Recommendations on Table Saw +/-$1000

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MRDucks2

MRDucks2

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Bristow, IN
My Rigid portable table saw no longer meets all my needs. I have always been frustrated by the thin, flexible throat plate (I have made better but not ideal substitutes). I also want to be able to feed a 12" board easily (8.5" from edge of table to front of blade) while being able to move the saw in a tight shop space (dirty work area only 10' wide now).

Power has never been a concern as I use sharp, appropriate to task blades and adjust my feed rate. I will also may (working up my courage) attempt to build a couple of replacements for historic doors in the future, so additional stability would be great over the current set-up. I never intent to be a production shop or cabinet maker.

As such, I have set a budget for myself around $1000. Less is fine, more is not a problem if I feel I am getting the value. There are few saws on the floor of stores to look at these days - mostly all SawStop. The Laguana F1 looks decent.

What experience do you have? Any recommendation?
 
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I had a POS Grizzly for years. Then I got the Delta Unisaw (3hp) with a UniFence. It's awesome.
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ramaroodle said:
I would seriously take a look at the Laguna Fusion F1 or F2. They are in your price range especially when Laguna has their sale 3 or 4 times a year. If I were to buy a new saw to replace my Grizzly it would be the F2. JMHO.

Here's a review comparing it to Sawstop.

I am a huge fan of Laguna both for quality and customer service.
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Absolutely loved that video. He said things that I have been saying for years about Sawstop. To me if I were building a shop again I would have many Laguana tools such as their Lathe, Bandsaw, Jointer and now tablesaw for sure. Well built with quality and nice features. Nice price point too. Love their tools. I have tried a few of these and no I do not own any only because I am on the downside of my woodworking career and basically do not do what I use to. I would love to redo my entire shop if I ever hit the lottery. F2 is my choice. One other highly highly highly in my opinion sought after feature and wish my tablesaw had it, is left tilt blade. Being right handed and so use to using my fence to the right of the blade it is so awkward to put fence on opposite side of the blade that I basically have to build sleds if I want to angle cut with blade tilted. This should be a driving point on any saw you buy. It is a little known talked about feature.
 
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Man, last weekend there was a 5 or 6 year old Grizzly 1023rl on Craigslist for $750, located in Cedar Lake, IN. I went out to make sure my trailer lights were working, got sidetracked for a few hours. Ad was gone when i came back in. You'd have had to be looking at the right time--but in striking distance for you. First decent tool i've seen on CL or FB in the past several months--at any price!!
earl
 
MRDucks2 said:
My Rigid portable table saw no longer meets all my needs. I have always been frustrated by the thin, flexible throat plate (I have made better but not ideal substitutes). I also want to be able to feed a 12" board easily (8.5" from edge of table to front of blade) while being able to move the saw in a tight shop space (dirty work area only 10' wide now).

Power has never been a concern as I use sharp, appropriate to task blades and adjust my feed rate. I will also may (working up my courage) attempt to build a couple of replacements for historic doors in the future, so additional stability would be great over the current set-up. I never intent to be a production shop or cabinet maker.

As such, I have set a budget for myself around $1000. Less is fine, more is not a problem if I feel I am getting the value. There are few saws on the floor of stores to look at these days - mostly all SawStop. The Laguana F1 looks decent.

What experience do you have? Any recommendation?
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I have
MRDucks2 said:
My Rigid portable table saw no longer meets all my needs. I have always been frustrated by the thin, flexible throat plate (I have made better but not ideal substitutes). I also want to be able to feed a 12" board easily (8.5" from edge of table to front of blade) while being able to move the saw in a tight shop space (dirty work area only 10' wide now).

Power has never been a concern as I use sharp, appropriate to task blades and adjust my feed rate. I will also may (working up my courage) attempt to build a couple of replacements for historic doors in the future, so additional stability would be great over the current set-up. I never intent to be a production shop or cabinet maker.

As such, I have set a budget for myself around $1000. Less is fine, more is not a problem if I feel I am getting the value. There are few saws on the floor of stores to look at these days - mostly all SawStop. The Laguana F1 looks decent.

What experience do you have? Any recommendation?
Click to expand...
I have Laguna fusion and have been very pleased with it.
 
I have a Ridgid r4512 and love this saw. Lifetime warranty is a good thing. I've had it for 4 - 5 years and havn't had a bit of problem with it. My only gripe with this saw is making a zero clearance throat plate (but I've also seen many others with the same problem).
 
There are lots of things that you need in a table saw. The top needs to be flat, there should probably be some sort of track to run one of those mitre gadgets in and it needs a good fence. The limiting factor (or factors) with lots of fences is their ridgidity, ease of movement and accuracy of calibration. I don't have room for one of those big cast iron saws, I have to make do with a portable "contractor" saw and I looked at a fair few and actually used a couple and the one thing they lacked was a good fence. That was until I found a Dewalt. They have a gear drive fence that locks at both ends and I can work down to 0.5mm increments. If I need to make a piece just a hair smaller I flip the release lever and then the drive knob a fraction of a then and then lock the fence again and re-cut the piece.
It's not a saw for a cabinet maker but for someone doing small stuff like pens and boxes and stuff around the house it's fine. I think Milwaulke make a similar style saw now but down here in OZ they only come as a cordless machine but I'm a Dewalt bloke so that's the way I went. Sort of like the Ford/Holden supercars conflict.
 
Thanks, Gang. Decision made. A little more complicated answer than I intended but will ultimately go with the Laguana Fusion F2. Look for Bad, Good, Bad, Good News in another post.
 
I had an accident with my tablesaw a month ago. The first cut I made (after lowering the blade from 2" to 1/4") my piece kicked back and my hand fell into the blade. No I wasn't using a push stick and I'm lucky I didn't lose my finger. I live alone and had to drive to the ER bleeding profusely wondering how I was going to explain the whole thing to my mother. I ordered a SawStop the following week and it will be worth every penny.
 
Brandy said:
I had an accident with my tablesaw a month ago. The first cut I made (after lowering the blade from 2" to 1/4") my piece kicked back and my hand fell into the blade. No I wasn't using a push stick and I'm lucky I didn't lose my finger. I live alone and had to drive to the ER bleeding profusely wondering how I was going to explain the whole thing to my mother. I ordered a SawStop the following week and it will be worth every penny.
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Here's hoping you never find out. Work safe.
 
greenacres2 said:
Man, last weekend there was a 5 or 6 year old Grizzly 1023rl on Craigslist for $750, located in Cedar Lake, IN. I went out to make sure my trailer lights were working, got sidetracked for a few hours. Ad was gone when i came back in. You'd have had to be looking at the right time--but in striking distance for you. First decent tool i've seen on CL or FB in the past several months--at any price!!
earl
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FYI You can set CL to notify you of new listings. That's how people grab them instantly. You really never see most of them. I posted a Grizzly jointer and got a call 5 mins after I posted it.
 
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