could you live without a CMS or MS?


rodger.

Miter saws in the shop - necessary?  

33 members have voted

  1. 1. Could you live without a MS in your shop?

    • No way -I use it all the time
      10
    • Only if I really had to give it up
      7
    • I only occassionally use it, so maybe
      5
    • Yes, I could comfortably give it up for space
      5
    • I don't use one in my shop at all
      5
    • I could live with it if i had a better one (and crab legs)
      1


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No way would I get rid of my MS. The only way it would leave the shop would be if it went up in smoke or got replaced by a SCMS or RAS.

It only gets used for rough prep work, buts its the best tool in the shop for taking 2 feet of the end of a 10 foot board etc.

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Sorry to be a wet blanket, but I'm not sure this poll collects meaningful data...

 

Of course, if you've got a table saw, radial arm saw, MFT/TS55, etc and don't need to process long stock to final-dimension, you could live without a SCAM, CMS, CS, et al. I'm reasonably sure that at least 70% of WTO members fit into this category... Just break-down stock with a jigsaw and fine cross-cut on the tablesaw -- I lived this way for years and was perfectly AOK...

 

The interesting data (albeit harder to capture) is the relationship between the dedicated cross-cutter and other existing shop kit that can also can cross-cut well, but as a secondary function... For instance: DIY-grade SCMS pared with a top-shelf tablesaw -VS- Top-shelf SCMS pared with DIY-grade tablesaw...

 

Another dimension is cost -vs- cut quality. Folks with a DIY-grade SCMS (think of DeWalt) will naturally adopt a workflow where the SCMS is relegated to breaking-down stock and use a stationary machine for final length (most likely the table saw) -- these folks could easily dump the cross-cutter... As an example, when my Kapex was in for repair, I used a panel-saw to break-down stock and my table saw for final dimensioning... Was it a slower workflow? Yes, no question... But I could still function...

 

However, shops with a high-quality cross-cutter (Kapex, Bosch) and a second-tier tablesaw (Crafstman, et al) may adopt a workflow where final dimensioning is done on the SCMS --- for these folks, it would be harder to live without the cross-cutter...

 

Finally there's type of project -- a woodworker building/installing high-end built-ins has a far greater need for a good SCMS than the woodworker specializing in decorative boxes...

 

There maybe a way to capture this relationship in a follow-on poll... I'll noodle on it to see if there's a wording that can capture the next layer of the onion..

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