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Rating: Summary: Good content - poor layout Review: I have to echo the opinion of the reviewer who complained about the layout of this book. While the content is good, with an abundance of illustrations, I found it quite frustrating to follow text passages that reference illustrations located 8 to 10 pages ahead. It appears that little or no effort was made to locate pictures and drawings on pages near the relevant text. While this may seem trivial to some, I consider it a serious flaw that detracts from an otherwise excellent tutorial on table saw basics.
Rating: Summary: Great book for both beginners and advanced woodworkers Review: Excellent book. He covers a lot of ground, including small items like types of blades and just about every type of cut imaginable with a table saw. Lots of good safety tips as well. For beginners, an excellent start. For advanced woodworkers, lots of great jigs and ideas from which to get great ideas.
Rating: Summary: Great book for both beginners and advanced woodworkers Review: Excellent book. He covers a lot of ground, including small items like types of blades and just about every type of cut imaginable with a table saw. Lots of good safety tips as well. For beginners, an excellent start. For advanced woodworkers, lots of great jigs and ideas from which to get great ideas.
Rating: Summary: My first table saw book Review: I am new to woodwooking and wanted something to let me use my table saw without investing a fortune in custom jigs and fixtures. I saw this book along with several others at the local library and checked them out. Most of the other books just had one or two jigs that looked interesting so I copied them. I read this book for two weeks and figured I'd have to do a lot of copying (everything looked great) so I just bought it. If you only want one book, this is it.
Rating: Summary: My first table saw book Review: I am new to woodwooking and wanted something to let me use my table saw without investing a fortune in custom jigs and fixtures. I saw this book along with several others at the local library and checked them out. Most of the other books just had one or two jigs that looked interesting so I copied them. I read this book for two weeks and figured I'd have to do a lot of copying (everything looked great) so I just bought it. If you only want one book, this is it.
Rating: Summary: Outstanding easy to read. The jigs are cheap aneasy to make Review: I received this book for Christmas 2 years ago. It is the most useful how-to book that I have. The jigs are very easy to make and many can be made from scrap wood. I am a novice to woodworking and found the instructions clear and the final product accurate, cheap, and good for years to come.
Rating: Summary: Excellent First Choice Review: I was lucky enough to buy this book before even shopping for my first saw. He doesn't actually recommend one model of saw over another (that would date the book very quickly), but instead explains the strengths and weaknesses of the various features. With the knowledge I gained, I was able to make a smart purchase. I wish I'd had a larger budget, but with this book in hand, I was able to align and tune my cheapish purchase to perfection. Taking his advice, I made a few choice accessory purchases (such as the Ripstrate) that improved accuracy and safety remarkably. Two years later, this is still the only table saw book I own, though it's dog-eared by now. Mr. de Cristoforo is excellent at describing techniques, and the many accessory and jig plans he provides help turn my fairly-good machine into a precision device, good for just about anything 'cept mitering expensive 8' trim sections (as I found out today to my chagrin...) A final testimony: I'm trying to switch my career to finish carpenter/cabinetmaker, and am now avidly in search of his out-of-print book "Woodworking For Beginners." I'm not a beginner any more, but I'm sure this man can teach me things I don't know.
Rating: Summary: Good information, but Bad Layout makes it a difficult read Review: The information in this book is very good. What keeps it from being really excellent choice is the lack of COLOR photos and the frustrating layout of the text. There are numerous references to the black-n-white photos (e.g. "Fig. 4-5", or "Fig. 6-8") that are rarely found on the same page that references them. This results in a constant search - as much as 4 pages ahead(!) - for the photo that the text is refering to. In some cases, there is no reason for not including the photo on the same page. It's a maddening back-n-forth scramble all over the book. Whomever put this book together was an ..., and did the author a disservice.
Rating: Summary: Nice introduction for novice and intermediate woodworkers Review: This is a very useful introduction to what a table saw can do. Some of the ideas for jigs and aids were highly imaginative and helpful. I'll refer to this book periodically for many years to come.
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