I"m in the market for a table saw for personal use. I'm planning on building most of our house's furniture over the next few years. What's an affordable option? I was thinking De Walt. I'll want something that has options for things like dado blades etc.
I have this table saw
https://www.lowes.com/pd/DELTA-13-Amp-10-in-Carbide-Tipped-Table-Saw/50081568 and my FIL has this table saw
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Bosch-10-in-Carbide-Tipped-Table-Saw/1208633. I've had the opportunity to use other table saws over the years. Both have served us very well (on occasion we are in the same shop and have opportunity to use the other's tools and have no complaints).
As you can see our two saws cost the same, but some some ways are very different. Mine can move about the shop and has a larger, but cannot easily leave; his can easily leave the shop, but needs jigs or additional tables to support larger items (mine does too after a point). To some extent your shop restrictions, locations you will use the saw, and what you will do most often with it will determine what you buy. I can say with both or our saws we have managed to make many nice things . . . it tends to come down to the user.
Well the user and setup; if you can get the blade square to the table, the splitter/riving knife aligned with the blade, and the fence parallel to the blade you will be limited only by 3 things; the blade size, the saw power, and your setup. Of course a 200 dollar saw will wear out faster than a 2,500 dollar saw.
With an unlimited budget, I would love to have a 5 horsepower 3-phase cabinet saw bolted down to a concrete slab as opposed to my saw on 5/8 plywood over the garage. Good lord was that thing silky smooth.
One last tip: high quality and sharp blades PERIOD. The most dangerous tool in the shop is a dull tool.
Also, what are some other woodworking tools I should consider getting?
I am sure you will hear the other shop tools, but I will say the unsexy "tools" for your health. I have a dust collector with 4 inch hoses (low pressure and high flow) for tools that have a 4 inch dust port or can be modified to take a 4 inch port, which is back up by a shop vac with a cyclone (low flow and high pressure) for those tools that it is not practical or possible to modify with a 4 inch port, I also run an air cleaner that is appropriately sized to my shop to filter dust as it makes it into that air, and I back all of that up with a 3m 7500 series 1/2 face respirator with N/P100 filters for when I am actively using a high dust producing tool.
On the subject of dust, I would love to have my shop in the basement of the house, where the prior owners had maintained one form of shop or another for at least 25 years before I moved in, but a shop connected to the living space is just asking for dust problems. So, I have moved my shop for the cool-year-round basement to the a fan-will-have-to-do in the summer space over the garage. Less dust in the house and healthier air is a no brainer. What I am saying is a dedicated shop space that is isolated from the house is a must (for me) if the shop will be used with any degree of regularity (I can deal with a mess house or rooms with there is a project in those rooms).
Also invest in hearing and eye protection, not just ok protection, but high quality glasses and plugs/muffs that you don't mind wearing for hours on end in your shop (whatever the conditions may be); the fewer times you are compelled to take them off the less likely you are to make "just one more cut" without them that happens to be THE cut.
There's a Craftsman radial arm saw at the thrift store for 75$. I'm considering getting it, I understand they're popular with some wood workers.
Let's say they are polarizing. I know people who love them and others that hate them; I personally prefer a table saw and a sliding miter saw. If you do get one I recommend looking into a negative rake angle blade for it; that should reduce the tendency some of them have to want to pull across the wood. If I had unlimited space in my shop (or maybe just more space) I would put one back in the shop and a dedicated crosscut dado rig. But, for ripping I prefer my table saw and for crosscuts I prefer my compound sliding miter or a sled on the table saw.