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cabinet vs. sliding table saw

2/10/23       
Robert

I am expanding a smaller shop and hiring a few new shop hands. We currently use a Unisaw and small panel saw for processing our sheet goods (all 1/2" and 3/4", mostly prefinished). Obviously need to upgrade for output and safety reasons. A CNC is not currently in our budget. We will be building face frame cabinets as well as custom consignment furniture pieces.
If given the opportunity to purchase a new 5hp SawStop cabinet saw, or a new Grizzly 5hp sliding table saw-which would you go with? I appreciate any input and especially from those who have used both. Thanks!

2/10/23       #2: cabinet vs. sliding table saw ...
RichC

What model and what sized slider on the Grizzly? A cheap slider can cause a lot of headaches getting set up, and then when the slider bearings wear out.

2/10/23       #3: cabinet vs. sliding table saw ...
Robert

Rich-we are looking at a G0623 5hp 10". Pretty basic entry level

2/10/23       #4: cabinet vs. sliding table saw ...
Thomas Gardiner

I have bought a used (well used) slider. 1980s SCM. After a couple of months of small adjustments it has been an accurate workhorse. Some don't like to work solid on a slider, I prefer it. There are good deals on used saws Holzher 1243, Scm, etc. In my opinion you would be way ahead of the Grizzly.
I don't employ others to work on the saw so the benefits of the sawstop safety are not an issue with me. Twenty plus years with all my digits.

2/10/23       #5: cabinet vs. sliding table saw ...
RichC

I really don't see a big advantage of handling sheet goods on a slider with only 6' of travel. You'll still have to have that second table saw. Personally I would buy a quality vertical panel saw.

2/11/23       #6: cabinet vs. sliding table saw ...
SteveL Member

I also recommend a used slider over a Grizzley. My Altendorf is from 1983 I think, paid little for it and it has run thousands of hours without fail. They are built so well. Mine is pretty well abused and I will probably keep it forever even though I've had a CNC for a few years now.

2/11/23       #7: cabinet vs. sliding table saw ...
Robert

I haven't had much luck locating either a used slider or vertical panel saw in our current budget. Any leads would be great. I do appreciate the suggestions.

2/12/23       #8: cabinet vs. sliding table saw ...
Tom Gardiner

Beware of taking financial advice from the internet but...
A full length slider or vertical saw might be worth leasing new or used because they can speed up production so much. Also buying an intermediate machine can be a pain to install and wire when you ultimately will have to go though it again.
Do the math to see if a modest lease payment would be worthwhile in your case.

2/12/23       #9: cabinet vs. sliding table saw ...
Oggie  Member

I use full size sliding saw, meaning it can cut full 4' x 8' sheet in either direction. I would suggest you get the full-size slider if you can. Sliding saw is better than cabinet saw if you need precision, squareness and scoring blade functionality, plus it's much less physically demanding for the operator. Cabinet saw takes less space and could be faster if you don't need any of the above-mentioned benefits of sliding saw.

However, there is a way to be productive even with a smaller one like that Grizzly. Have a look at the drawings I attached. I've set up my sheet cutting optimizer software to align cabinet parts in such a way that cross-cuts are the ones I start with. For the cabinet sizes I cut 99.9% of time all cabinet parts are of such size that sheets usually get divided into 3 crosscut parts (see the red lines on the drawings). Then I just deal with those smaller pieces.
Even if there was some theoretically more optimized way, I would still have to do it this way because of famous "banana cuts" that I have on every melamine and most plywood sheets I cut. Basically, these 4 sides, resulting from first 2 crosscuts have to be straightened out anyway, so the fact that you can square whole sheet of material on a big sliding saw doesn't do much for me, since I have to deal with banana cuts on smaller portions later anyway. Plus, many times scoring blade doesn't work well on a whole sheet of material, since it's not easy to keep whole sheet of material completely pressed to the slider bed anyway. It's even harder with plywood than melamine.

So, if you arrange your cabinet parts like I do, you may use your existing panel saw to divide whole sheets into smaller parts (or even have other worker to do that for your), and then just use sliding saw from then on. You may even be faster that way than doing everything on a bigger slider (smaller saws are generally faster to work with than big ones). That has been an idea I've been thinking about since I got my big slider, I just don't have enough space in the shop to bring back my old panel saw from storage without obstructing other operations in the shop.


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