How to Make a Homemade Table Saw With Circular Saw

by Well Done Tips

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Intro: How to Make a Homemade Table Saw With Circular Saw

This time I'll make a homemade table saw by using regular circular saw
How I did it - you can check by looking DIY video or you can follow up instructions bellow.

For this project you will need:

Materials:

Melamine, plywood or other board for table top and legs

Wood screws (50mm) and 16mm with flat head

Circular saw

Zip tie

Power strip

Tools:

Drill and bits

Clamps

Square

A file

STEP 1: Preparation

Drilled 5 4mm holes in circular saw base - that's will be new fixing points to the board. Also cleaned burs left after drilling.

STEP 2: The Position of Saw

For table saw top, I'll use some old laminated particle board also know as melamine. It's 1.8cm thickness, 50cm wide and 80cm long. I think it was a part of cabinet or closet before. But it will work for me ideal - because this board is straight, and all edges are perfectly square.
Put circular saw in my preferred place. I wanted to have 30cm from front to the saw, but that's depends from your personal mind.

Checked does everything is square, and marked fixing points. Predrilled and screwed all 5 screws in. I used 16mm wood screws with flat head. This will give more holding surface and sits better, to flat circular saw base. Let's check does it still perpendicular to surface, and to front edge.

STEP 3: In Progress

Turn on circular saw and slowly cut a gap for blade in melamine board.

Check does saw is square to table top. And it is!

STEP 4: Table Saw Base

Marked, predrilled and screwed two beams with 8 by 4 cm size to the bottom of board. This will be fixing structure for table saw legs. To make legs, i used the same laminated particle boards like before, from same old closet. between both legs - inserted one more board, to give more support for all construction.

STEP 5: Electric Part

Zip tied depressed trigger. Made two holes, to zip it power strip. I'm using power strip with on/off button. That's will be my on/off switch.

STEP 6: Test Cut

And finally - lets test it. With two clamps and square beam, I made temporarily side fence.

Later on, I made a proper table saw fen. How I did it - you could check In my other insctructables article, Click Here!

9 Comments

wanna beco 1 year ago

But it has no riving knife... is it subject to kickback?

EduradB 3 years ago

Happened to stumble across this instructable by accident.
For the comments re: Dangerous
Quite simply, ALL power tools demand respect. I used my home-built table-saw made out of scrap ply and a skil-saw for years without incident. If you're careful (Why wouldn't you be? It's a power-saw) and always use safety equipment, you'll be fine.

That said - I built a tablesaw interdependently of this years ago. I used some scrap plywood - a half-sheet of 5/8" Birch, finished one side instead of arborite. I didn't go as far as building a base - it just sat on two saw horses instead.
And some additional small scraps for a fence. I used a router cut two parallel grooves through the plywood on the right-hand side of the blade, which ran carriage bolts and wing-nuts to hold it down and adjust it / slide it.
Having seen how you built your fence, that's a great idea. If I still used it, I'd rebuild the fence like yours.
Dust buildup within the upside-down saw housing was never a problem for me in all the years I used it.

But alas, I recently acquired a real table saw (My grandads, 60+yr old cast-iron monster). I honestly believe my home-built one was safer, even though it sat on saw horses.

Anyway. Scrap is free, and necessity is the mother of all invention. If you need a table saw 'now', and can spare a skil-saw, this is a great option.

borism-25 7 years ago

Step 5: Electric Part, from image I see that you have pull down on the top piece, this is really dangers setup, you need something more rigid, with this setup you can only cut small pieces of plywood. Circular saw have a lot of vibrations, and you do not have space to screw bigger screws from the bottom side. Good luck and my suggestion is to buy solid wood and build it again.

This is my setup, I do not want to promote my self just to compare my table legs with yours.

MatthewM87 7 years ago

This instructable should really be taken down, this whole setup is extremely dangerous and just asking for dismemberment, impalement, or worse. There is a very good reason why tablesaws have safety pawls, riving knives, and a fence that isn't questionable at best. Anyone using this rigged deathtrap is asking for wood to bind up, the saw to break free, or deadly kickback to occur.

Again, DO NOT DO THIS AT HOME.

Or, really ever.

THIS INSTRUCTABLE IS A TERRIBLE IDEA. It's only marginally better than zip tying a saw to an upside down milkcrate.

briciius 7 years ago

that look's dangerous to me ...

JoshK107 7 years ago

Asking for an accident IMO.

For the cost of the circular saw and the plywood you could pickup an inexpensive used table saw with a guard, splitter, etc... Not to mention the issues with fence alignment, accuracy, stability... lack of dust collection...

Anyone considering doing this should think about the risks very carefully.

Phil B 7 years ago

I wondered how you manage crosscuts, but see you made a sled for that in another Instructsble. It is generally a good idea to keep the blade as low as possible. If you hand slips onto the blade during cutting, you have a flesh wound. You have not lost a finger.