Before you get started...
Just in case you're new here, the knowledge I'm sharing in this post is derived from both my experience as a woodworker since 2012, and also my experience selling tools and Machinery for 5 years. I worked as a sales advisor at Axminster Tools and Machinery and commonly found myself answering customer queries regarding these two machines, and which one would suit their needs the best.
This post shares both my own thoughts on the subject, as well as what generally works best for people in a similar situation to you. By the end of the post, your confusion will be allayed and you'll know exactly which machine you need to buy.

The Footprint
Infeed / Outfeed
Infeed and outfeed are unavoidable when using machines. The machine is stationary and the material is pushed through it. This means if you have a 6 foot board to cut, you need 6 foot in front of the machine and 6 foot behind the machine. A total of 12 feet.
Whereas if you were using a circular saw, jigsaw or handsaw, you bring the tool to the work. This means your work area is only as big as the material you are working with. We'll touch on this more later, but it's worth thinking about.
Quality of Cut
Blade Change
With a bandsaw, this is a bit tricker. Because in most cases you need to reset the tension, the tracking, the bearings and possibly even the fence. It becomes a bit of a hassle especially if you need to do it multiple times in one day.
To avoid this setup time, many established workshops will have more than one bandsaw setup with different sized blades to suit different tasks!
Versatility
One advantage a table saw does have over a bandsaw is the ability to cut rabbets/rebates and grooves/dados. This does involve removing the blade guard as well as the riving knife (in some instances) and for obvious reasons, isn't something I recommend. This is explained in the next point.
What Tools Do I Use?
Safety
Style of Work
– Do I want to primarily work with solid wood or manmade boards?
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Summary
Table Saw Advantages
- Great for straight cuts
- Extremely clean cut can be achieved
- Great for sizing and squaring manmade material
- Great for squaring endgrain
- Great for bevelled / mitred / compound cuts
- Blade change is easy
- Blades can usually be re-sharpened and re-tensioned
Table Saw Disadvantages
- Cannot cut curves
- Blade cutting depth is limited
- Take up a large amount of floorspace
- Potentially more dangerous
Bandsaw Advantages
- Can produce straight cuts
- Can produce curved cuts
- Great for roughly sizing material before planing
- Has a deep cutting depth
- Cutting force is not directed toward user
- Wide variety of blades available
- Less floorspace required
- Generally sits against a wall
- Replacement blades are usually inexpensive
Bandsaw Disadvantages
- Cut finish is not as good as a table saw
- Blade can wander left to right when doing straight cuts
- Blade change is slow
- Repeat cuts are not as accurate as table saw
Instead, I use my Power Tool Workbench that you can learn about below.
22 Comments
I own both a table saw and a band saw. Which one I use depends largely on what kind of work I am doing. I spend most of my time at the table saw because most of my work requires precise square corners and straight edges. If I am working with curves I use the bandsaw.
One thing I would like feedback on is the use of a gripper. I have one that I use when I am cutting small pieces. It requires me to remove the protective guard and riving tool from the table saw which is a bit scary. So far I have not had any problems with kickback. Any thoughts on this?
Hi Matt,
I like this take on things and I agree with you for someone who (such as yourself) has the choice between a £2k bandsaw and a £2k tablesaw.
But I wonder what your take is on those that have to choose between a £200 bandsaw and a £200 tablesaw?
Your footprint point largely still stands, as does the point about curves. But it seems a £200 tablesaw (10 inch blade) has broadly the same capabilities as a £2k saw (depth of cut, similar power, somewhat similar rip capacity). On paper a £200 tablesaw can do the same job as a £2k table saw. They just lack the quality of a better saw. Whereas a £200 bandsaw lacks the depth of cut, width of cut, blade width, table size and power of the more expensive bandsaws. They can’t do the same job, and they also lack the quality features that come with a more expensive bandsaw.
So is there a point where a budget tablesaw is a better choice than a budget bandsaw?
I agree with most of what you said. In my case I own both tablesaw and bandsaw. I use both all the time. Depending on the size of the material and cut I will use one or the other.
Agree with much of your blog, my observation is that in the US table saws became part of the culture with the advent of the “contractors saw” many years ago. These saws were portable and inexpensive, and with careful use could be the backbone of a DIY shop. Once accustom to using this tool many people gravitate to a cabinet saw. Both have great pluses and definite safety problems, most of which can be addressed with the operator. Been using the table saw for more than 50 years, had a band saw for at least 30 years, great tools.
