Imagine this; you can now build your own furniture and be kind enough to exploit mother nature to feed your needs – that is, you need to cater to those woods according to your tunes. Here is the question – if you were to shape the perfect curves ever known to humankind, what tools would you use?
Anyone with a pair of brain cells will say saw for human reasons. Still, experienced ones will choose circular saws, and adventurous ones are reportedly bored. Why?
Yes, we know, circular saws are the best thing ever happened to mankind because of how smooth they are, whether it is their functionality or their job to impress those clients.
They are so easy to use that anyone with quadruple brain cells would be happy that they chose this and would be on their way to being the adventurous one.
To the adventurous one – when does it get better, right?
Right, it gets better with the better alternatives that I found, right here, in this article, after testing and reviewing. And with a few trials and errors, you can choose not the perfect or the expensive one; but the one that perfectly suits your needs and feeds your creative expectations.
All you have to do is thoroughly read my experiences with each.
You can’t ignore a Circular Saw
That’s for a fact. That one is the mother of the sources.
Circular ones are powerful for a controlled, thorough cut on large plywood or furniture. Name the popular cuts like crosscut wood or rip it with grain; circular saws serve the best service.
As I said earlier, being more expensive does not mean a better outcome for the project. The pros use contractor-grade saws according to their needs. But the concern is – do you need all of those?
The answer is no. Because it is not the instrument but the handicraft and the artists’ experience to have been crafting that way. Again, yes, the circular saw might be one of the coolest things in the market due to its easy functionality but see if it serves what you need.
Circular saws have perfect circular blades and rational scales to keep you going with them and are perfect for beginners.
So whatever you choose, the experience must be similar to this one. The durability, functionality, and user-friendly features must provide similar services to satisfy the needs.
Keeping those in mind, I have found six alternatives to circular saws to suit your needs. I have documented my experiences and thoughts on each so that you can get a better first-hand experience reading each.
Alternatives of Circular Saw
While I have all my armies listed, here goes my first one:
Handsaw
In this article, we are beginning from the beginning. So this is for the people who are new at this game and have a noise restriction from their neighbors. A handsaw is small and a manual object for small projects.
Case and Point: Home Projects.
If I had to wrap it up in logical bullets, I could arrange it like this:
- Our main concern – cost-effective
- Easy to carry
- Noise-cancellation operation
- Safe since safe
- Controllable
- No energy source needed
Suppose your cat just needs another of it already has, a new cathouse (c’mon). This is what you pick. This is handy, small, with almost no noise, cheap, and perfect if you cannot use a chainsaw.
This is perfect for small wood pieces, little home projects, and other stuff that usually doesn’t require much attention. For the big ones, I have something better saved for you.
So, here’s the bummer part you were waiting for — it is very time-consuming. The cherry on top is– it is fully manual, so everything will depend on the user. In nutshell –
- Time-consuming
- Energy burner (might be a positive one)
- Not adjustable
- Physically unclean
Since it is significantly beginner-friendly, they take time to get used to the functionality. Thus, all these disadvantages can round up to the above. The best way is to see through the bullet points and let yourself decide if you are ready for this.
Jigsaw machine
Now we already know what a beginner should use for normal woodwork. In this part, I will tell you about a machine considered best for curves, designs, and creativity on wood.
You should look into this machine if you want something to design and cut shapes to decorate.
As I mentioned, I will mention the pros and cons in bullet points to save both of us time. Jigsaw is the creative liberty that you are looking for. Furthermore–
- You can take your jigsaw anywhere. It is portable.
- Versatile to use
- Suitable for beginners and documentation is a piece of cake, to begin with.
- Gives you creative liberty. You can design anything you want as long as you know how to control it.
- It’s cheaper than most.
- Can work on a variety of woods and metals.
Sounds like a dream, eh?
Well, you are not wrong. It is the best of the best of you who know how to curve your creatives. Just like the previous one, I am going to draw some drawbacks that you would want to know before you splurge your money on a new object –
- Since it is designed for creative layouts, straight cuts can be difficult.
- Noise. Can get your neighbors mad.
- Can generate splintering and can cause tear-out
- You cannot go deeper than instructed.
- It vibrates a lot, so you might want to train your hands and learn how to control it. beforehand to prevent accidents.
- It has limitations of bevel cuts.
I stretched out the disadvantages as much as possible so that you could know what you were getting into before buying that. If you think you are okay with all these, a beautifully made curving beast awaits you!
