About TableSawGuide

TableSawGuide is an independent site built around six free calculators for the table saw and the rest of the workshop, plus a small museum of woodworking history. There’s no company behind it beyond the ads that keep it free — just a straightforward walk through what each tool does and why it’s here.

Planning the material

The Lumber Calculatorturns a cut list into board feet: enter each piece’s thickness, width, length, and quantity, add a price per board foot, and it totals the project cost. It’s the tool for working out how much lumber to buy and what the pile is going to cost before you place the order.

Wood keeps moving after it’s milled, and the Wood Movement Calculatorestimates how much a board will shrink or swell across its width as moisture changes. Pick a species, the grain orientation, the board width, and a moisture range, and it returns a movement estimate to plan gaps and joinery around — useful before gluing up a panel or fitting a frame-and-panel door.

Setting up the cut

The Cut Depth Calculator works out the maximum depth of cut for a given blade size at any bevel angle, and how much of that depth you lose as the blade tilts. The Miter Angle Calculator does the equivalent job for angles: tell it how many sides a frame has, and it returns the miter angle to set on the gauge along with the full joint angle where two pieces meet. The Kerf Width Reference rounds out this group by listing typical kerf widths for full-kerf, thin-kerf, and dado blades, and estimating how much of a run of cuts turns into sawdust versus usable stock.

Keeping the shop clear

The Dust Collection Planner looks at the whole shop rather than a single cut: list the machines you run, and it totals the CFM needed if they all ran at once, the CFM for running one machine at a time, and a suggested duct diameter based on that airflow.

The Woodworking Tools & Timber Museum

Alongside the calculators, the Woodworking Tools & Timber Museum holds galleries on hand tools, power tools, wood species, and joinery, with entries, images, and facts drawn from Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons. The blog and learnsection cover the same ground in longer form — setups, techniques, and background reading to go with the tools above.

What this site is — and isn’t

TableSawGuide is independent and supported by advertising; it isn’t affiliated with any saw manufacturer, blade brand, or standards body it references. Every calculator here produces an estimate based on the numbers you enter and established woodworking conventions — not a guarantee, and not professional advice. Actual results depend on your specific saw, blade, wood, and setup. Always follow your saw’s manual, use the guards and safety equipment it calls for, and check with a qualified professional before making safety-critical decisions in your shop. Found something wrong, or want to suggest a tool? Get in touch.