Opinions on contractor table saws

[Brent Wells]

Hello all first time posting. I was curious what opinions you guys and gals had on contractor table saws, and which are the best. My shop is in my basement and I don't need to rip anything huge so I think contractor size is my best bang for my buck and space is a premium. I will mostly be using for segmented work, making pen blanks, general use, ect. I will be hooking up my jet dc1100vx-cx 1.5 hp dust collector to it. I have band saw and mitre saw so I am mainly looking for something to do accurate cuts . Pens, bowls , platters, vases , pepper mills are my interests . I am new to turning, have only had my lathe for a year which is a jet 1221vs so I won't be turning anything huge until I upgrade lathe down the road. I have looked at bosch 4100, dewalt, ridgid. Sawstop was nice but for price I would upgrade lathe first. Safety is always a priority. Thanks for input it is appreciated. Sorry for grammar/ misspellings as I am typing on phone and if this is posted in wrong forum.

Thanks

Brent

 

[Brent Wells]

I forgot to mention as my skills grow and evolve I would like something that would not become just a paper weight down the road.

Brent

 

[jschnell1203]

I had a craftsman contractor saw and the stand was real unstable. I now have a old Unisaw and love it but for you if you using it for smaller wood a contractor saw should be fine.

 

[Shawn Pachlhofer]

Hello all first time posting. I was curious what opinions you guys and gals had on contractor table saws, and which are the best. My shop is in my basement and I don't need to rip anything huge so I think contractor size is my best bang for my buck and space is a premium. I will mostly be using for segmented work, making pen blanks, general use, ect. I will be hooking up my jet dc1100vx-cx 1.5 hp dust collector to it. I have band saw and mitre saw so I am mainly looking for something to do accurate cuts . Pens, bowls , platters, vases , pepper mills are my interests . I am new to turning, have only had my lathe for a year which is a jet 1221vs so I won't be turning anything huge until I upgrade lathe down the road. I have looked at bosch 4100, dewalt, ridgid. Sawstop was nice but for price I would upgrade lathe first. Safety is always a priority. Thanks for input it is appreciated. Sorry for grammar/ misspellings as I am typing on phone and if this is posted in wrong forum.

Thanks

Brent

band saw does just fine roughing out these items - they don't need to be that accurate - and IMO, the band saw is faster.

if you're going to be segmenting - the table saw will definitely come in handy.

 

[Bill Boehme]

A sliding compound miter saw is a very versatile tool and probably more accurate than a light duty contractor table saw. Makita has some great models.

 

[Andy Chen]

Go for the Sawstop if one of your main goals is to do segmented turning. Your Jet 1221VS can do a lot. A 12" segmented bowl is plenty big. A lathe upgrade can wait for a few years. Safety aside, Sawstop has the best workmanship among all brands, period. This advice is from a guy who owns a Unisaw (and two Oneway lathes) and has being turning segmented bowls for over 20 years. (In fact, my very first bowl was segmented.)

 

[John Torchick]

Good advice from all. Wish I had had it many years ago.

 

[Glen Blanchard]

Brent, I think you will find that most contractors saws have a larger footprint than most cabinet saws as a result of the motor hanging out the rear of the saw. If space is at a premium, you may actually be better off with a cabinet saw.

Additionally, contractor saws are much more difficult to fine tune than are cabinet saws without the purchase of additional equipment.

 

[Fred Belknap]

Contractor table saws have a low resale value, look for someone wanting to upgrade to a cabinet saw and I bet you can get a good deal. I never was happy with the Delta contractor saw I had.

 

[john lucas]

I can't offer an opinion on the newer contractors saws. I had a Powermatic contractors saw for many years and was quite happy with it except for Dust collection. I modified the hell out of it trying to get as must dust collection as possible but never really succeeded. I changed to a cabinet saw this year and like it a lot better except for one thing. I don't have wheels on this saw so it's impossible to move around for those odd boards that need cutting. Consequently everything around it is now on wheels so I can move them instead. With the contractors saw I could simply lower the wheels and move it to cut that occasional long or wide board.
At one point I thought I was going to have to move to a very tiny shop. I looked very seriously at the Dewalt contractors saw and liked it. Far smaller than my Powermatic or the newer cabinet saw but I was looking at it for doing segmented work mostly or cutting wood into smaller parts for my hand mirrors and such. Looked like it would do the job. Haven't looked at them in about 5 years now so can't tell you how they work.

