Shortly after we moved to the island, a couple who live in our vicinity and whom we’d known for a few years announced that they had purchased a home in Costa Rica and would be moving. They said that they were selling everything, and asked if we needed any tools. I have a lot of tools and we had just finished downsizing for our move, so I didn’t think there was likely anything we’d want. I half-jokingly said “only if you have a table saw” and, of course, they did. I don’t know why I was surprised, in that they built their own house. I immediately drove Timmy the Titan over and picked it up.
I have often wished I had a table saw, but never seemed to get around to purchasing one. Decades ago, I inherited an antique Shopsmith which could (and usually did) function as a table saw, but I only ever used a fraction of its capability so I eventually gave it to a good friend who was a master woodworker. He created many beautiful works of art with it, so I was glad it spent its declining years in a good home.
photo by Ancheta Wis, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license
The “new” table saw has been useful, particularly when building the pavilion. I did notice that there didn’t seem to be any way to do miter cuts, which seemed odd as there is a miter scale cast into the top of it. No big deal early in the project, as we were doing a lot of straight rough cuts, but as we progressed I increasingly needed to make some precision angle cuts. (I freehand cut the stringers for the front porch and they ended up being usable, but it was a pain.) I found a manual for the saw online and downloaded it, and discovered that a miter fence originally came with it. When I checked the manufacturer, though, they told me the part was discontinued and not available. I couldn’t find it on eBay, either. I was about to give up, but tried Amazon just for thrills and a third-party seller there claimed to have a compatible miter fence. I’m a bit skeptical, but it did call out this particular saw by model number and it isn’t very expensive, so I’ve ordered one.
It would be cool if it works.
—2p