I have a couple little home projects planned where I will need to cut dowels at a 45 degree angle, saw a board in half, and similar relatively basic woodworking crafts.
I’d like to buy a single inexpensive power tool that can handle as many different tasks as possible.
What, in your opinion, would best fill that?
Recommendations please, and thanks!
tip-tapping away by phone, but why would you care?
Hand-held I would say a sabre-saw -------- other than that a small table saw.
chop saw
there are many different ones to chose from on the link, I reccomend you get the one at the top end of your budget. for a hobbyist one w a 10in blade is prob enough. I personally like the Dewalt, and the one for $219 is a good deal if you can afford it.
mc
Honestly, I usually use my Tajima pull saw for stuff like that.
A lot depends on the width of the board…
A chop saw can do what you specified, as long as the board isn’t wider than 8" or so.
But, if you are only doing a few of these, it might be easier to have Home Depot cut the boards to length. The dowels could be easily cut with a hand saw in a Miter box.
Table saw is first. Every cut with a chop saw can be done with a table saw. I think.
A decent table saw is HUGE.
Well, sure, a decent one is. I had a cheap Makita tabletop table saw for a few years. It did the trick for quite a while. If the OP isn’t doing any serious woodworking, it would do.
Aninexpensive ($3-400) table saw (25.8 x 26.5 x 13.9 inches
@53 lbs) is only slightly larger in footprint than an inexpensive chopsaw. (26.2 x 19.7 x 17.3 inches @ 24 lbs). The table saw is significantly heavier though.
I’m pretty sure the table saw can do every single cut the miter saw can do, but not vice versa. Crown moulding would be much harder, but not impossible with a table saw alone.
It can, but trying to cut lengths of large/heavy lumber, say, an 8’ 4x4, with a table saw requires additional support and rollers, and is a major pain. With a chop saw, you just have to have a long enough table to support it.
(I bought a table saw as my first woodworking tool, and in retrospect, probably should have bought a chop saw).
Sliding compound miter saw.
Agreed on the 8’ 4x4. I would posit though, that a starting hobbyist is not going to begin with an 8’ 4x4 and not have a powered cutting tool already 
I think attempting that cut on a smaller table saw would actually be kind of dangerous.
I started with a table saw, basically in the OP’s position. I wanted to put up crown moulding but knew that I could only afford one tool (had to use trig for that one, soh-cah-toa). I thought the table saw was more versatile so I went with that. I used it for many things around the house and would still suggest it for smaller cutting applications. I later purchased a chop saw as the project list grew.
I kind of want a ban saw, but I don’t know why. I also want a planer and a jointer, but I think that’s more aspirational than anything
I have gotten to where I use my bandsaw for a lot of projects. Quieter and safer. I still pull out the table saw and sliding miter saws regularly. I don’t think one single tool can do it all. Hand held skill saws, saber saws and a sharp handsaw will cover most of what a homeowner needs.
Band saw gives you the most utility for the buck. Inexpensive band saws may have less than a 12" throat though, big enough for most things but not cross-cutting big pieces of wood or cutting up a a sheet of plywood. Inexpensive table saws are a good deal, even a small 8" saw will do take care of a lot. But smaller tables are inadequate for cross-cutting long boards and cutting up big sheets of plywood. Table extensions for small table saws are usually crap and unhelpful. There’s no single tool that does everything, a circular saw is the main tool for larger pieces of wood, a saber saw is good enough for a lot of smaller stuff. If you have a lot of cross-cutting to do a miter saw is indispensable. A good circular saw and a straight-edge track is a much better deal and more useful than a small table saw for larger sheet material.
If the OP isn’t looking a large pieces of wood a band saw is the most bang for the buck.
This is correct. It’s a bit more money than a simple chop saw, but it will do just about everything except cut a sheet of plywood. Get a couple cheap sawhorses and you can basically do everything from cabinetry to framing a house. (Get a cheap circular saw for the plywood.)
My latest project is tearing out the carpet of a largish room, removing the baseboards, installing wall paneling, and laminate floors. Power tools used: Table saw, miter saw, jig saw, drill (cut holes in underlayment for wall paneling to make room for electrical sockets), finish nail gun and compressor. Cutting the 8x4 sheets would have been much easier with a proper outfeed table, but instead I proped up some folding plastic tables with some scrap wood.
Mitre box and hand-held hacksaw: sufficient for small jobs like the angled dowels and an occasional .5" board?
These are great suggestions so far, but a tad ambitious for current space & budget.
tip-tapping away by phone, but why would you care?
What exactly do you have in terms of budget and space requirements?
Obviously one solution to budget requirements is to buy used (Craigslist, garage sales, etc).
Nice job using a table saw for crown moulding!
(I wrote this a few ways to not be snarky sounding, but it still sounds that way, but I commend your skills to do that. Bought a compound miter saw myself to do crown)
Yes, but not a hacksaw - a backsaw.