A radial arm saw will make one cut that is difficult if not impossible on any other machine found in hobby shops - cutting deep notches. I built a couple light benches using 1 X 4s to form a grid. I wanted to notch halfway thru the 1 X 4 then mate the notches. the long 1 X4s would have been awkward on a table saw. The radial arm saw cut the notches in 2 passes very nicely using a stacked dado head. I maybe could have done it on a table saw but it would have been awkward.