At the moment I'm considering my next power tool purchase. I'm a home improvement beginner and have been enjoying the journey, and I'm now ready to get serious about investing into a proper saw. I would like to get views of the community on what would make a better investment for me at this point.
My situation: I live in a 1400 sq ft apartment and I don't have a "shop" to speak of, outside of a small 2' x 4' workbench in our storage room. I set up a Workmate in our kitchen if I am doing anything serious, and to further expand work space I use the kitchen table (and a special top I made for it, to prevent damage). Sometimes I set up the Workmate out on our 3' x 15' balcony.
What I do: typical home improvement stuff. Cabinets, shelves, racks, improvements to existing furniture, etc.
Limitations: I live in Bangkok, and as there is no significant DIY movement here, the big stores here don't provide the same kinds of services as they do elsewhere. Therefore, I must buy my sheet material in full sheets only. They won't cut it down, at all.
I am now considering the purchase of either a circular saw or a table saw.
- A circular saw of course makes it easy for me to cut a big sheet down to the right sizes. I can do that pretty much anywhere. I probably would rip the big sheets down outside of my condo, in for example the parking levels of my building. A table saw is significantly less movable. Although possible, I don't think I would take such a thing out into the parking area to cut sheets.
- A table saw seems ideal for most purposes of smaller stuff, up to 24' perhaps. But then there have been so many videos that show how to create a home-made table top for an inverted circular saw that would probably suit my needs just fine. And using that approach perhaps perhaps gets me an "ok for now" solution, until I can justify the next investment into a proper table saw.
- Although not huge, a table saw is a chunky piece of gear that in order to store it I would need to do some serious thinking for. A circular saw is of course much smaller.
Curious about the other considerations, or comments re the above. I won't buy both, I will only buy one of these for now. Probably an entry level DeWALT in either category.
Best Answer
Just my opinion: circular saw first (and build/buy yourself a guide fence for super-straight cuts); cordless jigsaw for rough parking lot work (can be a relatively low-end/cheap unit); tablesaw eventually.
There are cordless circular saws on the market now that are pretty darn powerful (look for anything 'brushless'), but they are stupid pricey and if you aren't using them regularly, you won't get good value out of an expensive battery that will die over time.