 

[robo hippy]

I found an old Delta Unisaw when I was setting up my shop. I think it cost around $700. Great buy, and a good step up from a Delta table top type saw I had before. This was 20 years ago. The biggest problem with dust collection on a table saw is the stuff that flies off the part of the blade that is above the table top. There are extended arm hoods that go over the blade that will get most of it, but most seem to be a pain to use, especially for small pieces. Some of the good chop/sliding arm saws have great precision. Malcolm Tibbits uses a Festool chop saw for cutting his segmented pieces. Biggest secret is to cut with the down stroke, let the blade come to full stop, then raise the blade out of the wood. With a perfectly set up bandsaw, and a good carbide tipped blade, you can make precision cuts, but the chop saw is still better.

robo hippy

 

[Douglas Ladendorf]

Like John, my first table saw was a Powermatic contractors saw (64A). While it was a great saw with plenty of power I struggled with the dust collection. To me this is the number one reason to look at a cabinet saw vs. contractors saw. Manufacturers seem to be paying more attention now so perhaps there are new contractors saws that offer good dust collection but I haven't seen them yet. Capturing dust above the blade is a large part of this. I bought a third party blade guard/splitter (SharkGuard) that has a dust port at the top for my PM66. Other benefits of a cabinet saw include stability and reduced vibration.

Good luck with your quest. It's always fun to hunt for a new tool!
Doug

 

[Brent Wells]

Thanks for all the great advice some things were brought up that I didn't even think about. Looks like I have some more research to do. All very helpful.

 

[Bill Boehme]

I agree with Andy about the SawStop. I have a Delta Unisaw that I got about 1995. They were made very well back then.

I also agree with the above comments regarding contractor saws. Contractors don't need high precision saws. Segmented turners on the other hand do need repeatable accuracy. If you are diligent, you can get a contractor saw or a Shopsmith to serve your needs for segmented turning. One of our former club members did just that and made stunning segmented pieces. I have even tweaked my Craftsman RAS to be very accurate and repeatable over the short term. I have a Makita SCMS that I got for doing crown moulding and other millwork. I have found it to be dead-on accurate and holds its settings as well as my Unisaw.

Nobody has mentioned blades yet, but without a high quality blade, even the best saws won't make clean cuts. I use Forrest blades and think that they are the best. Freud also makes some outstanding blades. A top quality blade isn't cheap. AFAIK, any blade that comes with a saw is just something to get you started. Contractors like cheap blades because they can use them to saw through nails.

 

[Roy Turbett]

Table Saw Choice

I was in my local Woodcraft store last week because I'm considering a Sawstop to replace my Unisaw. The one major advantage of all of the Sawstop models is the safety brake that you can't get on any other saw. It sets off a charge that stops the blade in a millisecond if it comes in contact with flesh. The Sawstop contractor model doesn't have a bigger footprint than the "Professional" cabinet saw and costs about $1,000 less and both have good over the blade dust collection. The new Deltas, Jets and Powermatics also have improved their dust collection and are priced close to the Sawstop. The overall quality seems to be similar between the brands but the salesman said the Sawstop outsells all the brands 14 to 1. They also hold their value. I searched all of Craigslist and could only find four used Sawstops for sale and they were all listed close to the original list price.

Aside from a good quality blade as Bill mentioned, look for a good quality fence. The Sawstop, Biesmeyer, Powermatic, and Unifence are all good because they consistently lock the fence parallel to the blade. Many lesser quality saws have fences that don't always lock parallel to the blade which can cause a kickback. When using one of these saws I always set the fence by moving it from right to left so, if the fence is off, the toe will be open at the back of the blade.

