Should I Upgrade from Craftsman 21829?

[Echartier]

TLDR: I have never used a table saw other than my Craftsman 21829. I would love to hear your thoughts about swapping out my Craftsman 21829 for a new saw (probably the Dewalt 7491).

I bought my gently used 21829 saw when I first got into carpentry and woodworking 5 years ago. It was mostly stationary in my garage shop and used for rough carpentry (framing, siding, etc) and some woodworking projects (plywood cabinets, bookshelves, etc). Since then I moved into an off-grid yurt and no longer have my shop. I am now a semi-professional carpenter and woodworker who works primarily out of my Subaru Forester. Recent jobs have included building custom French doors, rustic kitchen cabinets, re-siding part of a house, and building a tiny house.

I am not able to fit the 21829 with all of my other tools in the car, and I am considering a table saw that is more portable. I know the 21829 is a great saw for the budget I had several years ago, but Im not sure if it is still the right saw for me. In a few years I will have my own shop again with a stationary saw and a portable saw for the road, but right now I still need something mobile that can fit easily in my car.

How do you all think the 21829 compares to other portable saws on the market today? I like the telescoping rails on the Dewalt saws, and they seem much more portable especially when disconnected from a stand. Do you think these saws are a big step up from the 21829? Are they worse in some ways?

Thank you for all of your help over the years - especially LCHIEN and the FAQ document you created!

Thank you for your advice, thoughts, wisdom, etc!

[LCHIEN]

Forrester is not that big an SUV, consider getting a suburban then you can have your 21829 and carry more stuff. I am sure the FOrrester is limiting what you can carry besides just your saw.
I had an Outback which is bigger than my daughter's Forrester and there was no carrying sheet goods and very iffy carrying anything longer than 8' dimensional lumber and much of it at that.
Rereading your post, you live in a yurt and don't have a shop, so I guess You are a minimalist.

[Echartier]

Thank you for your response LCHIEN! I am definitely a minimalist - we are 2 adults and 1 dog in our 300 square foot yurt home in Vermont, a big upgrade from our 70 square foot tiny house! My "workshop" right now is a tarp setup outside until we get a proper shop built, or on-site with my Forester. I would love a larger vehicle but for now I am working pretty well with my Subaru. You are right that I can not carry sheet goods or much lumber, but luckily the hardware and lumber shops near me all offer free delivery so I rarely transport materials myself.

Do you think saws like the Dewalt 10" 7491 would be a upgrade or downgrade quality wise from the 21829? I could definitely keep both saws but upgrading for $500 to have a more portable option would be much cheaper than upgrading my vehicle or making two trips to jobs when I need to bring my table saw.

Thank you!

[LCHIEN]

TBH I know nothing about the dewalt model you mention, I haven't looked at a new tablesaw in ages.
I am very happy with my BT3000 having discovered all its quirks and its features I am very comfortable using it and have found it very well suited to my temperment and style of working and as precise as I need it. I have had it for more than 24 years.
I owned for a year or so before the BT3000 a small craftsman compact table saw and hated it for so many reasons.
I had a Subaru Outback for 12 years and my daughter had a Forrester for about the same time. I have replaced mine with a Telluride and she a Toyota Sienna (after having 3 more kids).
But the BT3000 never went for a ride. Its a fixture in my garage.

[twistsol]

The 7491 is a decent saw but I think it is definitely a downgrade from the 21829. I had the opportunity to use one for a while when I was also thinking of getting a portable saw. I think the biggest downgrade would be the miter gauge vs the SMT. If i recall correctly the 7491 is also direct drive (which seems to matter to some people, but didn't cause any issues for me) and you'll also lose the configurability of the tables that the 21829 provides. Only you can decide if the need for portability outweighs those drawbacks.

My son in law has a Bosch 4100 series which is similar to the 7491 but it felt more solid. I still don't have a portable tablesaw and have made do with a tracksaw when necessary. Fortunately two of the three kids have tablesaws at their houses and the one that doesn't is only a few minutes away vs 3-4 hours for the other two.

[capncarl]

A few yrs ago I purchased a Makita track saw to cut plywood sheets. After watching a bunch of utube on track saws and learned about the Festool MFT table I was mere inches from selling off my table saw and going with the fold down table and track saw. This might be a solution if you insist of working out of a wee car.

[Black walnut]

Do you even need a table saw? A quality corded or cordless circ saw and good straightedge or old school hand saws and a miter box seem more fitting for minimalism. I think any portable jobsite saw would be a move down from the 21829.

[Echartier]

Thank you everyone for your advice and words of wisdom!

