Table Saw

A table saw is an essential tool that can be used for an almost unlimited number of woodworking tasks. Because this is such a versatile and common tool, you have tons of options when buying a saw. This section helps you figure out what features are most important to you.

• Fence (rip fence): The fence (the part that you slide the wood against when you feed it onto the saw) ranks up with the tabletop for its importance in achieving good, accurate cuts. The quality of the fence dictates the price of the saw, so your budget dictates how good your fence is. The main thing to look for in a fence is one parallel with the blade that adjusts smoothly and accurately. Most saws in the contractor category have decent (but not perfect) fences. Starting out with a less-than-perfect fence is okay because you can always add a better fence to your saw later on.

• Left-tilt or right-tilt: On a table saw, you can adjust the tilt of the blade in order to cut angles. In the past, the vast majority of saws (all except some of the most expensive ones) had blades that tilted to the right. Now you can get saws that tilt either right or left (but not both). The side of the tilt is a very personal thing.

• Some people prefer being able to measure the long side of an angled cut and want a right-tilt saw, although other people prefer the way a left-tilt saw tilts away from the fence so cutting narrow angled pieces is less dangerous. Only you can choose which is best for you. Generally, unless you intend to do a ton of work that requires mitered cuts, you'll probably want a right-tilt saw because you'll have more options when buying one (right-tilt saws are still more common).

• Miter gauge: Table saws come with a small t-shaped tool called a miter gauge. The miter gauge fits into one of the two slots (called miter slots) machined into the tabletop and it guides wood that you feed through the saw. Most contractor saws come with a decent miter gauge (although not great — again, you need to buy a separate one if you want great). When deciding on a saw, put the miter gauge into the miter slot and try to wiggle it sideways. It should fit snuggly. If it wiggles much, move on to another saw.

• Saw blade: Most table saws have a 10-inch blade, but some of the most expensive cabinet saws have a 12-inch blade. Either works just fine on most tasks. More important than the blade size is the quality and finish of the blade itself. Just like with handsaws, numerous blade designs exist to ensure the best cut possible. You can get blades designed for ripping, crosscutting, both ripping and crosscutting (called a combination blade), cutting dados, and blades specifically made for plywood, plastic laminates, and other man-made materials. A safe bet is to start with a good combination blade and a stack dado blade (you'll need to buy the blades separately from the saw). You can add others as you get to know your needs.

• Tabletop: The tabletop is the most important part of the table saw and needs to be absolutely flat in order to provide the most accurate cut. Most saws have a cast-iron table that has been milled to within 1/1000th of an inch for flatness.

Safety: Avoiding Kickback

Kickback happens when the blade catches the workpiece and violently throws it back to the front of the saw, towards the operator. It can be thrown very hard and can injure the operator. It is not uncommon for the object to have high enough velocity to become embedded in a wall or to cause other damage or injury. For safety, the operator should never stand in a direct line between the blade and the fence when ripping narrow stock. A kickback can be fatal.

Kickback happens when ripping if:

1. The wood pinches the blade because of internal stresses. This is difficult to predict and can be impossible to control when using fingers to hold the wood down. Many times the board pinches the blade and is thrown back before the wood reaches a splitter. This type of kickback never happens when a board is not cut all the way through (dado). By starting a cut with a dado and then raising the blade to leave a splitter tab of uncut wood, this type of kickback can be avoided, but raising the blade during a cut cannot be done unless anti-kickback hold downs are used, so it is safe to raise the blade with a free hand.

2. The wood is allowed to raise up or moved sideways during a cut, then pushed back down, taking too big a bite at the top of the blade. This can be prevented by using feeder wheels very close to the start of the blade and hold downs after the blade to control the wood all the way through the cut. The right feeder wheels are very effective for both dados in plywood and for rip cuts on boards as narrow as 1/8". Feeder wheels can be powered or unpowered, clamped or held magnetically, and replace fingers near the blade so a hand can be free to turn off the saw during a cut.

3. The board is pinched between the rear of the blade and the fence. The fence should be parallel with the blade, for the best cut on both sides of the blade. The fence can be set with the rear farther from the fence for safety, but at the expense of upcut marks on the "waste" piece. Never allow the fence to be closer to the rear of the blade than the front.

Kickback can also happen when crosscutting boards with internal stresses. A chop saw or circular saw is the best preference for cutting poor lumber.^[5]

• The risk of kickback is reduced by certain practices:The blade must be kept sharp and clean, something novice users may not recognize. The buildup of pitch on a blade greatly increases friction and increases the probability of kickback. It also decreases the quality of the cut, causing the edges to burn and turn black.

• The saw must be aligned, adjusted so that it is parallel to the miter grooves, with the rip fence should angled minutely. If the blade is parallel with the fence you will notice the marks made by the back of the blade on the wood. It is possible for the workpiece to be pinched between the blade and the rip fence, which will cause violent kickback if the fence is closer at the back of the blade. The correct relationship for the fence is minutely spread which means that the angle is different depending on the side of the blade the fence is set.

• The blade guard should be used whenever possible. Typical table saws incorporate a riving knife, a spreader which helps prevent the cut from closing on the back of the saw blade. Natural tension can exist in wood that causes the cut to close. Some blade guards have anti-kickback devices that allow only forward travel past the blade called anti-kickback pawls.

• Push the workpiece past the blade. Do not release a workpiece until it is past the blade and removed from the saw. Turn the saw off before removing small cut off pieces.

• Always maintain control. Do not execute a cut where you do not have complete control of the situation. Make sure there are no obstructions. Do not cut a workpiece that is too large to handle.

• Do not use the rip fence as a guide during crosscuts. If you need to make a series of equal length crosscuts, use a stop block in front of the blade so the workpiece is not in contact with the rip fence during the cut. It is easy for the workpiece to twist out of perpendicular at the end of the cut and thus get caught by the blade and thrown.

• Check for flaws in the wood. Cutting through a loose knot can be dangerous. Cutting a warped or twisted board along the rip fence is dangerous because it can get pinched between the fence and blade.

Blade Height

There are two competing schools of thought when it comes to properly setting the height of the blade for sawing. The first is commonly expressed thus:^{[citation needed]} "Only allow the blade to rise above the work by the amount of finger you wish to lose." That is, the blade should protrude above the piece as little as possible, to prevent the loss of a finger in case of a sawing accident.

Another competing view is that the saw functions at its best when the angle of the blade teeth arc relative to the top surface of the workpiece is as extreme as possible.^{[citation needed]} This facilitates chip ejection, shortens the overall distance through which the teeth act on the part, reduces power consumption and heat generation, substantially reduces the peak pushing force required, thus improving control, and causes the blade's force on the wood to act mostly downward rather than largely horizontally.

How to Use a Table Saw: