Why the world HATES American table saws (Are they wrong?)

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[StumpyNubs]

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[Blit_Wizbok]

42% yelling at the other 68% means that there's 10% yelling at both sides, which is accurate math

[halsti]

as a german, most professional woodshops here use a big panel saw with a sliding table. those short fence saws are usually for professionals on the go. home-woodworkers usually have a jobsite saw thats the same built as the US ones. the cabinet style saws that you use in america are not very common here, though i do know one person that uses a laguna one.
imo, the thing that professionals here would not want to go without is the sliding table. the fence is fine, but its usually preferred to have one that can be pulled back. as long as you use them properly, its fine either way.

[willdejong]

Stumpy Nubs was clearly fishing for comments. I'll bite, because I liked the content. All 110% of it.

[sicr]

I found this video very interesting. I'm an English cabinetmaker, with just over 45 years in the trade and I enjoy watching a lot of American content on furniture making / woodworking, and I continue to be amazed at how many channels I've seen where NO guard is used even though the application being carried out would allow for a guard. At first I found this incredible, but have come to accept it as the norm now, although I still shudder sometimes.
It's good to see that this channel takes safety very seriously, keep up the great work!

[hypnodink]

Got my wife a BOW fence for her birthday. She's an aspiring woodworker, but was hesitant to do long rips herself. She loves the BOW fence and the confidence it gives her that her workpiece will move through the saw as she intends.

[gozergozerian]

that extra 10% is because of the metric system

[brw]

Here in Brazil, all professionals use a sliding table saw. American/Chinese Jobsite saws have become common among small and amateur shops. Most have the American style longer fence, but a few, including Skil saw, have a short European style fence. I wondered why and what the difference was. Thanks for clearing it up for us.

[jessekoch]

As an Aussie woodworking teacher your spot on with your safety explanation. I have used a long fence until it pinched.

[louisvictor]

As both one of said international viewers and a "just learn to use the tools you do have safely and well" kinda person, I fully agree with your closing notes. They're both good, as long as long as you dont just memorize how to operate "table saw" or whatever tool, but you actually understand why a procedure you learned is the way it is, you understand why a specific tool is designed the way it is and what was it designed to do, even something as seemingly simple as a fence, and you work with that instead of against that. This affects your choice of tool for the same role as well.

For a purely anecdotal example so people can compare to their own experience, what I and the other people in the hobby I know usually tend to prefer a circular, track or even a jigsaw to resawing and breakng down larger lumber/sheet goods, and only use the table saw for finer cuts on those pieces already broken down to size. So the advantages of a longer fence/the weaknesses of a shorter fence aren't very relevant to us, but the added safety/convenience of a shorter fence for the pieces we do cut on the table saw is. Chances are, if we were keen to use the table saw for "everything", we probably would have different fence preferences too. All of this being said, as I said, I fully agree with the conclusion, the adjustable fences or adaptors/extensions that can offer you both options are not just the best of both worlds, they are an inherently superior option to both, being able to adapt to the exact needs of what you're actually doing.

[alexclark]

One of the few YouTubers who can get me to watch an entire video even though it has a clickbait title. Keep it up, my dude.

[lukasoldani]

During my professional education in Switzerland (1996-2000) we had a big premium tablesaw of the brand "Martin". This saw have an aluminum extension as you showed. Furthermore you can flip it so that it is lower for more clearance for small offcuts. I was teached to use it fully extruded if worked with sheet lumber as MDF, plywood, ... but draw it back 2/3 of the blade if working with natural wood. This makes sence to me and I use it that way ever since then.

[Joey]

"48% of you thinks the other 62% of you are using your table saws wrong."

100% of me thinks math is still important.

I kid. Love the channel.

[TheGreatDanish]

I have never touched a table saw in my life but i watched the whole thing. Youre a perfext example of classic youtube. Just quality content on a specific niche with no pretense.

[jasonmoncrieff]

James, your impartiality has to be applauded. You have a common sense approach to anything that I've seen on your channel. Please continue with the quality content that I and I suspect most others love and appreciate. Thank you 😊

[digital]

International viewer from Germany here. I'm completely on your side. My grandfather was a professional woodworker and I'm lucky to still have his shop with all the tools. The table saw is a really big one with a sliding table. And it has a long fence which can be adjusted just as yours. The sliding table can't be used for long rip cuts and a really long board will just wander around without a long fence.

[norm]

Wonderful assessment of the proper use and length of the Rip fense

[gideonmack]

Adjustable fences are the answer, I'm a professional cabinetmaker in the UK and every pro tablesaw I've used has an adjustable fence. You also set it so that it stops before the blade to use it as a stop for crosscutting or turn it 90° to use it as a low fence for thin materials that sometimes get caught under high fences.

[gillie-monger]

As a Brit, I hate the stupid stubby fences. In fact I add an extension to my standard full length fence when ripping long pieces especially ply boards.

[andreasbentz]

James, I absolutely agree with your summary. Sometimes it is good to have the best of both worlds. Having been to the U.S. as a student around 1990, I learned a lot from Norm Abrams PBS TV Series. That was when I was exposed to the rip-fence, which made much sense to me for panel material without internal tension.

I grew up in Germany with a DiY multifunctional machine system (Bosch Combi) where I learned that a fence should be short (this machine was meant for small parts). However when cutting up 8ft long 1 1/2" pine planks together with my dad, we built a long fence and a saw-horse with a roller support for the outfeed side. OK it was way out of spec use, but the machine did it (driven by a 450W Bosch power drill). And hey, in the 70ies there was practically no access to professional machines for DiYers here in Germany.

So I grew up "unreligious" about the fence length, knowing the benefits of both. Today I have an older type of job-site saw here - still with the stubby fence - which I can exchange with a longer self built rip-fence. That BTW has all the little extras that your Bow Extender Kit has.


My next saw (if mine should die before me) will be a DeWalt job site saw. Not only because of the fence, but because of the fact, that it is the only available saw in that segment, that has an arbor which can fit a dado-stack. You hear right: a German that wants to use a dado stack (thanks to Norm Abrams). The German DeWalt 7492 is not officially certified for a dado stack, but the 110V U.S. twin brother is, and the part number of the arbor is identical for both.

Keep up your good work, I enjoy your videos very much.

Greetings from good old Germany!
Andreas