Another significant feature of the newer higher quality saws is a riving knife. A riving knife is a splitter that is slightly shorter than the blade and moves up and down with the blade. A riving knife helps prevent kickback by preventing the kerf from closing on the back edge of the blade.

 

[Marc Tuunanen]

My advice is to buy the best you can afford at the time. A Sawstop is a one time buy and cry over the price. But, after that first cut those tears will dry up and a smile will glide over your face. From then on it's history and happy segmented turnings. Really, any good cabinet saw is a steal. They are accurate over time which is a problem for contractor saws.

Cheers and God Bless mate,
Marc

 

[Justin Stephen]

If you are not already a member of the Segmented Woodturners Forum, join so that you can view this thread, started by me, back in 2011:

http://www.segmentedwoodturners.org/forum/showthread.php?768-Table-saw-recommendations

I ended up buying a Ridgid R4512 in early 2012 and have been very happy with it, most especially since I have since moved and my new workshop is indoors but very small. All of my tools except my larger lathe have to be mobile so I need the mobile base on the saw. I have cut and turned many a segmented piece using segments cut on this saw and the cuts are very accurate. Once the pedal on the mobile base is released and it sinks to the floor, it is very stable indeed. This is a very heavy saw so wobble/movement is a non-issue in my experience, and I have ripped some pretty big stuff using this saw.

Any quality table saw, properly adjusted and using an accurate sled and a good blade, should give you accurate cuts. You do *not* need a $2000 saw to do that. My Ridgid cost less than a third of what a comparable SawStop would cost and its dust collection is quite decent. Would I love to own a SawStop? Sure, but for safety, not because I honestly think its cutting accuracy is better (or better enough to make a difference that would alone justify the cost).

I use a Forrest WoodWorker II blade and some sleds I built myself that I know are accurate.

 

[Raul McCai]

My first was a Craftsman

IT was a contractor I purchased some 40 years ago. Back then they hadn't gone all out for garbage. Some time after they entered a very long very dark tea time of the soul and couldn't even make a screwdriver that wouldn't break on the first use.

I hear the engineering has come back to the brand and things are improving.

I still have that saw. It's sort of a tank. but it's been retired to a back corner thanks to my fancy pants Austrian Slider.

Get the best saw you can. Stay out of the BORG if you possibly can. General International makes a great cabinet saw. Grizz is not too bad.

 

[Andy Chen]

.......

Nobody has mentioned blades yet, but without a high quality blade, even the best saws won't make clean cuts. I use Forrest blades and think that they are the best. Freud also makes some outstanding blades. A top quality blade isn't cheap. AFAIK, any blade that comes with a saw is just something to get you started. Contractors like cheap blades because they can use them to saw through nails.

Bill,

I appreciate that you agree with what I said but on the blade, I respectfully disagree that "a top quality blade isn't cheap." I am sure you'd agree that a 40-T 10" general purpose blade that costs <$30.00 is a cheap (in price, that is) blade. That's how much a Freud Diablo blade would cost and I have been using them for my segmented work for probably over 10 years now. You are familiar with the quality of my work and I don't even sand my segments to dimension after they come off the saw with a Diablo blade. I also have a Forrest 50-T Woodworker II blade but it does not produce better quality cuts than the Diablo that costs about 1/4 what the Forrest costs and it has sat on my shelf for over 10 years now. (I know, I know, you'd say why don't you give it to me if you don't use it. You wouldn't be the first one to ask that.) I even cut Corian with my "cheap" Freud Diablo blade with equally good results.

 

[Justin Stephen]

I appreciate that you agree with what I said but on the blade, I respectfully disagree that "a top quality blade isn't cheap." I am sure you'd agree that a 40-T 10" general purpose blade that costs <$30.00 is a cheap (in price, that is) blade. That's how much a Freud Diablo blade would cost and I have been using them for my segmented work for probably over 10 years now. You are familiar with the quality of my work and I don't even sand my segments to dimension after they come off the saw with a Diablo blade. I also have a Forrest 50-T Woodworker II blade but it does not produce better quality cuts than the Diablo that costs about 1/4 what the Forrest costs and it has sat on my shelf for over 10 years now. (I know, I know, you'd say why don't you give it to me if you don't use it. You wouldn't be the first one to ask that.) I even cut Corian with my "cheap" Freud Diablo blade with equally good results.