Miter saws
Now onto the technical and more complicated for the adventurous one. This one is for you.
Miter saws are the saws that instantly pop up in your mind when you think of a razzle-dazzle saw that does all the work you can name – bevel cuts, miter cuts, crosscuts, and other woodworks that you can think of (Think outside the box!).
Like the above saws, this one was quite different. It’s different, efficient, versatile, and honestly, beast-looking. Specifically, if you want effortless cuts, ninety degrees crosscuts, this is the handiest tool you can find.
Now if this one is just a tiny advantage, I should perform my moral responsibility to inform you that a perfect crosscut is very hard.
Which doesn’t apply to this one, fortunately.
But that does not end there. I have once again documented my entire experience with the miter saw in bullet points so that you can better perceive what’s happening here.
- The first one is the one that I have been raving about since day one; the versatility of this one. By the look of it, you can already guess that it serves what it promises, and the plus point is – it’s rather handy when used.
- Versatility does not only mean it can just do the work. It actually helps you make the perfect cutouts and the famous ones too. You can make miter cuts, straight cuts, bevel cuts, and other angled cuts in all shapes and forms.
- One factor that makes it stand out from the other options is that it is highly efficient and exerts its efficiency relatively faster than most other saws. It is electrically operated, so you can have repeatable cuts without sweat.
- Very safe to use. Especially with those electric brakes and blade guards to save you from any unpredictable accidents.
- Amazing for people to do their work faster, but you will need to have expert hands.
I would recommend this to someone experienced or who has already dealt with it. And a few drawbacks come with it, but I don’t think that should stop you from buying this amazing piece of art. These are some of the examples that I had to encounter with:
- You cannot travel with it everywhere since it is electrically based.
- It is quite pricey.
- It cannot cut thicker materials or plywood.
- It is specifically made for perfect cuts and designs so it might be hard to become versatile for all types of work.
- It’s harder to clean it.
Yup, this is it.
Table saws
This is for the readers and soon-to-be creators of the big projects!
Table saws are large and require a lot of space and loads of money (you could already guess). They are best known for their cut with wood grain. But if you have the means for it, you are sure to go it a go after you read my thoughts on this particular piece:
- Easy setup. You can build it up anytime.
- Precise cuts and works with thicker plywood.
- Best for tight-fitting joint cuts.
- There are many types of table saws to choose from. In a nutshell – each table saw is for each need.
- Miter cuts and straight cuts are pieces of cake.
- Used to create joints.
The disadvantages can be cut down to being expensive and requiring large spaces.
You must remember that many types of table saws are found in the market, both portable and non-portable. It is up to you to choose the type of saw you’re looking for and dive into the diverse categorization of table sources that satisfy your needs.
Plunge saws
Plunge saws are one of the saws which have their blades inside a spring-mounted system inside a metal guard. That sounds safe.
I suggest plunge saws to someone who likes to experiment with their projects. This is the perfect reincarnation of circular saws in a way that you enjoy other features, including that one. I enjoyed the features that it had to offer, which includes:
- I found this one to be perfect for trimming wood sheets
- Since it was good for trimming, it played excellent role in shaping and retouching designs of other furnitures.
- You can expect accurate cuts.
- You can take it anywhere with you, the size is made for just that.
- Manageable for beginners
If you have decided to go for plunge saws, explore the in-built options that come with them. Check the battery power because it is directly connected to the portability of your saws. Check if the features include variable speeds.
That will allow you to extend the range of versatility. Checking the antikickback system might give you the edge too. Plunge saws didn’t have enough drawbacks to stop you from experiencing them. I pointed out some of the minor ones–
- Noise.
- Expensive than before.
- Needs proper guidance.
If you are okay with those – voila. Your dream saw is here.
Track saws
If all of those didn’t convince you, you are at the right place. I have documented why you will own a track saw someday, if not immediately.
- Cleanest serve. Leaves no clamps.
- Portable, you can take it anywhere.
- You can start cutting from any point of the plywood.
- Perfect straight cuts and precise cuts
- Almost no tear-outs
- Cost-friendly if compared to the provided features
Track saws are one hell of an alternative if you can play your cards right. The drawbacks are minimal like it is pretty noisy and can make your neighbors mad (let’s be honest, lovely woodwork can get them back to normal).
Other drawbacks may include professional handling, which most of our reader lack. If you want to splurge your money, splurge it on a good one and something that will last you for years.
And the above discussion should help you figure that out!
