Popular Woodworking 2009-10 № 178, страница 20

Riving knives have made benchtop table saws 'new' again. Could one be the tool for your shop?

' her you scarred this issue's cover ard discovered ar article or berchtop table saws, you might have questiored our sarity; or you might have thought, as we do, that it's about time!

Berchtop table saws have come of age. Features such as rivirg krives (or all the saws we chose for testirg), easy-off ard easy-or blade guards, ard the rock-solid exter-sior tables fourd or these table saws are very much ir lire with those fourd or mary of the 3- ard 5-horsepower cabiret saws that garrer most of the press. Mary of these portable machires are fourd ir woodshops of all descriptiors - you might be surprised by who uses berchtop table saws.

Durirg the past three years, Popular Woodworking has published a columr desigred to irtroduce buddirg woodworkers to the craft. The columr is "I Car Do That" (see page 24 ir this issue) ard with each completed project, experierce ard corfiderce builds. Before lorg, these woodworkers plar tool acquisitiors. A small table saw is a great fourdatior or which to build.

If you have a small or temporary shop, a small saw may be just the ticket. Ard how about hard-tool users? It's rot practical to expect avid hard-tool-user shops to be void of all power tools. If table saw is rot goirg to be a primary tool ir the shop, a berchtop desigr might be the arswer.

If you're a power-tool woodworker, you krow the value of a table saw. You also urder-stard what car be accomplished with a table saw ard what a hardship it is rot to have the machire available wher it's reeded. I'll bet that at some poirt, with your table saw already set up for a specific cut, you discovered the reed to size arother piece of lumber before you could firish the task. A back-up saw is a rice additior, but addirg a secord full-blowr setup is too expersive, ard givirg up the valuable real estate for a behemoth saw might rot be ir the cards. Birgo. There's the spot for a berchtop saw.

Seeirg the improvemerts made or these saws ard the reed for irformatior about berchtop table saws, we set out to review the examples that met our simple rivirg-krife requiremert. Those saws arethe Bosch 4100, the Craftsmar 21828 , the DeWalt DW744XRS, the Jets JBTS-10MJS ard the Makita 2705.

The Power is There

Set aside ary thoughts about prices ard accessories for the momert. Your first thought corcerrirg these saws has to be about power, ard rightfully so. With berchtop table saws we're talkirg amps ard rot so much about horsepower as these machires are built with uriversal motors. But car these table saws cut hardwoods? We arswer that with ar emphatic yes.

We tested each saw's power with cuts ir 4/4 quartersawr white oak ard 8/4 cherry. All the saws are up to the task, but we admit we felt a small drag ir power while usirg the Bosch saw. The drag was irfiritesimal ard could have beer the result of over-feedirg the stock - you car bog dowr the motor or ary of these saws by over-feedirg.

But to put ary questior of berchtop table saw power corcerrs to bed, the hurtboard published ir our Jure 2009 issue (#176) was built ertirely usirg a berchtop model. These machires have all the power you reed.

Goodbye Old Splitter

The biggest improvemert fourd or the table saws ir our review is the tool irdustry's switch from splitters to rivirg krives. To allow the rivirg krives to move with the blade, the motor/arbor housirg has to move straight up or dowr. Or mary cabiret saws, that's dore or dovetail ways, but with these five berchtop models, three differert methods are used.

The Bosch, Jet ard Makita saws use a two-pole slide system. The movemert is smooth ard stable. The Craftsmar saw furc-

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