While my segmenting experience is no doubt not as extensive as yours, for what its worth I agree with you. I drank the Forrest Kool-Aid, and the WWII is a heck of a good blade, but it is not noticeably better than my Freud.

I recently threw a 60T Freud "finishing" 7 1/4" blade on my table saw and have used it to cut some strips for bowl-from-a-board laminations and have been very pleased with the results. I will probably use the same little blade for my next set of segmented rings and expect to be happy with the results. $19 from the BORG and a very thin kerf. When it gets dull, I'll toss it in the garbage and buy another one.

 

[Raul McCai]

Oh I forgot something new abut newer saws

The direct drive saws especially what one can find at the BORG. I've read on other forums where guys wanted fine fine cuts but were consistently unable to get good cut quality that they would put an indicator on their blades and give them a little push with their fingers to try to wobble them a bit to see what was what. These guys were finding that the class bearings on the direct drive less expensive saws was allowing blade wobble and thus were never going to give them a good cut surface.

The old adage that you get what you pay for seems never more true.

 

[Bill Boehme]

Andy, I didn't know that Freud had some for less than $30. Maybe I ought to tell the folks at my local Rockler Hardware. They charged me almost Forrest prices for the two Freud blades. I think that I have five Forrest blades if I count the stacked dado set as one. I got it for about half price at a woodworking show in Dallas eons ago. It replaced my Craftsman wobble dado (what a difference). All of my Forrest blades are different types, but I have found that my 40 tooth is what I use for everything. I don't know if it is true, but I remember that the Forrest sales poop back in the early 1990's was that no single other (probably meaning Freud) blade could be used for everything with as good results. Since I am sufficiently stocked in blades, I probably will never need to buy any new ones. I can't really make a direct comparison since the rake, hook, bevel and all that sort of stuff is different between the blades for the SCMS and table saw. I also have a whole pile of the ones that I had in mind when I mentioned "cheap" (meaning quality of cut) like Craftsman, Black and Decker, etc. I wasn't particularly thinking about price although on average there is somewhat of a correlation. I have no idea about today's prices. Other than the Freud blades that I got for my SCMS, I probably haven't bought a blade in at least twelve years. I think that I paid somewhere around $80 back then for a Forrest blade and maybe $20 for a Craftsman blade. I don't know what offerings Freud had back then since I had found the blade that went way beyond what I had previously experienced using Craftsman blades on my Craftsman radial arm saw. With the Forrest blades, it was a really fine saw although the exposed blade was a bit scary - really scary for rip cuts.

Oh, I would be willing to save your Forrest blade from neglect. I have heard, and believe that it is true, that they will get tooth decay from just lying unused on a shelf or hanging on a peg. At the cost of crowns these days, you wouldn't want that to happen, would you?

 

[Raul McCai]

My blades include Guhdo, Ridge carbide, Tenru, Felder and some no name industrial NFM blades I bought better than 40 years ago. I've disposed of Freuds and Oldhams that ended up disappointing me too much to keep Wheee frisbees~!!

My favorite blade by any stretch are the Felder Silent Power blades. There is just nothing that comes close that I've used. The Guhdos and Tenru are great, but they kill my ears.
The Felder blades cut great and keep the silent power promise.

The down side to Felder saw blades is that it appears that Felder doesn't know any good grinders because they come from the factory with a really poor grind on them. After going to the grinder they are perfect.

 

[Michelle Rich]

I can't advise on new saws, mine is 30 yr old Delta contractor. I make many many segmentations and furniture, and have never needed anything more. My suggestion for segmenting is: a good quality contactor saw with an incra sled, and a good quality blade. I use a Freud combo. The saw must be capable of turning the blade without flutter & run true. That's about it. I have heard nothing but good about the Grizzly 10" hybrid. the price is amazing. Good luck and have FUN!