LCHIEN I will probably get a hitch and trailer in the future but for now the Forester is working out well. I am going to play around more with my 21829 today with your FAQ page and see if I can fiddle with things and make it work better for me, as well as rearrange my car and see if I can get it to sit alongside my other tools. Fun experiment!

twistsol I was surprised to read the consensus that it would be a downgrade, this is very good to know. Honestly Ive never used a miter gauge or the SMT on my saw, I am going to play around with it more today (after putting it back on) and see how well it might work. I tend to use my miter saw for cross cuts and the table saw for rips but that can change! I have never used a track saw but that is definitely an option I could explore further.

capncarl I will need to look more into track saws. I typically use my cordless circular saw and a straight edge to cut down sheets. Thank you for the recommendation! That Festool table seems neat but very expensive - it looks like some folks have built their own which could be cool to consider.

Black walnut That is a totally fair question. On most jobs I do not need a table saw, and I do use my circular saw with straight edge to cut down sheet goods and for rough framing cross cuts. My table saw usually comes to jobs where I am doing things like siding, door jambs, etc and need to make longer rip cuts on 1x or 2x lumber. Good to know the consensus here is that the Dewalt saws would be a downgrade, I will heavily consider that when I evaluate my options.

One idea I am playing around with is to keep my 21829 and buy the small 8.25" Dewalt portable saw on sale for $299. That could give me maximum portability in my car when I need to just bring a table saw, but keep my larger saw at home for when I need the capacity. Lots of ideas to consider, thank you all!

[leehljp]

I started to join in yesterday with a comment, but got sidetracked at my daughter's house several hours away. While the BT3x00 and the Craftsman 21829 were considered by some as a job site saw since it is portable, there is a difference between the Ryobi and Craftsman VS higher brand jobsite saws. The Bosch, Marita's, Dewalts are tough and can take shoving 2x4s on it, but the precision cuts are not there. The BT3x00 and Craftsman 21829 are not on par with cast iron 5hp and 10hp saws, but they do have a bit of accuracy that if one takes care of them, they (BT3x00 and 21829) can make precision cuts that job site saws aren't meant to do. The BT and 21829 with Sliding Miter table or a high end quality miter gauge will make great repeatable precision cuts that will amaze considering the price. But one has to take care of these tools, in which case they will do well.

[mpc]

The BT3 series saws depend on their stands for rigidity/strength. That's the one advantage the small portable contractor saws might have over a BT3. But screw the front and rear panels of a BT3 to a 3/4 inch thick piece of plywood and it'll be pretty solid without its stand. Now imagine that plywood piece is about 5 or 6 inches wider than the BT3 on each side, and the same distance front-to-back. Those extensions give you a small shelf to store the rip fence on, a miter gauge, etc. and you can cut handle holes into them or screw metal handles onto them. Now you've got a "sled" that can slide in/out of the cargo area of your Forester... with a rear seat folded. The BT3 fence rails detach easily, along with the rip fence, so you only have to fight the weight of the saw body plus the plywood sheet/sled when loading/unloading the saw. Although the front rail has a handy measurement tape on it you don't really need it... just use your tape measure; that way you don't have to spend time aligning the rails to the blade at each re-assembly. The "accessory table" (the tabletop piece with the round hole in it for routers) can be used on either side of the blade; get a second one and use that in place of the sliding miter table if you use a separate miter saw for most crosscuts. Look around on this site and you'll see various ideas for adding a regular miter slot to BT3s to use a regular miter gauge.

Drill a few holes in that plywood sled piece to line up with holes drilled into the stock stand for when you use the saw at home. That'll be more sturdy than placing the saw+sled onto sawhorses or whatever portable stand you use on jobsites.

mpc

[capncarl]

I can’t imagine a better portable saw than the 21829. There can’t possibly be a better portable base on the market and it was designed for this particular saw! It folds up and slides into the back of a vehicle like the vehicle was designed for this saw, and it rolls around like a well balanced hand truck.
If it has to be portable and fit in the back of a wee car, the only saw that I would recommend to take the place of the 21829 would be SawStop JSS-120A60 Jobsite Saw PRO with Mobile Cart.
I do not own a contractor JSS-120A60, but I do own a decked our SawStop CNS. If the Jobsite Pro’s quality is anything like my contractor saw it will be a great saw……. And it won’t cut your fingers off.

It has been mentioned a number of times in earlier posts, You should buy your last tablesaw first. I find this true as I have spent more money on my earlier saws than I did on last saw!

[dbhost]

Considering your application, I would probably investigate replacing the table saw all together with a router / bits to replace the dado / rabbeting ability, and a circular saw / track combination for rips, crosscuts on larger material, and a fairly compact 12" sliding compound miter saw like the Metabo HPT for your narrower cross cuts / rips, miters etc...

Or get a trailer and have full size tools to work with. The Forester is capable of a bit of, but not much towing.

If you are committed to keeping the forester, downsize your tools. Or sell the Forester, upsize your vehicle and capacity...

[capncarl]

There are things a semi-pro carpenter / woodworker can’t cut with a router or track saw, ie, crown molding

[capncarl]

Have you looked into a combination miter saw/ table saw? Check out Ryobi RTM S 1800, Virutex TM33W, MAKITA LH 1 FL
They look to be very portable and have most carpenter needs covered.