Originally Posted by
Phillip Mitchell
I don’t mean this to be offensive, but ignorance is bliss.
Also, it depends on your expectations from a table saw. I have 3 very different table saws and they all have a purpose and are different enough for me to keep around. One is a newer Dewalt jobsite table saw on a rolling stand that lives in the jobsite and has a sawhorses/plywood outfeed table behind it and had a sub ~ $40 rip blade on it pretty much all the time
and I am generally pleased and happy with what I ask of that saw and expect in terms of accuracy. I can roll it around the job site or pick it up and throw it in the van and set it up literally anywhere with power...that’s worth a great deal to a professional carpenter / on site woodworker. It weighs less than 100 #
I also have an older Powermatic 66 that lives in my shop with large outfeed and side tables, cross cut sleds, dust collection, several different types of blades, 52” Bies rip fence. This saw can handle full sheets of plywood and support them without sweating. I’ve also used this saw extensively for joinery - tenons, grooves, rabbets, dadoes, etc and can handle a decent amount of thick hardwood ripping with the right quality rip blade, though depth of cut is limited to 3” like any 10” cabinet saw. It weighs ~ 500#, is on a mobile base but doesn’t typically ever move unless I have to re-arrange to accept a new machine coming in the door of the shop.
I also have a much older (late 40s era) Tannewitz Model U 16” saw (that can take up to a 20” blade if desired) that is a beautiful chunk of cast iron and steel and is more precise and well machined than Powermatic could ever dream to be. Micro adjust fence, 2 factory miter gauges, several different style and size blades, large cast iron top and plenty of power. The depth of cut (up to 6” with the 20” blade) is very handy for heavy duty ripping, or working with any sort of smaller dimension timber size stuff, which I tend to do on a fairly consistent basis. This is not really a plywood saw as the rip fence maxes out around 24” or so, but for ripping or precise joinery it is amazing. It weighs around 1300# and does not move.
I say all this to bring up the point that it really depends on what you’re doing, how picky you are, to what level of precision you’re working to, and how much / little tolerance you have for working on a machine that maybe wasn’t designed or optimized to do the types of operations you’re asking it to do. I still feel like the only thing holding me back from
a sliding table saw is primarily lack of space in my current shop (and current budget) but even that can be solved eventually.
Id say to continue in bliss as long as you can, until you happen to use a nice cabinet saw enough to notice the differences.