Thanks again to all for the wealth of information. Special thanks to Kurt for the details and advice.
I am all for going 3 phase with a converter, but it adds $2,000 or more for a converter or $10,000 to have the shop wired. I was very bummed to find out it cost that much when the main building has 3 phase run to it, but it is a long run to the shop, and wire, fittings, and labor add up.
Today we have a call with Felder to say yea or nay to the K500S. I have looked online at all the used saws mentioned above, and yes- the SCM one mentioned had issues, as did nearly all the others I have looked at so far. Some issues were minor, but they were red flags to me for buying used. I’m not against driving 250 miles or so to look at the right used saw. So far no used saw looked good enough to make that drive. The idea of a new saw with warranty and no hidden issues is worth a little extra $ to me. I am very surprised at how expensive the new and used saws are. I really thought my $12,500 budget was high. It is apparently entry level.
A couple of saws popped up recently that almost fit the bill, but were either too short of a slide, had something wrong, or were just too far away.
My business partner read a very bad review about one of the top brands listed in this thread and he is adamantly against that brand. I won’t say which brand. I don’t think one bad review warrants repeating here, but it was from a well-respected maker, and he had lots of problems.
One thing for sure- I need this saw. I bought a bunch of rough sawn lumber this weekend and I was really wishing I had a slider to straighten edges.