Recommendations for a cheapo table saw

paulpud

Hi

Has anyone any recommendations for a cheapo table saw, around £150?

I know in cabinet-making terms that isn't going to get a lot, but I'm not going to be asking too much from the machine. I'm looking to cut down cls timber and mdf sheet to make some bulkhead units to house spotlights and maybe a few simple cupboards, so the need to cut a straight edge is the main priority.

So far I've looked at the Woodstar st10e, an Erbauer 2504SE, and the Ryobi ETS-1526AL and wondered if anyone had any experience of these machines and/or something comparable.

Thanks

ormus

ive used the erbauer 250 (not mine). and its very good value for the money.
does all the jobs i wanted it for. no major problems. it also gets pretty good reviews.
try screwfix.

Kiran

I second the Erbauer one. There was a Titan one which was about £50 less but there were quite a few bad reviews. I looked again the other day and its gone up in price and is only about £10 less than the Erbauer anyway. I am quite a fan of their tools and accessories, they seem to be well built

paulpud

I do have an Erbauer router and have been quite impressed with it so I think i'll follow it up with a table saw.

27col

I made my own saw table by building a box into which I could set my circular saw upside down. Arranged it so that its integral switch was on all the time and controlled it by means of an external switch fixed to the outside of the wooden saw table that I made. It all worked very well. When the saw finally packed up the new one did not fit into the same hole and I never got around to modifying the saw table.

ormus

i use my circular saw upside down, clamped on the workmate bench.
works ok, but pretty lethal in the wrong hands.

tony6403

An Erbauer will probably be one of the best machines at this end of the market.
Small table saws are not well suited for cutting large sheet materials. The small tables will not cope easily with very large pieces ; the distance between blade and fence is relatively small and it is tricky feeding them along the fence. To run a 6 foot length requires a workshop length of about 18 feet to feed in and out comfortably.
I have found it much better to cut large sheets using a circular saw run against a long clamped straight edge .
Otherwise a small table saw is in my opinion a "must have".