MITER SAW VS TABLE SAW | KNOW THE DIFFERENCE（2）

Miter saws and table saws are powerful tools for getting serious work done in the shop or on the jobsite. Most Pros know how to use a miter saw vs table saw, but DIYers or those just starting out may not quite understand when exactly you want to use each of these power tools. 

Use the Supplied Accessories!

All table saws also ship with push sticks. Use these instead of your hands to push wood past the blade. All manner of methods for creating jigs, feather boards, and other safety devices exist online to help you safely use a table saw.Table saws have blade guards that do an excellent job covering the blade, however other dangers exist. For that reason, they also have a riving knife. This keeps the backside of the wood from coming together and pinching. Wood that “re-encounters” a table saw blade once it passes, can be thrust—suddenly and unexpectedly—back over the top of the blade at the operator. “Anti-kickback pawls” also come standard on modern table saws. These help prevent the wood from coming back towards the blade once it passes.

Lastly, with respect to features, a miter saw fence sits at the back of the tool perpendicular to the blade. You place your wood against it in order to make a beveled, mitered, or compound crosscut. With a table saw, the fence sits parallel to the blade. Using a table saw fence, you measure between it and the blade to set the width of your cut.

WHEN TO USE A TABLE SAW VS MITER SAW

As mentioned above, a miter saw typically gets a lot of use when cutting boards to length. We’ve used them when installing hardwood flooring and laminate flooring. A miter saw even came in handy when doing a large siding job on a historic home.

Often mistakenly called a “chop saw”, a miter saw often shows up on a framing job site to cut lumber to exact lengths when framing out windows and doors.

Table saws don’t often hit the jobsite except when really needed. When framing, many of the cuts typically made by a table saw can be made by a circular saw or track saw. That saves a lot of hassle over setting up a table saw to rip wood that doesn’t need 1/32″ precision.

That leaves the carpenter’s workshop and cabinet shop. Here, a table saw truly comes alive. It can quickly and powerfully make consistent, repeatable cuts for making furniture, crafts, and cabinetry. Table saws provide exceptional precision and speed when making cuts at repeated widths. They also remove a lot of hassle when needing the make cuts to thinner materials which a circular saw simply won’t allow.

WRAPPING IT UP

A table saw provides more versatility overall. Because it ships with both a rip fence and a miter gauge, you can make both rip cuts and crosscuts.If, however, you have a ton of crosscuts to make—as you might find in a flooring project—we recommend both. The miter saw makes easy work of your starter and ending crosscuts. With a table saw, you can rip those long planks needed for those final against-the-wall pieces.

We hope this article was helpful. If you are interested in our table saw, please feel free to contact us.