Help me find a small portable bench-top power saw

[BruceRPA]

I would like to have a decent portable bench-top power saw. I think a jig saw/ sabre saw or even a small band saw might do the trick. Maybe a small power miter saw could work too. I don't think I want a small table saw. It will be used primarily for small projects around the house and shop to cut lightweight materials like 1/2" or 3/4" plywood, PVC pipe, thin sheet metal, and similar materials. It would be nice if I could cut an occasional 2X4, but that is not essential. I have had a Shopsmith multipurpose machine for many years. I do hope to get it out of storage again and make some space for it so that I can return it to use. If there was a scaled-down bench-top version of that thing, it would be perfect. I am primarily interested in quick, easy and convenient access and use for this new machine.

I found a Rockwell BladeRunner and did some research online. See the attached picture. The older model (not the "X2" version) was supposed to be more robust and accurate. It also has variable speed. I found one on clearance at our local Lowe's so I bought it last night. I tried cutting some scrap 1/2" X 2" furring strips. What a disappointment! Even after trying to adjust the thing I could only get every third cut to come close to 90 degrees. Trying to make a 45 degree cut was ridiculous! The blade wandered so much that both the vertical cut and the 45 degree cut were off A LOT! I will work with it again this evening for a while but I think it is going back to Lowe's.

So, if you know of, or better yet have a tool that may work for me, I sure would appreciate knowing about it. I have not been able to find anything online so far.

Thanks!

 

[whoaru99]

I manage to get by with a circular saw and a power miter saw. Ripping with the circular saw is a PITA but I've gotten use to setting up some sort of guide. The miter saw makes short work of more narrow pieces. Of course, they only make straight cuts so if you need curves/scroll capability then neither of those is good for that.

 

[Chip Chester]

Dremel made a tiny tablesaw -- mostly good for balsa wood. I've got one.

Craftsman's little 7" sliding compound miter saw is pretty light, stout for its size, and will handle 2x4's. Easier to carry that my DeWalt 708.

A vertical 9" two-wheel bandsaw will do a lot, but will have blade wandering issues. If you get one, look for the possibility to put a twist in the blade, like a metalcutting bandsaw. That way, you're not limited in length for your cuts, as long as the length of cut is reasonable. Small bandsaws are light and quiet in operation.

Don't overlook a nice ripsaw and crosscut saw (manual) and a good miterbox. Most portable of the bunch.

Chip

 

[BruceRPA]

I worked with the BladeRunner a little more tonight. After a few small adjustments the cuts were better than last night but nowhere near satisfactory. I can do just as well, if not better, with a conventional hand held jig saw. I know that I will not enjoy using it so it will be going back. That's too bad. It looked like it could have been handy to have.

I have lots of handheld power tools. I also have a couple of miter boxes. They all need to be taken out of their case and set up each time they are used. Part of the mission here is to have something set up and ready to use permanently, or nearly so. After the disappointing results from the BladeRunner, I recognize that accuracy is really important to me. I won't be making fine furniture but I do expect that when I make a simple cut on some common material that it will need to be clean and accurate. Having a piece of molding be off by a couple of degrees, and be different each cut, just won't work for me. A $20 miter box and hand saw produces much, much better results. To be fair though, that BladeRunner was only $110. I think I was expecting too much from it.

Thanks for the tips guys. I will be looking into those small size power miter saws and who knows what else. Any additional recommendations will certainly be appreciated.

 

[soundmotor]

Keep in mind if you do not have enough tool for the job you might push it too far. By that I mean make a dangerous decision. Woodworking machines are brutal when you screw up.

It will be used primarily for small projects around the house and shop to cut lightweight materials like 1/2" or 3/4" plywood, PVC pipe, thin sheet metal, and similar materials.

A sliding compound miter saw might get you most of what you are looking for. There are big differences in capacity though when you go from a ~7" to 12" one. You won't be able to crosscut anything much wider than a typical board.

