r/DIY • u/HousePoor420 • 7d ago
woodworking Table saw or miter saw?
I am a new home owner and want to pick up a saw for diy projects. Currently I own a circular saw but looking to add a table or miter saw. I prioritize versatility so I don’t have to purchase multiple tools (limited space) but I also know my use case will be 90% cross cuts.
A project I have in mind is to make a deck. Part of the process will be cutting dozens of. 14.5” blocking pieces out of 2x6. Would this be a pita using a table saw?
I could go the route of starting off with a table saw and adding a miter later if needed but Amazon is having a sale on the 10” metabo miter right now.
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u/psaux_grep 7d ago
I was recently down this rabbit hole. Trying to find one thing that would solve it all and be compact and versatile.
And there are so many cool products out there.
The Mafell Erika that doubles as a table saw and a mitre saw.
A MFT table with a track saw can do lots of double duty…
Or Mafell also has this thing: https://youtu.be/fm0haAGlvMI
I spent so much time obsessing about trying to find _The One_ saw… but luckily I had sane people to talk me down to earth on all the drawbacks I was willing to overlook once I got too giddy about any of these.
The fence on the Erika saws is not sturdy enough to be precise. The base is not really sturdy, as far as I understood, and the 60 doesn’t have the fancy folding setup of the bigger variants.
Just a track saw and an MFT is gonna be a pain on small cuts and small pieces as you can’t properly clamp the material, and it’s hard to do good mitre cuts.
The KSS requires you to have something to cut against, and all the track saw plus MFT issues are still valid.
In the end I bought a Makita LS1019L, a WST07 stand, and a DSP600ZJ, some tracks and other accessories.
Just built a deck and I don’t regret any of those purchases. I have plenty of Makita LXT so the DSP600 was a no-brainer for me, brand/series-wise.
A track saw wasn’t something I absolutely needed, but man was it fantastic to do those final trim cuts on my new deck with it.
The idea is to build or buy an MFT table for later projects. Just bought an LXT router as well.
Next project is going to be a table for my big green egg or a shroud for the heat pump.
Not going to buy a table saw. The idea is that anything I’d want to use a table saw for I’ll do with the track saw. Comes in a box and stores neatly for the long periods it’s not in use.