For any serious woodworker, a table saw is an essential piece of kit. They allow you to cut wood quickly, accurately and repeatedly and are invaluable for a whole range of applications.
The biggest problem, though – and this is especially relevant to the casual home user – is that they don’t come cheap. However, if you need a table saw but don’t have the cash to splash on buying one, fortunately, there is another solution.
Here, we bring you nine homemade circular saw table plans you can DIY at home to help give your woodworking capabilities a boost while also potentially saving you a lot of money.
Table of Contents
1. Basic Circular Saw Table Saw
When it comes to plans for a range of high-quality DIY projects for you to try, the Instructables website is always an invaluable resource – and, as dependable as ever, here’s a great plan for a table saw you can easily build at home.
The instructions start with a list of all the materials and tools you need for the project and then move on to give you a step by step guide to building your table saw.
There are also many clear and useful photos to show you exactly what you should be doing at each step to make this plan as easy as possible to follow – and there’s an accompanying video to watch too.
The end result is a very simple but highly effective table saw built using a regular circular saw – a great project for DIY fans to try at home.
2. How to make a “good” DIY table saw
If you go online and look for plans for turning a circular saw into a homemade table saw, you will come across plenty of simple ideas that basically involving bolting an upside-down circular saw to a sheet of plywood.
While this might work, it’s a fairly crude solution – so this DIYer decided to make something a little more sophisticated and more akin to the kind of table saw you can buy.
For his experimental project, he set about turning his Makita circular saw into a table saw with adjustable depth settings. With a series of informative photos and useful commentary, he takes you through the process of building the tool.
We like the way he takes you through each step of his thinking and the questions he was posing himself at each stage – as well as his solutions and how he tried to implement them.
There’s a video at the end – and then a link to the second part of the project. This is a gripping DIY story, and we’re sure you’ll love finding out how it all ends!
3. Circular saw conversion to a table saw
This plan is video-only, but it’s well worth checking out. Bought table saws are expensive, especially ones that are high-quality – and they can also be extremely dangerous. With a table saw, you can easily lose a couple of fingers from just a moment of inattention.
This YouTuber sets out to rectify these problems by making an inexpensive DIY table saw that is also safe to use.
As with the previous plan we looked at, he also wants to go a bit further than just fixing an upside-down circular saw to a sheet of wood – his aim is to make something more advanced. The innovation here is to have a fence that is fixed to the table with sliding laminate rails for adjustment.
It’s a short and simple video plan that any half-competent DIYer should be able to replicate at home – so if you’re feeling ambitious, why not give it a go?
4. A “more professional” DIY table saw
This DIYer starts off by explaining the problem of sometimes needing to use a table saw outside and having the choice of carrying the lumber back to the workshop or rigging up a makeshift – and not particularly safe – upside-down circular saw-type rig.
After facing this old dilemma a number of times, he finally decided to make something that was a bit “more professional” than the traditional cobbled-together solution.
As with all the best plans, you’ll find clear explanations, useful photos and plenty of insights into the creative process behind this table saw.
There are a few notes on the problems he faced and how he solved them, and once the whole thing starts taking shape, it looks highly impressive.
At the bottom, you’ll also find a video containing some extra words of advice – and finally, something we really love, a photo of the whole thing folded away for storage when not in use. We enjoyed this plan and we’re sure there will be plenty of people who are interested in giving it a go at home too.
5. Three-in-one multipurpose workbench
The name of this site is “Creativity Hero”, and that’s exactly what this lady is. She didn’t want to stop at making something as simple as just a table saw from her circular saw. This DIY plan shows you how to make a whole workstation that incorporates a table saw, a router table and an inverted jigsaw.
The whole workstation is completely wired up and powered by integrated switches for each saw, and even the aesthetics of the unit aren’t forgotten, with a section on staining the wood to make it look more professional and attractive.
We’re blown away by this project. The vision to create something like this is remarkable, and this DIYer’s execution and attention to detail are exemplary. This is one of our favorite DIY plans we’ve ever seen, so if you’re looking for something to get stuck into, this could be worth checking out.
6. High-quality DIY table saw plan
If you’re looking for something a bit simpler but that will give you a high-quality and professional-looking table saw for a fraction of the cost of buying one from a store, this could be more along the lines of what you’re after.
There are plenty of good photos showing what the end result should look like. Unfortunately, the explanations are a little lacking – however, if you consider yourself an adept DIYer, you should still be able to fill in the gaps. If you like a challenge, this could be a project you enjoy taking on.
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7. Homemade table saw with riving knife
This video plan is a fun watch. It’s quite long and there are no explanations, you just have to watch what he’s doing at each step. However, we enjoy watching videos like this – it’s almost hypnotic watching the DIYer work and the table saw taking shape as the video progresses.
Some of the comments complain about the music in this video, but we don’t mind it. Anyway, it’s a question of taste, and the guy who put together this excellent video is perfectly entitled to choose whatever music he wants. A good plan and another solution for an inexpensive homemade table saw.
8. Table saw in 10 minutes
For anyone looking for a quick and easy table saw with no messing about, this plan that can be completed in only ten minutes could be just what you’re looking for.
While some of the plans we’ve looked at here are complicated and ambitious, if all you want is a functional table saw you will be able to use for accurate cuts, this is the kind of plan you need.
We enjoy this video – the presenter has plenty of charisma as well as an obvious passion for what he’s doing. Furthermore, the table saw he creates is a no-nonsense tool that does the job it’s designed for.
One of the things we like the most about this video is the good balance between demonstration and commentary. When things are clear from just watching, he just shows you – but when you need to know what he’s doing, he takes the time to explain it clearly.
This is a great plan that shows how things can be kept simple but still be highly effective. Another great plan.
9. Table saw minus safety features
We felt we had to include this plan – but we’re not so sure about recommending you to try it at home. The plan comes with a disclaimer stating that it is “incredibly dangerous”, that it includes high-speed spinning circular saw blades and that it uses equipment in ways that it was not designed to be used.
The plan involves stripping down a saw, here a 35-year-old Makita, and fixing what’s left to the underside of a sheet of wood.
We don’t need to explain everything, but it’s worth checking out, even if it’s just to see how not to build a DIY table saw. We’re not saying it’s not effective – we’re just saying it’s not particularly safe – so if you want to try to copy this one at home, make sure you are extremely careful!
Some highly creative ideas
We love hunting down these DIY plans because there are some really creative and talented people out there. Whether you want an ambitious and sophisticated project like the three-in-one workstation or something simple and functional like the 10-minute saw table, we hope there’s something here of interest. But if you try #9, just make sure you don’t hurt yourself!
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