Hi Matt,
I inherited a startrite 275 with my house. Made in 1972 even today it’s an outstanding table saw and I have restored it although I owe it some maintenance I.e belts although easier said than done as it weighs in at 390 lbs. It’s in an outbuilding and I am now building a shop in one half of my garage so no room.
I was forced into early retirement with health issues and my colleagues collected sufficient for me to drive an hour north to Aximnster in North Shields. What a candy store ?. Back on track and I bought the best I could afford which was an hbs310n. The guy asked if I was going to be resawing and I said some and he warned me it was not the best for it but it was all I could afford and I was in a candy store remember. I also bought Aximster blades and discarded the one that came with it.
Fast forward and I find it struggles even cutting a 4×2 so well within capacity and something that does not even slow the table saw. It has a 550w motor (approx 2/3 of a hp) and seems way under powered. I was warned so rookie mistake on my behalf. The machine overall seems well made bit underpowered.
I agree with your analysis on use and it was my plan but my advice to anyone thinking of doing the same is save a bit longer and buy a bigger one than you think you need with the biggest motor you can find.
On the blade swap yes a table saw is so easy compared to wrestling a python with teeth everywhere not just the front. I manage to draw blood every time but that could just be me.
JMHO
Hi Matt, I really appreciated this blog. What Bandsaw do you use?
Hi Matt, that was very helpful. I have always gone to the default of a table saw. I have a very small workshop I built attached to the back of my house 6ft wide 18ft long and with my workbench taking up a huge chunk of that space I’ve tried to use a small table saw on casters but I’m now looking at the small to medium band saws from Axminster, AC1400B or AC1950B. Do you have any advice on which one? I predominantly work with solid wood for furniture etc. Cheers.
Hi Matt,
Thanks for the valuable content! I own a medium tablesaw with a larger croscut sled and high precision mitresled. Yep, that eats up floorspace but I use my bench as the outfeed area and just open the garage door for endless infeed space. Still, I want to buy a bandsaw for the recutting of solid wood and for use in joinery.
On a sidenote, this fall I’m about to build a Roubo split-top as a replacement for the 118 year old bench my granddad bought (my sister wants to use it as a bar ?).
Dick
I’m a woodworker for a living and I have both saws. Resaw/curves on my bandsaw and straight cuts, dados, grooves and rabbets on my table saw. My work is split between machines and hand tools. I tend to do more with hand tools but the bulk of my processing is done with machines and then refined by hand. I won’t cut joinery on a machine other than long dados and grooves though. It’s just not to my liking.
My tablesaw is technically the center of my shop but it’s butted up to my bench for outfeed and to save space. It’s also level with my bench and when I need the extra support length, I can use my table saw top as an extension of my bench.
As a hybrid woodworker (one with a tool collecting problem) I have both a table saw and band saw. And while I do a lot of work with hand tools, my table saw is kind of my best friend! Similarly, I wouldn’t want to be without my band saw either.
I guess my opinion is that both have a place in the workshop if floor space and finances allow for it.
I bought myself a good table saw in 1995 for my 50th birthday. There have been vast improvements in attachments for circular saws since then that will duplicate a lot of the operations of the table saw. If I were stocking a my garage nowI might look at a good 14″ band saw instead.
Very good review, thanks for doing this.
Axminster have just started selling a Festool TKS 80 EBS-SET Circular Saw with SawStop. But on balance I don’t like the risks; maybe one day …
So I will stick with my bandsaw and planing.
Talking of small spaces can you get the rest of my family to STOP putting their bikes in ‘my shop’?
In the Garden Workshop series you used a jig saw – of all things! When I checked out the stats on Bosch jig saws it turns out that the largest ones can be used to cut timber up to 5 or 6 inches thick, but they’re still a compact hand tool. Their video ad shows a beautiful, smooth curve in a perfectly cut 6″ square timber (Of course it does! It’s an advert of by and for Bosch jig saws!) and it’s very persuasive.
