harbour frieght
 

is the mini tablesaw any good ? anyone bought it ?

If it is the red one, yes I have it and have used it quite a bit...but only good for small cutting. Does a great number on plywood!

I have one and it isn't overly powerful.. But it does work ok on light woods like balsa .. I have to feed lite ply pretty slow... however I do think I have the more aggressive toothed blade on the saw. I should switch to the finer toothed one.

I had the really old version of this one. Mine was black. I used the snot out of it for thin stuff. Never went over 1/4" ply. They used to sell a fine cut carbide tipped blade for it. It would fly through 1/4" balsa, had to slow way down for 1/4" ply. The lite ply was not to bad. Using the Baltic birch ply, it struggled. My nephew burned it up trying to cut a 1"x4" on it. Made it about 2 feet before it went up in smoke. Just never got around to getting another one. I have used my band saw for most of the cutting.

http://www.harborfreight.com/4-in-mi...ade-61608.html

Found this one on Amazon. No idea if it is better or worse.

http://www.amazon.com/Mini-Electric-.../dp/B00AEZ70AO

Always make a table saw.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhORUN6oCUc

Use a saw like this to make it smaller.

http://www.lowes.com/pd_586914-70-BD...t=cordless+saw


Buzz.

You know.. now that you mention it It was 1/8th Baltic birch that made it want to slow down badly..not lite ply.

I would get a decent band saw instead. With a fence on it you can make pretty straight cuts. A fine tooth blade will also give nice edges.


carl

For those more crafty guys a 71/4" skill saw can be inverted into a top much like a router table and there are 4-5" thin kerf blades available to fit it. I made one some time ago and bought some track to slide a fence on from www,rockler.com You can cut the handle off and relocate the switch, take the blade guard off and it will set in a recess inverted and held firm with a couple recessed screws, worked like a champ and would still tilt.

Bought a Jet table saw and no longer have it. Food for thought for those with a small area to work in, 10" band saw would be a good choice also, it will do a lot more than cut circles.

if you go here;

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/1-2-...something.html

you can see what I got and what I think about it. I haven't tried the harbor freight saw, but I imagine it would bog down pretty good. I've used the saw I show on this discussion to cut a 2x4. And since it uses JigSaw blades you can cut metal, tile, wood, and whatever else they make blades for. I also have a 10" ryobi band saw that I've used, but it's almost impossible to get a straight cut, and on thick wood like a 2x4 the blade will actually make an S same because of blade drag, maybe if I could find a good blade? but it still wonders a lot, I've never been able to get it to cut straight even with a fence. I also have a 3 wheel 10" Craftsman, I bought it at a swap meet and the blade would bind up in 1/2" wood, so I was going to try a new blade on it, I've never been able to get the blade to stay on the wheels since. It doesn't have a track adjustment, and I can get the blade to stay on it while it's running, but once I start cutting, the blade jumps off. I also have 3 scroll saws, I like those better than the band saw for most of my modeling needs, but they won't cut thick or hard wood real effectively. This little saw is more like using a table say, but you can scroll on it. It is basically an upside down jigsaw, with a piece to hold the work down to the table, and that helps a lot, you can cut without it, but if your now careful the piece will start bouncing with the blade, with the head down, I've had no problems.

you can see here it rips 1/4" balsa quite nicely.
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...p;d=1438302245

The quality at Harbor Freight, for the asking price can be acceptable, but keep in mind that if you ever need service or a 29 cent repair pair, it will probably not be available.

If you are going to do a lot of cutting find a Dremel table saw. They are discontinued but you can find them on ebay. There is a guy on there also who sells upgraded accessories for them. Expect to pay about $100 for the saw and about another $100 for the upgrades but you will have a real gem of a saw that will cut even hard maple with ease.

Bandsaw drift -A lot has been said about the cause and cure for blade drift in woodworking forums. The best cure I found was making sure the band is centered on the wheels. The blade teeth should line up on the center of the crowned drives not the center of the blade. I cut a hole on the top cover with a hole saw so I could verify alignment and haven't had problems since. Also if the blade is drifting all over, check the blade tension but an overheating blade can also drift. Overheating can be caused by a really dull blade, using a band with too many teeth for the material type and thickness being cut, or the guide blocks are too tight.

The above statements are expressed solely as my opinion and in all probability will conflict with someone else's.
Stu, Fredericksburg VA