Hi everyone! New to the forum and relatively new to woodworking. I'm a finish carpenter so I'm not new to the trades, but hanging a door and building a door are obviously two incredibly different skills.
I've insulated, heated, and wired up my 23x23 2 car garage (no cars live inside) and have been dabbling with small projects for about a year. Mostly I've made cutting boards, coasters, as gifts to clients for their homes after I complete work for them. I've been making end tables, some outdoor furniture, custom shelves, built ins for my home.
Now to the point: I feel as though I've likely pushed my Dewalt jobsite table saw to the max when it comes to hardwoods. It's an amazing jobsite saw, but it struggles with accuracy when I'm trying to do any kind of joints and or cut through hardwoods. So, I'm looking at the Sawstop PCS right now and have a couple questions. Does anyone have a recommendation to upgrade to the ICS for the 5hp motor? Everything I read seems to say that 3hp performs flawlessly. Also, I need a real router table. I've never used a saw with an integrated router table, and am wondering if thats a good idea, or is my money best spent on a separate router table? I'm leaning towards the 52 table" with no router, but am open to more experienced perspectives. Safety means a lot to me. I don't plan to stick my fingers in any saw, but have been leaning towards the SS for this reason, along with the reported excellent dust collection.
Last: The other tools in my shop are a grizzly 8" helical jointer which I do love. I had an absolute miserable experience with grizzly on a drum sander and bandsaw though (in the process of returning), so that company is now out of the question for me. I also have the Dewalt dw735 planer and am waiting on a byrd head for it. Milwaukee 12 and 7-1/4" miter saws, festool domino, dustright 1250 cfm wall mounted collector, mafell track saw and crosscut saw, and then all the assorted power tools that any contractor would likely have.
My goals in woodworking right now are probably to keep going towards having a shop that compliments my work well. Custom benches, builtins, tables are what I am asked for frequently. I personally love chess, have been trying to make a flawless board but haven't gotten it yet, also need to learn to use the lathe at some point. Any advice on machines and tooling that help in that direction would be appreciated!