Tablesawless shop?

[John Coloccia]

I'm seriously considering selling my SawStop and replacing it with Mini Max MM16. Anyone do this?

For those who have a world class bandsaw, can it replace a planer? For anything I need to have absolutely perfect, it goes through my Jet drum sander anyhow, but just how good a cut quality can you get off the MM16 or similar. Can you just resaw your way through life or do you really need to have the planer?

So I guess I'm seriously considering dumping my SS AND my Jointer/Planer and replacing that with a MM16 and much smaller jointer just for edge jointing.

I do very little work with sheet goods...I occasionally make shelves and the like. I don't make any large furniture. I'm trying to think out of the box to get rid of equipment I don't really think I need and replace it with something much smaller and more versatile for my uses.

Someone talk me out of this.

[Bobby O'Neal]

Ooooooooooooo. You make some good points. I don't know that I can counter them. But, c'mon. Its a table saw. You know. A table saw. Wouldn't it feel weird? This is a thread I'll be watching.

[Tom McMahon]

John, I don't know what you should do, but I know I could easily get by without a table saw. The only time I use the table saw is to rip material wider than 14". I use my band saw almost every day and the table saw goes unused for months at a time. I think if I was only to have a band saw I would want one with more rip capacity, 18" or 24" maybe.

[Carl Beckett]

My brother does this. He 'has' a table saw, but it sits in another building with piles of junk (err.... I mean other stuff) on top. Does all the work on the bandsaw (and nothing particularly fancy about it either.

He does a lot of antique restoration and hand tool work, and doesnt do big cabinet projects (rips sheets up with the hand circ).

So it depends on the projects you do. For a while I thought I could never do without my table saw, but after watching my brother I realized I use the tablesaw for things just because I have a table saw (vs some other method - ie bandsaw)

My suggestion - just try it out for a while. Put the tablesaw in a building and pile junk (err... I mean other stuff) on it for a few months and see how you like it.

[Bill ThompsonNM]

But John, don't you use your tablesaw as your primary work surface like the rest of us? I guess a Sawstop is an expensive table, though...

[Cary Falk]

You will get my table saw when you pry it out of my cold dead hands. I use it on every project. I use it every week. I would sell all my other tools before I would sell my table saw.

[John Coloccia]

But John, don't you use your tablesaw as your primary work surface like the rest of us? I guess a Sawstop is an expensive table, though...

I would but there's too much junk in the way...

Actually, I keep it fairly neat. I do use the table saw but I always have to clean up the edges anyhow if I need them dead flat, so I'm thinking to myself what the heck is the point if I don't need the capacity? I build small things...instruments, the occasional chair, and do almost nothing with sheet goods other than various jigs. The only time I ever have to go larger than a few inches is when I'm building shop furniture. For those occasions, I can just have the local mill cut to a cut list and just bring home a "kit"....and they do it cheap too!

[doug faist]

John-It's something I'm considered several times over the last couple years. The TS takes up a lot of space in my shop(it's a slider) and since I don't really work with sheet goods much, it doesn't get used often. Thinking seriously, with just a good bandsaw, a jointer and a planer, I can create a hole in my shop that an assembly table/tool cabinet would nicely fit into.
As was suggested, pile a bunch of stuff on your TS and try it for a few months. Results might surprise you.
Doug

[Bobby O'Neal]

I think the most interesting part of this equation is that you mentioned it could also possibly free you up from your J/P combo. That's where it gets me thinking. And that does make sense. If you can resaw 16" and then finish it off with your drum sander....that's not bad. But does the small jointer you'd get take up the added floor space you just gained? And do you trust the edges off the jointer %100? What about a rip on the band saw followed by a few passes with a #7?

[Rod Sheridan]

John, the sander isn't a replacement for a jointer and planer, a few good hand planes are.

I don't have a sander, don't need one, I have a J/P, a good assortment of hand planes, and a few cabinet scrapers.

So yes I could replace my tablesaw with a bandsaw for the solid wood furniture I build, it wouldn't be as fast or convenient, however obviously it's possible.

Furniture was made before the sander, planer, bandsaw, tablesaw etc, were invented.

As Doug suggested, try not using it for a few months..........Rod.

[ed vitanovec]

Do you have access to a friend with a tablesaw? If you do you may be okay without a table saw, I could not be without one.

[John Coloccia]

I think the most interesting part of this equation is that you mentioned it could also possibly free you up from your J/P combo. That's where it gets me thinking. And that does make sense. If you can resaw 16" and then finish it off with your drum sander....that's not bad. But does the small jointer you'd get take up the added floor space you just gained? And do you trust the edges off the jointer %100? What about a rip on the band saw followed by a few passes with a #7?

I usually clean everything up with a hand plane anyhow, though I suspect that it would be much easier to tune a small jointer to give me a perfect edge than my 12" combo machine. If the J/P and table saw are gone and replaced with a small jointer that can sit in a corner and another bandsaw, it would definitely make all sorts of room and also greatly simplify my normal work routine. It all hinges on:

1) can I really get THAT good of a cut quality off a bandsaw

2) economics...will I be spending insane amounts of money on bandsaw blades because I'm wearing them out so quickly?

What got me thinking about this is I had to make a jig with kind of small blocks of wood....much too small to safely use anything but a bandsaw on. I was able to square the wood with the bandsw and the cut quality was pretty darn good. That got me thinking that if I get a very nice bandsaw, as opposed to my Grizzly 514X2, and use a better blade than my Woodslicer, maybe the cut quality and precision will get good enough to simply dispense with TS and planer all together.

[John Tallyn]

I've often thought about getting rid of my T/S. I do build some quality "plywood" furniture, and that is about the only thing I use my T/S for. I rip all my hardwoods on the B/S, then joint with a hand plane. I have yet to figure out how to joint plywood or MDF with a plane or a jointer. I do cross cut with the T/S, but it would be easy to use the miter saw, or hand saw for any of my cross cuts, or miter cuts. If you don't use sheet goods, I really don't see a T/S as being necessary.

[Scot Ferraro]

I have also been considering this for some time...I have a track saw which takes care of cross-cuts and working with sheet goods when the need arises. I think that having a jointer and planer is a necessity. Getting perfectly square, flat and parallel pieces would be tedious and a lot of work with hand tools only and a sander. Can it be done? Yes...but I guess for me it would take too much time to get consistent results.

With a good resaw blade you can get cuts that rival a table saw for smoothness. As others have said, the biggest limiting factor I see with a bandsaw is the throat depth. If I were buying again I would opt for a 24 inch machine to get more width between the spline and the blade.

I think the advice of trying it for awhile and seeing if it works for you is a good way to test it with no risk. You are already invested in the saw and it would be a bummer to sell it and regret it later. I have made plenty of big projects without using the tablesaw and my J/P has allowed me to gang plane stock on edge to get perfectly parallel pieces.

Scot

[John Coloccia]

I think that having a jointer and planer is a necessity. Getting perfectly square, flat and parallel pieces would be tedious and a lot of work with hand tools only and a sander. \

Actually, the point was more that I'm starting to think the BS can take over for the planer, with the sander just taking out the BS blade marks if any. Why pass multiple times through a planer when you can cut once on a BS?

I was playing around tonight trying to see just how precise I can get if I really want to (I've never considered the BS a precision tool so I never bothered). With decent technique and setup, I was seeing variations measured in thousandths. I think most of that is do to some vibration because of the cheap blade and the generally lighter duty construction of the BS compared to a heavy duty Mini Max or Agazanni. I'm starting to feel good that a high quality saw with a high quality blade will perform as I need it to.

Definitely food for thought over the next couple of months.