Although they have fallen somewhat out of favor, a radial arm saw is sort of like a giant compound miter saw with much more capacity. You can do a lot with them and they tend to run fairly cheap on craigslist. They take up the same space as a table saw but can be right up against a wall.

Radial Arm Saw -

 

[BruceRPA]

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That is another possibility. I will look into those as well. A smaller scale version of what you have pictured could be ideal for my relatively light duty purpose this time. My father had a saw that was very similar to the one that you have pictured. He built a lot of things with it. I am looking for something that can be left on a 30" x 30" bench or table and could easily be put away or carried out to the garage for a small project.

All this has stirred up my interest in clearing out some space for that Shopsmith that I have burried in the basement. It has a table saw, vertical and horizontal drill press, wood lathe, belt sander, disc sander, drum sander, table router, and a band saw. It's really not a bad piece of machinery. It is much bigger than what I have in mind right now. Again, I don't intend to be making fine furniture, although some people do use a Shopsmith to make some beautiful things.

 

[soundmotor]

That is another possibility. I will look into those as well. A smaller scale version of what you have pictured could be ideal for my relatively light duty purpose this time. My father had a saw that was very similar to the one that you have pictured. He built a lot of things with it. I am looking for something that can be left on a 30" x 30" bench or table and could easily be put away or carried out to the garage for a small project.

For best accuracy, machines like to be left in place. Bring the work to them. If you need something that has to be portable you reduce what the machine will be able to do in favor of weight and capacity.

All this has stirred up my interest in clearing out some space for that Shopsmith that I have burried in the basement. It has a table saw, vertical and horizontal drill press, wood lathe, belt sander, disc sander, drum sander, table router, and a band saw. It's really not a bad piece of machinery. It is much bigger than what I have in mind right now. Again, I don't intend to be making fine furniture, although some people do use a Shopsmith to make some beautiful things.

I've never warmed to them and yes, I have seen what people make with them. Some of it is amazing. My wife & I both took woodworking classes from a man who opened his woodshop in ~1938 then went on to become a Delta rep until the late 80s. His comment about Shopsmith, "They do everything but nothing well.".

A pretty biased comment from the former Delta rep to be sure but there is some truth to it. Every shop machine you buy is a compromise just like audio. To get the do it all aspect of the Shopsmith, every function is compromised over a standalone single purpose machine. However, since you have it, why not get it into use? It serves the purpose for a host of operations and you may find it suits your needs exactly. It slices, it dices, it turns spindles, it sands, it crosscuts, and more.

Why the heck not?

 

[GuyK]

I worked with the BladeRunner a little more tonight. After a few small adjustments the cuts were better than last night but nowhere near satisfactory. I can do just as well, if not better, with a conventional hand held jig saw. I know that I will not enjoy using it so it will be going back. That's too bad. It looked like it could have been handy to have.

I have lots of handheld power tools. I also have a couple of miter boxes. They all need to be taken out of their case and set up each time they are used. Part of the mission here is to have something set up and ready to use permanently, or nearly so. After the disappointing results from the BladeRunner, I recognize that accuracy is really important to me. I won't be making fine furniture but I do expect that when I make a simple cut on some common material that it will need to be clean and accurate. Having a piece of molding be off by a couple of degrees, and be different each cut, just won't work for me. A $20 miter box and hand saw produces much, much better results. To be fair though, that BladeRunner was only $110. I think I was expecting too much from it.

Thanks for the tips guys. I will be looking into those small size power miter saws and who knows what else. Any additional recommendations will certainly be appreciated.

If you are going to be doing trim work around the house - baseboards, window and door casing &c., a power miter is invaluable. But they're somewhat limited in application since even a 12" saw will only crosscut a 2x8. A compound saw gets greater capacity or the much greater expense. If you are going to be working with larger pieces, or wish to rip, then a tablesaw is going to be more useful, but precise crosscutting can be tricky sometimes. You mention having a Shopsmith. While I'm not over fond of them, I have known people that have turned out extraordinary work with one. It all comes down to what your intended uses will be to determine what the most beneficial additional tool will be.