I have too little space at home to have any large tabled power tools or machinery, and I plan to work almost exclusively with hand tools. The idea of doing 6-foot, 8-foot, 12-foot rips and hefty crosscuts by hand on a couple saw benches (a la Chris Schwarz) is daunting. But if a jig saw that can be packed away in the closet can do basic dimensioning of raw lumber, it may be what I need. Is this a reasonable choice, or am I missing something? Thanks, Matt. -Nick
Personally, I bought a used cheapo tablesaw off craigslist. I have a gripper or two and actually have, for someone who was new, done a few cuts that would be considered riskier (jointing a bord, cut 4-5 mill strips (1st cut actually), doing a box now and was doing the rebates, f’ed it up).
Got my cousins old bandsaw, and really tbh my biggest thing is resawing and the amount of material you can get out of something. I planed a board down and tried to get it flat (would love to see a video on prepping box stock by hand, planing from 3/4 to 1/3 or 3/8, and glueing thing boards? or what’s the move there, glue em thick and plane em? been meaning to check the video bout the box top in the school, mah bad, imma get on that).
Anyway, in hindsight while a table saw is great and box joints are easy, made a cross cut sled plan to use it shortly tbh the amount of jigs and shit you gotta make a f’en ridiculous. Imo, buy a band saw, buy a router (build a table) and a track saw or handheld circ saw w/ guides or just a straight edge tbh.
Love watching ya work and help me out making my woodworking a lil less shitty.
-M
Matt Brotherhood Member
Shitty Woodworker
p.s. def improve my work w/ your vids. my sharpening, my tool car/ all around solid ish!
I bought a cheapie table saw from Screwfix, made a decent, accurate fence for it, and made it mobile. It doesn’t take up too much space, and being mobile, can be moved to suit what I need. My bandsaw is a small “ hobbyist” version from Rutlands, but I do have a few problems setting it up, especially for trimming down for thickness. ( too much wander on the blade for anything taller than 30mm).
I think the debate is really which order to buy your tools. Which one to get first. There are tasks that one can do that the other can not. I like to cut dados on the table saw but really I can do it with a router, just not as efficient / quick. But I really want a bigger better table saw and band saw. And then I want a bigger shop and another band saw.
Hi Matt,
Having worked with metal all my life I used both vertical and horizontal bandsaws all my life. The first bandsaw at my apprenticeship even had a welder and grinding wheel to join blades.
I bought a portable tablesaw 10 years ago as only had a small space to work in. A big mistake!
After struggling with sheet material and making a cross cut sledge I gave up as it frighted the hell out of me after a few kickbacks and the noise it made. It now lies in the corner of my small workshop gathering dust. I bit the bullet and bought an axminster bandsaw like yours and a track saw and have never looked back. The bandsaw is used for cutting stock to thickness and many other small tasks, while the track saw is used for sheet and I also have an MFT table with a flip up track to square small stock for box making.
The edges are all squared on a shooting board which takes no time really. I even made a donkey ear so 45s are accurate and repeatable. Along with my bench disc sander for inlays I don’t think I’ll ever go back to the tablesaw, besides it frightens the hell out of me.
Love your vids and honest approach.
Agree on all counts, especially danger. However, a table saw can also take partial-thickness cuts to rebate or tenon quite safely. I’m not sure how I’d use a bandsaw to do that, except on very short pieces and with my fingers far too close to the blade.
I agree with most of your pros and cons for each machine, but why do you limit the usefulness of a tablesaw to man-made material when it can also be used for sizing and squaring solid wood just as easily and well as it does man-made materials?
I personally would like to have both in my shop, but the floor space in my shop right now is non-existent except for limited space that is dedicated to a workbench/assembly table. I do however have a DIY tablesaw that utilizes a circular saw that I have dialed in to make cuts comparable in accuracy to “real” tablesaws. It folds up for storage so I can move it outside the garage and then back in without losing its accuracy. That’s not something I could do with a bandsaw, (make it portable and able to keep its settings with repeated disassembly and reassembly), but I don’t have the floor space for one now anyway. Like I said though, I would like to eventually have both in my shop, I would like to do some re-sawing, (among other things), which is impossible to do on a tablesaw with wood wider than twice the maximum height of the blade.
Do you get your blades resharpened – or just buy a new one when they get blunt? I have tried hand sharpening with a John Heisz type rig which works but is a bit ragged.
Another thought. A carbide tipped table saw blade will last a lot longer than than the average bandsaw blade. If going down the bandsaw blade route, you will need a bigger budget for some more blades and sharpening services.
I love tables saws. Perhaps you could get rid of your power tool bench and work out a way of converting the table saw to a power tool bench when not in use. Just a thought.