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I'm trying to get into bigger wood projects, and I'm on the fence about getting a circular saw or table saw since they scare the crap out of me. I'll probably

I'm trying to get into bigger wood projects, and I'm on the fence about getting a circular saw or table saw since they scare the crap out of me. I'll probably get a bandsaw and hand held router, but I don't think I could ever have the courage to use a table saw (even a saw stop). I've used circular saws in the past and I was pale white afterwards. I'd prefer to just use hand tools but I'm getting more ambitious with my work and I'm starting to lose patience with the hand saws especially - it's really hard to make perfect straight lines at exact angles on large boards. I have no problem planing down to size by hand. I've seen track saws being used on YouTube and they seem lower risk for me - which might be the closest I'll get.

CPLX 8y ago
You're going to have a pretty hard time being serious as a woodworking hobbyist if you're afraid of table saws.
- binarymax 8y ago
  Yes and no. Some things take longer and require more practice and skill. I just need to decide if it's worth the time and effort or not. Believe me, if there were an easy way to overcome my fears, then I wood.
- greedo 8y ago
  A lot of hand tool craftsmen would disagree with you. Chris Schwarz, Paul Sellers...
bhandziuk 8y ago
You can do a lot with a circular saw. It takes a little more imagination for some cuts but they're perfectly safe and doable. If you either buy a track saw or make your own track you can make repeatable, long, skinny cuts pretty well. Now you're not cutting coves or the like on a circular saw though.
jnsaff2 8y ago
Imho a router is way scarier than a table saw. Mostly because you can pretty easily go to cutting a different grain direction when doing a curved cut and stuff can go awfully wrong very fast if you don’t know what you’re doing.
phaedrus 8y ago
You're not wrong to be afraid of the circular saw. Whenever it comes up I introduce it as "and here's the most dangerous tool I own". However I look at my table saw this way: getting the table saw allowed me to use it instead of the circular saw, for most jobs. So it's dangerous in itself, but a net safety win. Nevertheless I have nice 2" x 4" x 0.25" dent in my Craftsman toolbox from one time when my table saw decided to conduct an impromtu ballistics test at it from across the room. Thankfully I was standing to one side of the board I was feeding through.

CPLX 8y ago

You're going to have a pretty hard time being serious as a woodworking hobbyist if you're afraid of table saws.

binarymax 8y ago
Yes and no. Some things take longer and require more practice and skill. I just need to decide if it's worth the time and effort or not. Believe me, if there were an easy way to overcome my fears, then I wood.
greedo 8y ago
A lot of hand tool craftsmen would disagree with you. Chris Schwarz, Paul Sellers...

bhandziuk 8y ago

You can do a lot with a circular saw. It takes a little more imagination for some cuts but they're perfectly safe and doable. If you either buy a track saw or make your own track you can make repeatable, long, skinny cuts pretty well. Now you're not cutting coves or the like on a circular saw though.

jnsaff2 8y ago

Imho a router is way scarier than a table saw. Mostly because you can pretty easily go to cutting a different grain direction when doing a curved cut and stuff can go awfully wrong very fast if you don’t know what you’re doing.

phaedrus 8y ago

You're not wrong to be afraid of the circular saw. Whenever it comes up I introduce it as "and here's the most dangerous tool I own". However I look at my table saw this way: getting the table saw allowed me to use it instead of the circular saw, for most jobs. So it's dangerous in itself, but a net safety win. Nevertheless I have nice 2" x 4" x 0.25" dent in my Craftsman toolbox from one time when my table saw decided to conduct an impromtu ballistics test at it from across the room. Thankfully I was standing to one side of the board I was feeding through.