Circular Saw vs. Table Saw · Sawinery Woodworking Guild

Mar 20 in Tools

Circular Saw vs. Table Saw

One of the first tools any woodworker needs is a good saw. What kind of saw we buy often depends on the budget we have available to us. Like many woodworkers, I started out with only hand power tools (back then there weren’t any cordless ones) and no stationary tools. Although I had learned woodworking from my dad and used his table saw, I couldn’t afford one myself. Of course, I was a teen at the time, just having moved out of the house and working my first real job. Paying the bills and buying food pretty much ate up whatever money I had.

But not everyone who starts out in woodworking is in that same predicament. I’ve run across many woodworkers who are retired and just starting out their woodworking journey. For them, the issue isn’t buying the cheapest thing they can, which will do the job; but rather buying the best thing for their needs as beginning woodworkers.

So, should someone in that situation buy a circular saw or a table saw?

The first thing we have to understand about the two, is that they aren’t really the same tool. I mean, the circular saw isn’t just a portable table saw. While the blades look more or less the same, other than size, the table and the fence give a table saw much more capability than a circular saw.

It is the table and fence that make the table saw the most versatile saw in the workshop, able to do much more than just make straight cuts. While table saws were once considered useful only for ripping boards and breaking down sheets of plywood, today they are used for many more tasks, like cutting tenons, crosscutting, making miters and making keyed spline joints. This wide variety of tasks, and more, is possible due to various sleds and jigs that woodworkers have developed for use with their table saws.

On the other hand, the circular saw is actually a carpenter’s tool, designed for cutting dimensional lumber quickly. It excels in cutting through 2x4s and larger boards. Carpenters also use it for cutting plywood, but they generally aren’t looking for the degree of accuracy that woodworkers are. For the most part, ± 1/8” is accurate enough for carpentry work.

Nevertheless, the circular saw still has a place for the woodworker. It is much easier to break down a full sheet of plywood into manageable pieces with a circular saw, before taking them to the table saw for final trimming to the needed size. When used with a homemade “track,” they can give straight cuts, right on the line, just like a track saw, eliminating the need for a finish cut.

So, which one do you need? In reality, you need both, although you’ll find yourself using the table saw more than the circular saw, once you learn all it can do. But if you have to choose between one or the other, I’d go with a table saw. I’ve had a circular saw, without a table saw, and it wasn’t sufficient.

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