Table saw offer... Is it worth while?

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Hi guys.

There is a special offer at a hardware store for a table saw.
Here are the technical specs.

Table size: 22.44" x 17.3"
Saw disc diameter 9.84"
Depth of cut at 90º 2.87"
Depth of cut at 45º 2.48"
Power: 1800W.
Initial price: 219€ (about 306$ actual xchange rate) Sale price only for this month 99€ ( about 138$)
Brand "Herkules" problably doesn't say anything to you but neither to me.
I believe it is one of those secondary or tertiary "cheapo" brands :dunno:

Table top is aluminium profile (not cast).

My question is: Is it worth buying it? I have a pretty good band saw, would this table saw be of any help at all? Or should I save my money and buy a better or more professional one when I can?

Are the prices stated similar to US?

Sorry no pics until I can scan the leaflet. When it comes to buying tools I'm always stuck with this dilemma.

Any suggestion will be appreciated, thanks.
 
Tony, I certainly cannot comment on value since we haven't seen the saw or understand what might be considered a good price in your country.
If it is a lightweight saw similar to the Delta I have, you really have to weigh the ups and downs. Mine, similar to below, is light duty, indeed. But, I have used it a lot and if the wood isn't too demanding it will be an asset in your shop. The biggest limitation is ability to cut large, or long, pieces accurately. If your shop is large and you can build a table around it, you could end up with a very useful tool, indeed. I have never added wings to mine because I'm not sure the investment would be worthwhile and I have concerns that the aluminum top might not hold up to the extra stresses. A table saw isn't my favorite tool. Can be dangerous. But, it is useful at times.
 

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Toni,
What are you going to be doing with said table saw?
If you are just roughing out ripped stock. Most any saw will do.
If you are trying to make pictures frames and need perfect 45 than you might want to save up.:dunno:
I will not be able to tell if it is a good saw from a pic but one would help.:thumb:

Well Chuck, honestly I do not know what I'm going to use it for or if I really need it, not for picture frames definitely but maybe for box joints, tenons and furniture parts like drawer parts, runners, web frames, tapered legs and so forth on monday I'll be able to scan it and I will post a pic.

Tony, I certainly cannot comment on value since we haven't seen the saw or understand what might be considered a good price in your country.
If it is a lightweight saw similar to the Delta I have, you really have to weigh the ups and downs. Mine, similar to below, is light duty, indeed. But, I have used it a lot and if the wood isn't too demanding it will be an asset in your shop. The biggest limitation is ability to cut large, or long, pieces accurately. If your shop is large and you can build a table around it, you could end up with a very useful tool, indeed. I have never added wings to mine because I'm not sure the investment would be worthwhile and I have concerns that the aluminum top might not hold up to the extra stresses. A table saw isn't my favorite tool. Can be dangerous. But, it is useful at times.

Neither it is mine, but when I saw the offer it seemed worth thinking about it.
It is somewhat similar to your Delta but a bit bigger. As far as price is concerned we should define what is good price here.
So far I think it is a good price but if the saw is crap, then it is not good price at all. Without the offer the normal price 219€ starts to be a decision to take having it well thought. I would pay 99€ for it but not 219.

The monthly net salary for a non qualifyed worker here is around 800 to 1100€. (about 1120 to 1540$ at actual exchange rate) don't know if this helps, but my general impression is that tools and machinery are rather cheap in US compared to here:dunno:
 
For what it's worth Tony, I started with a small bench top saw. It had a 10" blade and direct drive (blade attached to the motor) and used it for about a year. It did a lot of work for me while I was wondering what to do with woodworking. As I did more projects and larger projects I found I was expecting the little machine to do more than it was designed for and thus making rather dangerous set ups to cut items the saw was never intended for. That is when I moved up to a contractors saw. What I'm slowly getting to is, It may do for you just fine. I don't know what you have available to you where you are but the minimum I'd start with is one of those job sit saws that have a 10" blade and a set of wheels on it. I bought one (a Ryobi) to build my home and was very surprised to how much work I got out of it. After I finished my home I thought about selling it but ended up keeping it and have used in the shop several times. The fence on the little saw is quite accurate for a 200 buck saw. The nice thing is when not being used you can fold it up and move it easily out of the way.:thumb:
 
I think we all have picked up a 'starter' tool of one type or another to see if and how we may use one. We know that if the tool becomes an integral part of how we work, an upgrade will probably be in our future.

If the saw is of reasonable quality, this sale would give you the opportunity to try out a table saw for less than I paid for a router. It would of course, be nice, if you could return it if it turned out to be a very poor product.

If I were looking, I would check:
  • Availability of blades (I assume they are a standard size for your area).
  • The material and solidity of the motor/arbor assembly (I assume this isn't a belt driven machine but, I could be wrong).
  • Table quality (I had an aluminum table on an old bandsaw that was nothing even close to flat, gave me fits).
If I am right, your power source is 230v at 50Hz so your 1800watts is a decent amount of power for a smaller tool. I wouldn't expect to rip 12/4 teak on it but I don't think this is your plan ;). All said and done a table saw primarily makes straight cuts with predictable angles (usually 90 degrees). If the saw will do that, or can be made to do that (jigs and sleds) I would give it a try.
 
Toni I'm kinda in agreement with Chuck , it's probably a good starter saw but you may want to save your bucks for a while . Just make sure that its not made of any plastic , been down this road and the casting cracked on me and this meant time for a new saw . I don't reply much , but have been down the road in woodworking for some time now............Marshall.......:type:
 
Hi Tony

Any chance that this saw looks something like this. This is the famours Ryobi Bt3000 table saw. Although it is a small and aluminum saw it is well supported and you can take a look at what people achieve with it on the BT forum link here.

http://www.bt3central.com/forum.php

Sure gets a lot of use by many people who love this little saw.

Your Hercules saw might be a rebranded unit for the Spanish market. But if you can find Ryobi in the stores probably not. Just a thought anyway. I also know that Skil had a similar unit



If this was going for Euro 99 I would buy one, especially as a starter saw.

Seems like Euro 99 wont buy you much today anyway especially in the saw category.
 

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Hi Tony

Any chance that this saw looks something like this. This is the famours Ryobi Bt3000 table saw. Although it is a small and aluminum saw it is well supported and you can take a look at what people achieve with it on the BT forum link here.

Thanks Rob.
In fact it does look similar but not that good:dunno:. Ryobi tools are starting to be seen here but mainly hand held power tools. Just today I saw a Ryobi table saw, that I don't remember the model but it looked even cheaper than the Herkules. The casing was made out of plastic and the table top from folded metal sheet. Every thing looked quite flimsy. It was quite similar to this BTS10S pic that I'm including but not exactly but the price was 189€ (264$):dunno:
 

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This morning I went again to re-check the table saw and look at it more thorougly.
The more I look at it the more doubts I have, the table exposed had been badly mounted and most of the bolts were loose so it was unstable and with so many people fidling with it, it was badly damaged so the image it was giving was poor.
I took some pics of it as well as the box but I think it is a no-no even for the 99€ price. The weard thing is that I saw another one of the same brand, with less power and same fixtures on the same shop for 189€
tablet05.jpgtablet06.jpgtablet07.jpgtablet08.jpgtablet09.jpg

Then I saw this other one, same brand, 2400W power with built in carriage and bigger work surface at only 199€.
tablet01.jpgtablet02.jpgtablet03.jpgtablet04.jpg
Honestly I'm lost, I'm starting to think that I do not need it for the moment and I'd better spend the money in wood:dunno:
 
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