Benchtop Table Saw Reviews

The benchtop table saw is one of the most useful tools but also most dangerous tools you can use for home improvement projects. The benchtop table saw is a versatile which allows a woodworker to cut large or small pieces of wood or other material with amazing accuracy. Even though benchtop table saws are the smallest class of table saw they can still kick back wood and cut off fingers and be very dangerous tools.

Most benchtop table saws are small and light weight and made to be portable. This means that they are not only dangerous saws but are also prone to being moved unintentionally. Here are some safety tips to follow when using your portable benchtop table saw:

Do Not Wear Gloves When Using Your Benchtop Table Saw: When you wear work gloves you lose some ability to feel the wood move and bend under your touch which means you can’t necessarily guide the wood accurately on your benchtop table saw with gloves. Work gloves actually make your hands “bigger” and allow for the table saw’s blade to grab your glove and actually pull your hand into the blade. If a little benchtop table saw blade can cut through oak then it can also cut through your work glove and finger.

Wear Eye Protection with your Benchtop Table Saw: Benchtop table saws don’t always have the best sawdust collection systems and it doesn’t take more than a speck of dust to irritate or damage your eyes or lungs. Some benchtop table saws have superior sawdust collection and some have a pipe to connect a shop vacuum.

Secure Your Benchtop Table Saw: The advantage of a portable or benchtop table saw is that you can move it around from place to place, but that doesn’t mean you should use your benchtop table saw without securing it. You can use a specially designed benchtop table saw stand, though be sure to only use a stand designed for the saw. As the name implies you can also mount a benchtop table saw on a bench and you should always secure it tightly if possible.

Read Your Benchtop Table Saw’s Manual: Yes, a benchtop table saw is a small power tool but it is still dangerous and a lot of benchtop table saws have many unique features on them that may not immediately be clear. Always play it safe and read the manual with your benchtop table saw or any power tool you purchase.

It has been estimated that the table saw is responsible for nearly 60,000 injuries a year. Many of those injuries are obviously amateur woodworkers using benchtop table saws. Respect the power of your little portable table saw, maintain your table saw’s parts and practice good table saw safety procedures and your benchtop table saw will serve you well for years to come.

When you’re first considering buying a table saw you’re faced with several different types of saws, one of which is the benchtop, or portable, table saw. These are often the best table saws for a beginner woodworker who does not have a large work area or workshop and will only use the table saw at certain times. The terms benchtop table saw and portable table saw are generally used interchangeably.

As the name implies a portable table saw is designed to be light enough to carry from one spot to another and it generally is made to be used on a bench or counter. You could place it on the floor but using a table saw on the floor is usually not the safest way to cut or rip wood and you increase your chance of knockback due to the low angle you’re working with. Some benchtop table saws come with table saw stands or legs and some offer support bases separately. Some of the more professional (and slightly more heavy) benchtop table saws actually have wheeled bases. In reality these table saws are meant to be used, you guessed it, on the top of a bench.

Portable table saws usually weigh anywhere from thirty to seventy five pounds, so you they aren’t really meant to be carried all over the place, but you can fairly easily move them in and out of storage as needed. Most benchtop table saws can use standard 10-in.-dia. blades like other table saws, but there are still some drawbacks to using them. The different cuts and abilities of these benchtop table saws is also limited partially by their size and partially by the way their durability is sometimes sacrificed for decreasing the weight. Don’t expect to use a benchtop table saw to do all the work you’re woodworking friend did with his large cabinet table saw.

Most benchtop table saws are made with the amateur handyman in mind, though in recent years several of the more established tool companies have come out with some very strong and durable portable table saws which are being used by more and more contractors and professional wood workers in a pinch.

When trying to choose the best benchtop table saw for your needs, consider what kinds of blades you think you’ll want to use, whether you’ll need to change the blade angle or blade height and whether you’ll need to disassemble the unit or want to upgrade the table saw fence and rail system. When looking at specifications you’ll want to compare weight, rip capacity, portability and base configuration and the size of the motor. Also consider the ease at which various adjustments and blade changes can be made. For some people this is important, but for some the basic features of a low-end benchtop table saw are just fine.

There is a wide range of prices and options in the benchtop table saw arena, but there are clearly some stand-out favorites among reviews. While we can’t endorse any particular portable table saw we can tell you that the DeWalt DW745 Portable Table Saw is a professional grade benchtop table saw that gets rave reviews from almost everyone who has used it. It combines a good balance of power features and usability features and it is one of the bestselling benchtop table saws available.

There are four main types of table saws and contractor table saws are a step up from portable table saws in power, features, cutting ability and price. Most contractor table saws are really not all that portable, though they can be moved from location to location and some even come with a mobile wheel base if your workshop is a little tight on space. If you’re a professional woodworker or just someone who is going to be doing a lot of work on home improvement projects around the house then you might want to consider looking at a contractor table saw to meet you needs.

Contractor table saws have a little more power than bench top table saws but still don’t take up that much space and still use standard home current. Most are fairly sturdy and can hold up to a lot of use as long as you aren’t working with a lot of hard dense wood. Contractor table saws usually require a fair bit of knowledge about how a table saw works before you’ll really get the full use out of it. Many require lengthy setup and assembly steps and they’re really meant to stay in one place for the most part.

Contractor table saws are obviously heavier than their benchtop table saw counterparts and that makes them a fair bit more stable and makes your cutting and ripping less prone to errors due to vibration. Though most contractor saws have an open base or legs they still usually weigh 200 pounds or more. Contractor saws are heavy, but they aren’t made out of cast iron. They still vibrate and they still can be jostled. Contractor saws often have a method for sawdust collection or at least deflection which a lot of portable table saws still lack.

Contractor table saws usually have pretty good fence and rail systems that are accurate and stay where they should when you’re adjusting them. Upgrading a contractor table saw’s fence and maybe weighting it down with some cast iron extension wings will go a long way to making a contractor table saw more on par with a cabinet table saw.

In general a contractor saw is a step up from a portable table saw and you should get more features and better quality features with a contractor saw. Fence systems should be tight, you should have more flexibility in the blades you can use and the ways you can move and angle that blade with most contractor table saws.

There are a fair number of contractor type table saws to choose from all made by good saw companies such as DeWalt, Bosch, Jet and Grizzly. The Bosch 4000-09 Worksite Contractor Table Saw gets raves from a number of experts and publications that typically feature table saw reviews. It’s priced well for a contractor table saw and has few real drawbacks. When comparing price to the variety of cutting features and power the Bosch 4000-09 is considered to be one of the best contractor table saws available.