Understanding Stationary Saws

There may come a time where you may feel like being an ambitious DIYer or Home Owner and taking on larger projects, like putting in new flooring or making a new deck, that require a lot of cutting.  Power Saws help cut down a significant amount of time energy than doing so with a handsaw.  A fixed station power saw is a great investment with many benefits to help make multiple precise cuts at a rapid pace, so let's go over a few options so that you can make the right decision for yourself on which type of saw(s) to invest in.

Miter Saw:

Our first saw we will cover is the Miter Saw.  The Miter Saw is a great saw for beginners because it is very easy to use and doesn't take up much space along with being gentler on the wallet.  A Miter Saw is a saw that you pull down to make the cut and works best on longer thinner width materials like a 2x4 piece of wood or floor planking.  Miter saws also typically have settings that allow you to adjust the cutting angle of the material so you could cut a piece of wood at a 45 degree angle for example.  To do this you would adjust the guides for the material.  Some Miter Saws also allow you to adjust the blade angle to make its cut.  Since the Miter Saw has a pulldown design, it does make it harder to cut larger square footage materials like a sheet of plywood because the mount for the blade blocks any material from being run through vertically.  The Miter saw primarily makes its cuts  horizontally with some saw in either direction.  If you'd want to cut a material vertically, then you'd want to look into a Table Saw

Table Saw:

The Table saw is a great all around saw that can make the same cuts as a Miter saw and more, however does have its own downfalls.  The first con of a table saw is that it's typically a larger saw that takes up a larger amount of space.  They do make portable versions, but they still require a decent amount of space. The second con is that they also cost significantly more typically than a miter saw, however in this case, I believe it's a get what you pay for type of situation because of how versatile they are.  The Table saws design is so that the saw blade is fixed into the table allowing you to work with both larger materials like plywood and smaller materials like 2x4s.  The Table saw has an adjustable guide that you can set at any length needed to be cut off instead of having to make your measurements on the material and pray for a steady hand to make an even cut.  You can also adjust the blade to almost any angle you desire to make more precise cuts.  In my opinion, if you have the space and money to purchase a table saw, it would be a great investment because of how versatile it is.

Band Saw:

The Band Saw is a mix between both a Miter Saw and a Table Saw.  For clarity they do make a portable version, however we will just be focusing on the stationary version in this article.  The Band saw is a Saw that has a long blade in the shape of a ring that runs on a pulley system.  The largest difference between the Band Saw and Miter and Table Saws is that you can free cut with the band saw meaning you can cut curves and shapes with it.  The Band Saw is great if you want to cut shapes or help with cutting pieces off to help with carving items quicker than without it.  Overall, Id say this would be more of a hobby worthy investment saw than a necessity for project production.  Although you can make different types of free cuts, I don't see most DIYers or Homeowners needing a band saw over a Table Saw or Miter Saw.

If you made it this far in the post, thank you for taking the time to read everything.  I hope I was able to provide helpful information for you.  For more helpful information, don't forget to subscribe.