw, small table and small fence, cutting large sheets will be a problem. With practice you will get better. I noticed the maximun width is 16" on the fence on the saw you were looking at. If you have the space an inexpensive table saw is better than a small portable saw. Unless of course you need a portable saw too!
I have a Bosch TS...portable and comes with the wheel thingy to push around...its great, but let me tell you....get the biggest freaking thing you can find with a really good fence. Lowes carries a Porter Cable and it is perfect. Might too much for your budget...around 500. Not portable though.
More discussion on this general topic at "What tools do I need to cut perfectly straight edges with a circular saw?" < www.diyaudio.com/forums/equipment-tools/210978-what-tools-do-i-need-cut-perfectly-straight-edges-circular-saw-2.html >.
Dale
Dale
I've used the Dewalt on the job site and it's a nice little saw. What I would recommend would be to build a solid 'outfeed table' to go behind the saw, especially when you're cutting up sheet goods like mdf/ply it really increases the safety and ease of use of your saw. Those contractor saws are essentially made for cutting 3/4" material of any kind, they don't have the horses to cut hardwood over 1" thick or so, but can chop up panels all day.
There's a Ridgid TS I've owned before as well, once again it's a back of the truck kind of saw, but it was a champ and I believe it's $100-200 less than the dewalt, might give you some extra money for a new router or something...
There's a Ridgid TS I've owned before as well, once again it's a back of the truck kind of saw, but it was a champ and I believe it's $100-200 less than the dewalt, might give you some extra money for a new router or something...
That's what I thought, but it's quite hard to get the line perfectly true to the saw blade at the start, and once you hit the blade you can't skew the wood to get it back on track.
Also manhandling large sheets of wood on the table is difficult. I'm now considering making some kind of long fence I can put on sheets and use the hand circular saw and sell the table saw. The table saw would probably be OK for small speakers, but still the fence on mine (which is a midrange one) is quite poor at staying to 90 degrees.
Even if I've had access to large TS's for decades, I'd always rip the sheets to managable pieces first, and then true them up on the table saw - then you don't really need a very large table saw.
The ripping part can easily be done with a regular circular saw and a good straight edge, - track saws are expensive as it is......
The ripping part can easily be done with a regular circular saw and a good straight edge, - track saws are expensive as it is......
IF ur doing only thin/tower type speakers then a smaller saw is ok. But no matter what you will need to extend the table and the rails, because sooner or later you will want to cut something wider...
So the suggestion of the rail type guide for the hand held circular saw has some merit - that and a really sharp blade...
Routers are good too, but make a lot of noise and sawdust...
_-_-bear
So the suggestion of the rail type guide for the hand held circular saw has some merit - that and a really sharp blade...
Routers are good too, but make a lot of noise and sawdust...
_-_-bear
For cutting large sheets of wood, a table saw is tough to work with without big infeed and out feed tables. That's where the Festool circular saw is great for getting sheets down to size. What I did before owning all this equipment was have the lumber yard rip and cross cut sheets down to managable sizes of about 4' x 2', then rip and crosscut on my table saw. For crosscutting, build a "sled", don't try to do it with a miter fence. For the table saw itself, a good sturdy fence is critical, if the fence is not robust, it will move out of alignment and frustrate your efforts.
Look into used 10 inch cabinet saws, two or three hp, Celta with unifence or Powermatic. Also a bit obscure, but the Inca 10inch cabinet saw is a nice machine with a small footprint.
Look into used 10 inch cabinet saws, two or three hp, Celta with unifence or Powermatic. Also a bit obscure, but the Inca 10inch cabinet saw is a nice machine with a small footprint.
Track saws are great but they still depend on how well you can mark and cut to a line...They cut straight once you get there though, but there can be quite a bit of wiggle room unless you get something like the Festool MFT to go with it, but then we're into crazy money territory for a pretty specialized tool..Just my $0.02.
Most home centres, big orange etc, carry project panels anyways, they're a bit more expensive but much easier to manage at only 2'X4'.
Most home centres, big orange etc, carry project panels anyways, they're a bit more expensive but much easier to manage at only 2'X4'.
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