A right tool always comes with all the blessings you wish, accompanying a higher price tag. With a limited budget, you have little opportunity to buy such a tool, forcing you to compromise. In such a face-off, choosing the miter or table saw is the sole option.
The table saw and the miter saw does their business. They are the best in their respective areas. But the question is, what makes sense in the table saw vs miter saw marathon? Technically, they share significant differences. Their differences are a little bit confusing.
Luckily, you stopped by here to get informed about the two. Let’s dive in.
Table Saw Vs. Miter Saw: What Makes Sense
The power saws have stupendously modified the woodworking scenarios empowering the craftsmen to work faster and smarter than ever
The table saw vs miter saw showdown would showcase all the pros and cons regarding the two saws. And I hope you can later decide if you need to purchase both the saw or only one of them for your woodworking projects.
Before we start talking about the difference between a table saw and a miter saw and which one is good for you, let’s learn them with their short definition.
What is Table Saw?
Table saws are one of the most used and seen woodworking tools in the workshops. They come with a sharp blade mounted on the underside of the table and cut through the center of the top. They are secured with several safety tools such as a blade guard, a riving knife, a magnetic off-switch, and more.
They tend to weigh up to 500 pounds starting from 300 pounds. Coming with a powerful motor, fence and miter gauge, they appear to be a versatile and all-around cutting saw. They feature a wider working surface that is made of cast iron, steel, and aluminum. Some table saws feature wheeled stand for letting the carpenter move around.
What is Miter Saw?
A miter saw is best known for varied angular cuts. It is designed with a blade mounted on a swing to allow the carpenter to operate the saw like a knife – cutting to one side or the right. This cutting feature lets you get several angle cuts like crown forming, picture outlines, entryway casings, and then some.
Cutting miter is the reason why carpenters, contractual workers, remodelers, and craftsmen avail this saw even after getting a table saw and others. It’s useful for a straightforward 45-degree angle cut. They can be good for cutting several materials–aluminum, plastics, and even concrete. There are numerous kinds of miter saw as well, for example, fundamental and compound.
Ripping Capacity
Ripping capacity is the most important criterion for a cutting tool. Your saw should be capable of flipping the materials you need to cut and clip. All the other factors of the saw play a role in ripping capacity. Let’s see how efficient your table saw, and miter saw is in ripping.
Table Saw Is Good for Cutting Large Pieces
The table saw features a large flat table for an extended working surface that is enough to hold a large workpiece for cutting smoothly. The craftsman can manage a large workpiece and control it comfortably, pushing the piece toward the spinning blade. The flat tabletop can cut 4/8 ft. sheets of plywood excellently.
On the other, a miter saw lacks such a bigger tabletop for managing a larger workpiece, meaning incapable of a large piece. The craftsman uses the miter saw for clipping a strip of wood, for instance, a trim board or a siding plank. Put them before the narrow base of the saw, lower the spinning blade, and cut.
Miter Saw is Good for Angle Cuts
As the name “miter” correspond, putting two pieces at a 90-degree angle. Miter saw is basically well-appreciated among the craftsmen for angle cuts. Visualizing how the two corners of a photo frame join together to give an angle shape is the best job of the miter saw. The head of the miter saw can rotate up to 90 degrees as you need.
Cutting such complex points and angle cuts essential for introducing trim and crown shaping, the miter saw is considered a staple of trimming in the carpentry industry. You can’t get such critical cutting with a table saw as the workpieces need to be placed in the right angle and tightly while you feed the spinning blade.
Miter Saw is Good for Bevel Cuts
The miter saw is known for its bevel cut along with angle cuts. The head of the miter saw is engineered to tilt for bevel cut and angle cut that leaves a slanted edge rather than the bevel edge. Slanted cuts are utilized principally in trim work to consider consistent advances when introducing trim in corners.
The blade of the miter saw is highly adjustable. You can customize the blade from under the table as you need an angular or bevel cut. The table also capable of doing so, but challenging for the newbies as it’s an advanced feature for the table saws. As angle and bevel cuts are the specialty of the miter saw, it is recommended saw for beginners.
Blade’s Width Defines The Length of Cut
A miter saw cuts any material by lowering the spinning blade. Therefore, it can’t withstand the material wider than the width of the blade. And the miter saws tend to feature 8-inch, 10-inch, or 12-inch blades for cutting, except the sliding-arm miter saw, in which the blade can be extended due to a handle up to 16-inch in the special moment.
That’s why you need a wider blade for cutting a wider board. So, if you intend to cut any material that is wider than the width of the saw blade, you have to change the blade or the saw itself. A table saw is a way out. As the table saw blade is stationary and fed into the blade, you can manage a wider piece than the blade’s width.
Portability and Preciseness
The varied woodworking projects demand varied features with the saw. Portability and preciseness are features that come as a blessing as they tend to be lighter, smaller, perfect, and have less weight than other saw models. Now, the miter saw vs. table saw is subjected to such features below.
Miter Saw Is More Portable
There are two types of table saws out there – portable and stationary. Few table saws models are adorned with a heavy-duty wheeled stand, making it easy to move around according to the project’s demands.
