Garage full of tools, so hard the choice.

[william watts]

A friend has been buying used tools for what must have been a long time. He has 2 table saws, two jointers, 3 router tables, a dewalt 735 planner, and numerous pieces of fancy anodized aluminum that appear to be parts of Incra and Jointech jigs or fences they may not be complete, and lot of miscellaneous stuff. He has been doing little wood working, but would like to do more. I am helping to set up his garage shop for hobby work. He wants to make little librarys and things in that scale. It will be a big job and I do enjoy the work.

He has 2 table saws, a Powermatic 64A contractor, and a DeWalt Dw746 hybrid with a sliding table, which one should he keep? The PM looks to have heavier trunnion and a larger table. It also has a bessimier fence. The Dewalt does not have a fence, but has 8 ft long rails, that probably were used with the Jointech fence he might have the parts for. He has a new Laguna band saw 14BX set up and ready to go. I know some folks only use a bandsaw.

Which table saw should be set up and used​ ?

[jeff norris 2011]

A friend has been buying used tools for what must have been a long time. He has 2 table saws, two jointers, 3 router tables, a dewalt 735 planner, and numerous pieces of fancy anodized aluminum that appear to be parts of Incra and Jointech jigs or fences they may not be complete, and lot of miscellaneous stuff. He has been doing little wood working, but would like to do more. I am helping to set up his garage shop for hobby work. He wants to make little librarys and things in that scale. It will be a big job and I do enjoy the work.

He has 2 table saws, a Powermatic 64A contractor, and a DeWalt Dw746 hybrid with a sliding table, which one should he keep? The PM looks to have heavier trunnion and a larger table. It also has a bessimier fence. The Dewalt does not have a fence, but has 8 ft long rails, that probably were used with the Jointech fence he might have the parts for. He has a new Laguna band saw 14BX set up and ready to go. I know some folks only use a bandsaw.

Which table saw should be set up and used​ ?

Both? Using one saw as the outfeed for the other is a pretty good setup and typically does not mean extra room is taken up. It is a luxury, but pretty cool to have two setups (cross cut, rip or combo, dado etc).

[Richard Coers]

I'm not a fan of either. If that Powermatic is an Artisan Series, that was about the worst machine they ever sold. Here's a typical post; https://www.finewoodworking.com/forum/powermatic-64a-fatal-flaw
Sell them both and buy an older Unisaw that was made in America.

[Erik Loza]

Both? Using one saw as the outfeed for the other is a pretty good setup and typically does not mean extra room is taken up. It is a luxury, but pretty cool to have two setups (cross cut, rip or combo, dado etc).

This ^^^^

Erik

[Peter Kelly]

Sell the Powermatic, one of the jointers and as much other random stuff as possible. Working in a cluttered environment is inefficient.

[william watts]

I spent today at my friend's shop. He is inclined to keep both table saws. The PM looked to be the better of the two having a rip fence and a Inca miter gage. We chose to start there, checked the alignments, all was ok. Plugged it in and went to work on a 2x4, making a mobile base.

The Saw cut very will at 90 °, didn't seem to be the worst machine, but he didn't tilt the blade. I don't think he will be cutting many bevels and he will haveThe 2nd saw if needed. Thank you Richard for the link really helps to uderstand the problem. Thanks to all.