 

[BruceRPA]

Thanks again guys. I haven't been able to find anything yet that resembles what I started out to look for. I would still like to have a very small footprint portable tabletop machine for convenience to make simple cuts. A couple of handsaws and a vise may have to suffice for now as they have in the past.

The more that I think about that old Shopsmith machine, the more that I think that it may be the answer to slightly bigger projects. I haven't used it in many years because life intervened, but it have made some pretty good use of it when I first got it back in the 80s. As I look around the house there are still some things that I made that are still in use. And they are not too bad to look at if I may say so myself. If there was any kind of quality issue with what I made I believe that it was caused by me, not the machine. At this point I don't intend to make any fine furniture. If that interest develops after I retire then everything will need to change. Stand-alone specific purpose machines clearly are the ideal way to achieve a high quality finished product. There is that and the requirement for considerably more floor space than I presently have available. I am not there at this point in time. I am sure that the Shopsmith will be very useful as I restart the project of remodeling and finishing the basement. Some simple framing and ripping comes to mind. Shelves and trim work should be no problem for it or by the manual miter saws that I already have. The Shopsmith stores in a space that is not much bigger than a bicycle. The accessories and attachments take up about the same amount of space.

Interestingly, I checked out the Shopsmith website the other night. (Websites didn't even exist when I bought that thing!) If my interests should develop into wanting something considerably better, such as stand alone machines, they have a way to take the headstock unit / motor drive and convert it into a small bench top unit to power the accessories like the belt/disc sander, band saw, etc.. If that happens, maybe I will have come full circle and will have found the answer for that I am looking for today. The band saw would be the closest thing to it though.

I have been looking at power miter saws. There are some really great looking machines out there that are not too expensive. The compound models that slide look great! The problem that I have with them is that the better they look to me, the bigger they are. Some of the models that I really like require far more space than I can devote to them at this time. First things first, but maybe some day when I have the space, and the time, I think I will have to have one of those too.

Thanks again everyone! :thmbsp:

 

[GuyK]

Ok, so now we know a little more about the intended uses. A chop-saw (power miter) is used very frequently for remodelling or building. It lends itself to both trim work and chopping studs to length quickly and precisely. They don't do rips, though. Actually, unless you have room for an outfeed table for a tablesaw, a tablesaw is not the optimal machine for that, either. A regular old handheld circular saw and a straightedge for a guide work very well.

I do have a bandsaw, and do use it regularly, but it is not a tabletop model, and I don't use it as often as I do the tablesaw or the chopsaw, or even a sabresaw for that matter.

 

[BruceRPA]

I just finished a small project that involved building in some unusual storage shelves and finishing a couple of walls to hang some drywall on. The shelves and framing work were, for the most part, pretty straightforward. Nothing started out straight or level but it wasn't too difficult to deal with. I started using a Craftsman sabre saw that I bought a couple of years ago. It was one of their best models. I have used it several times but never really liked it very much. I had to stop using it shortly after I started this most recent project. It just would not follow a straight line either vertically or horizontally when cutting 5/8" X 2" furring strips. The blade guide roller could not be adjusted in order to contact the back of the blade so the blade was free to wander, and it did. I set it aside and used a hand saw. No more crappy cuts. I looked at the sabre saw carefully tonight and found that the support bracket for that guide roller was bent. No surprise though. That support bracket was so light and cheezy that It didn't take any effort to bend it back into place. What a POS! I could not believe how cheap and flimsy the motor, drive, bearings, and electronic control components were. Reassembling that POS proved to be an exercise in frustration. It certainly was not made to be disassembled or serviced. I will spare you the details but it is now in the trash. I would never have confidence in that thing again anyway so there would be no joy in using it. I am sorry to say that what little confidence in Sears tools that I had left is now gone forever. That tool will be replaced with a Milwaukee (first choice), DeWalt (maybe), Bosch, Makita, or possibly a Porter Cable.