What's the Point?

I was so excited when I got my table saw for Christmas over a year ago. It seemed that nearly every woodworking project I wanted to do required a table saw, according to the project plans. I couldn't wait to get started.

What I found out fairly soon was that the table saw isn't as multipurpose as I originally thought. In fact, there are darn few times when I can use it as I intended.

The problem lies in the width--or lack of it--of the table. Mine is 13 inches from the blade to the furthest edge of the fence. That means you can't set the fence any wider, so if you have a 14 inch width cut you need to make, you can't use the fence as a secure straight edge.

There are ways to get around that problem--that is, if your raw piece of wood is about 17 to 25 inches long. You can flip the board and cut off all of it except your 14 inch width cut.

But if you have a longer piece of wood, you're out of luck. You either have to get out the circular saw and straight edge, or you have to "eyeball" the cut on the table saw. The former takes a lot of time and trouble to set up, and the latter ensures your cut will not be completely straight.

I say all this because I thought I had a relatively simple, quick project to finish today. I wanted to cut a 14 inch wide piece of board from a 48 inch length board. The wood was the white laminate shelf that I was going to trim down as supports for the shelves in my younger daughter's room.

But as soon as I pulled out the table saw and marked my cutting line, I realized that the fence was too short. And the board was too long to flip. I thought about the circular saw, then decided I didn't want to fool with it today. It would've been fine if I had a lot to cut, but this was all I had planned to do today. And I didn't feel like setting up sawhorses, planks, etc. Besides, I had already set up the table saw!

After wasting too much time, I finally tried to clamp the shelf to the table saw miter gauge so that it would stay as still as possible. Even still, the shelf wobbled a bit because the miter gauge is not tightly fitted.

In the end, the cut was fine until I got to the last 3 inches. It wavered about 1/8 inch the rest of the way. After getting out the power sander and sanding the cut as evenly as I could get it, I realized I probably would've spent just as much time--and maybe less effort--if I had used the circular saw to begin with.

I think you can buy table extensions for many table saws, but I haven't found one for my model. In the future, I guess I just need to think through my task more carefully to start with and determine if my cut is suitable for the limited size of the table saw. If not, I won't waste my time with it. I've got precious little of that to begin with!