But most table saw is considered stationary as they are dashed to strong steel legs or incorporated with a cabinet, causing them to be overwhelming (to as much as 300 pounds), clumsy, and hard to move.
On the other, the miter saw’s weight ranges from 50 to 60 pounds, which is fit for landing in the rear of a pickup or the storage compartment of a vehicle, meaning you can carry it comfortably anywhere you need. Beyond that, if you like to convert the miter saw into a stationary model, just bolt the saw to an immobile countertop.
Table Saw is Less Precise
Preciseness is at the core of the miter saw. The workpiece is held cozily against the rear of the saw (called the fence) during the whole cut, helping get the ultimate precision in cutting. The table saw lacks such functioning hence, lacks precision too. Sometimes it further causes rugged areas on the cut if the carpenter fluctuates the weight of the wood.
Though, the slight imprecision that often happens with a table saw seems not to leave an enormous impact on the overall look; for example, fabricating a capacity shed, however, can bring about an awkward look if the table saw is used for trimming. When precision matters a lot, don’t end up with a table saw; rather, find a miter saw.
Kickback: Miter Saw Vs. Table Saw
All power tools involve security concerns. They, therefore, should be checked before purchasing and the manufacturer’s safety instructions should be followed afterward.
The United States Consumer Product Safety Commission recorded a total of 101,900 saw-related injuries in the year 2007-2008. Among them, 79,500 injuries were related to the table saws, whereas 13,600 were related to the miter saws.
While most of the saw’s injuries are related to the table saw, most of them are due to kickbacks. Though it sometimes causes kickback, the saw features anti-kickback pawls to prevent kickback. With this tool’s help, users can stay safe during woodworking.
Table Saws Are More Versatile
Versatility is one of the most dominating reasons why most woodworking shops possess a table saw out there. A table saw comes with virtually endless cutting capacity and width cuts, whereas a miter saw is limited in angle and bevel cuts. Furthermore, a table saw can even manage what a miter saw can do with precision and a certain skill.
If not, various accessories can be tried to bring versatility, like a miter gauge that can enable you to angle cuts. In that case, you need advanced sawing skills to get such cutting out of a table saw.
Because of such complications, beginner woodworkers don’t go with a table saw if they require angle and bevel cuts. They don’t like to take the risk of precision cutting with a table saw.
Table Saws Are More Costly
Price sometimes plays a decisive role in the purchase. However, in the case of purchasing a saw (miter saw or table saw), you mostly won’t be forced by the price tag. As they share almost the same price range, the price difference is quite liberal and open-ended. It totally depends on the brands and the models you choose.
Miter Saw Vs Table Saw: The Right Saw for You
The right choice for purchasing a saw will be better determined by the nature of the projects you intend to perform and the future prospectus you will do with it. Suppose you need to cut a piece with littler profundities and widths. You don’t need a saw with wild cutting power.
A miter saw will provide the exact angular and bevel cut. Similarly, if you do a ton of straight cuts on bigger parts, a table saw will work much better at that point.
So, the most significant thing you can do before you make the purchase is to make sense of what you will do with the saw and your future woodworking projects.
Table Saw Or Miter Saw Explained
FAQs
A table saw is a stationary saw with a large flat table supporting the material you are cutting. It has a circular blade that is mounted underneath the table and can make a variety of different cuts. A miter saw is smaller, with a round blade mounted on a swing arm that can make angled cuts. Table saws are generally more powerful and can create deeper, more precise cuts than miter saws.
Table saws can make rip cuts, cross cuts, miter cuts, and compound cuts. Miter saws can make miter cuts and compound cuts.
Table saws can cut wood, metal, plastic, and other materials. Miter saws are limited to cutting wood and some types of plastic.
Table saws have various safety features, including guards covering the blade, a riving knife to prevent kickback, and a dust collection system to reduce airborne particles. Miter saws have a guard that covers the edge when it is not in use, a blade guard that covers the blade when it is in use, an exhaust port to reduce dust, and a fence to guide the material being cut.
The main advantage of using a Table Saw is making more accurate, straight cuts with less need for measuring and marking. Additionally, Table Saws have a much larger cutting capacity than Miter Saws, allowing you to make long, deep cuts in a single pass.
The main advantage of using a Miter Saw is making quick, accurate, angled cuts. Miter Saws are much more compact and lightweight than Table Saws, making them much easier to transport and use in tight spaces.
Summing Up
The comparative study on the table saw vs. miter saw has ended. The table saw is more versatile than the miter saw and the miter saw is more portable and precise than the former.
However, find a solution in miter saws if you require more precise angle and bevel cuts. And get a table saw if you need unlimited ripping capacity and width cuts.
Sometimes they are lost to each other in cutting capacity and in price. The confusion on the table saw or miter saw will come to an end with the exact understanding of the project you manage.
Substituting one by another would be impossible as they serve distinct and qualified cuts. You’re likely to manage all types of cuts with a single saw if you’re vastly experienced with the saws.
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