A couple of years ago I went from a Unisaw (vintage 1983) to a Hammer K3/48 inch slider. Overall I'm happy with the upgrade. I do, however, miss having a miter gauge slot to the right of the blade for jigs, etc. A couple of things I've found to be frustrating on the K3: 1) the slot on the slider is not standard, and so will not accept commercial miter gauge runners for jigs, etc. 2) the fence lacks a crosshair...and so I find it more difficult to quickly get a precise setting than with the Bissemeyer I had on my Unisaw (I added a DRO to solve this issue). I went with the short stroke due to the size limitations of my home shop...and so I also often rip using the rip fence--no problem with the short stroke model. Hope some of this is useful.