Table Saw vs Miter Saw – What Should I Buy?

table saw vs miter saw

Wondering whether to buy a miter saw or a table saw if you can only get one or the other?

In making that consideration whether you want to buy a miter saw such as this or a table saw such as this really depends on the type of cutting that you’re going to do.

Table saw benefits

If you’re going to do a lot of various different type of things as far as cut large panels, cut trim, cut shelving, those type of things, the table saw is going to give you a wider range of materials and type of cuts that you can do.

You can actually rip materials up to 32 inches wide on the table saw. Then we can also use a miter fence as this so we can cut 90 degrees. So we can do both cross cut or rips with this table saw.

We can also build jigs that allow us to do vertical cuts. We can make sleds, which are very good to cut 45 degrees if you’re making a lot of picture frames. So with a table saw, you’ve got a lot of versatility. You can make a lot of different type of jigs. You can cut a lot of different type of materials.

Now, with your miter saw, you’re really limited. As you can see, we’ve got a much narrower, so we’ve got actually about a six-inch cut on this particular miter saw. Now, there are some other types of miter saws you can get we call sliding miter saws that actually will give you up to a 12 to 15-inch base that you can cut.

What about miter saw?

So, if you’re primarily working with a lot of molding, then the miter saw with a good stand is going to be your best choice because if most of the material you’re cutting is narrow and in greater lengths, you can make a much lower investment.

One thing to keep in mind is that you’ve got the type of materials you’re cutting. And then you’ve also got the amount of investment. The compound miter saw is going to be a fraction of the cost of a table saw.


In determining which one you want to get, if you’re doing a lot of narrow pieces that are lengthy and you’re cutting them, a compound miter saw is going to work fine.

If you’re doing a lot of various materials, including all the way up to cutting panels, then you’d want the versatility of a table saw.

Mark Young

Mark Young

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