Best saws for the workshop?

[Martin Pearson]

Been talked about before John so a search should throw up some answers, the Rage Extreme saws got a good mention for cutting different substrates but never used one myself.

Any mitre saw (chop saw) will cut extrusion with the right blade but a compound mitre saw (mitre saw with slide) for me is far more versatile & well worth the extra money. For cutting aluminium then you really need a negative rack blade, the teeth slope slightly backward rather than forward (typically 5 degrees) but these tend to be a lot more expensive than a standard blade so a lot of people will just use a fine toothed blade which will blunt more quickly & doesn’t give as good a cut.

When looking around & comparing saws don’t forget to look not only at the blade diameter but at the bore as well & make sure you can buy the blades you want to use for that saw. You can buy inserts to change the bore to fit other blades but the range available can be a bit limited.

For cutting small section timber I normally just use a hand saw, don’t normally have that many to cut at a time & takes less time than changing the blade in the mitre saw, keeps my hand in using hand tools as well which comes in Handy from time to time.

Just to add I do have a wall panel saw for cutting large boards but it makes a lot of mess even with the hoover attached, just something else you need to think about when comparing products.

[Dan Osterbery]

we have a festool set up! not the cheapest but very good and can cut everything, and there’s an accessory you can buy to do all the cuts, mitre straight line, fret, 3m straight edge, extraction system etc.
very versatile and we have had it 5 years and still love it!