 

[TerryAnderson]

DEWALT DW744XRS Job-site table saw is best one known to me so far.. Its rack and pinion fence rails make fence adjustments fast, smooth, and accurate. It is well-built and very sturdy. I would highly recommend this saw for anyone wanting a portable tough saw

 

[Paul A Andrews]

Very interesting discussion

I've been turning for three years and am now setting up a workshop at home, so I'm in the market for a saw. I will be making bowls and urns and doing a lot of segmenting. I OD'd on reading saw reviews and for everybody who thought he had a great saw there was somebody who would tell you not to touch it or who had to make so many tweaks and adjustments that it frightened me away. While I gagged on the SawStop prices I'm beginning to get to the conclusion that money spent on a great saw is money well spent, and easier to recover in the used marketplace. I'm going to reconsider the strategy.

 

[john lucas]

Well I didn't look at contractors saws (well maybe just a little) but spent the last month looking at top of the line saws with a friend who is going to buy one. We tried to compare all features and played with quite a few. The Saw Stop Professional came out on top. It is pricey. Now while we were looking they also had the contractors saw and I was pretty impressed but didn't really spend much time with it. I was looking at all the other features besides the most familiar which is the saw stop function. So to put it briefly they have done the research and created an excellent saw even if you don't consider the safety feature.

 

[Zach LaPerriere]

a Saw Stop caveat

I've known two shop teachers who were forced to use a Saw Stop. Overall they said it's a good saw, but both have had issues when ripping green wood. The higher moisture content causes the safety mechanism to switch.

This of course doesn't apply to segment turners—but we all use our saws for lots of different things.

 

[Bill Boehme]

I've known two shop teachers who were forced to use a Saw Stop. Overall they said it's a good saw, but both have had issues when ripping green wood. The higher moisture content causes the safety mechanism to switch.

This of course doesn't apply to segment turners—but we all use our saws for lots of different things.

In the beginning that may have been true, but you have a couple options with wet wood. One is that the sensor can be calibrated to the wetness of the wood up to a point. The other option is that the trip mechanism can be turned off when the sensor tells you that the wood is too wet. Finally, Any smart woodworker knows better than to rip wet wood unless they like wood that is bowed and twisted after it dries. If building a deck and you screw the wet wood down where it can't move, then that should be OK. Anyway, I would say that there are two shop teachers who didn't read the manual. What did Norm Abrams say about reading the manual?

 

[john lucas]

At our school they also bought one. It tripped once with dry wood. The instructor will not let them touch that saw with any sort of wet or treated wood. Fortunately the brake mechanism is much less expensive now than it was back then. Still ruined a $100 blade however. I don't think they have had a problem since then and it's been 5 or 6 years of constant student use.

 

[Jamie Straw]

I've been turning for three years and am now setting up a workshop at home, so I'm in the market for a saw. I will be making bowls and urns and doing a lot of segmenting. I OD'd on reading saw reviews and for everybody who thought he had a great saw there was somebody who would tell you not to touch it or who had to make so many tweaks and adjustments that it frightened me away. While I gagged on the SawStop prices I'm beginning to get to the conclusion that money spent on a great saw is money well spent, and easier to recover in the used marketplace. I'm going to reconsider the strategy.

Yep to the bolded statement. Evaluating reviews is difficult. IMHO, people who've spent a few to several thousand dollars on a tool are inclined to expound on its many virtues, but there's also the group of vociferous posters who've had one troublesome experience that they may or may not have tried to resolve with a respected company and they way over-blow the problem or situation.

If I had the money, I'd get a SawStop, no hesitation whatsoever (my current saw is a Delta Unisaw, used from a cabinet shop). The smaller the pieces I'd be sawing, the more I'd want the SS. That being said, a high-quality saw (Powermatic, etc.) and a highly accurate sled or other fixture, with safe design and operation, should do the trick. IMHO (again), no contractor saw falls into the "high-quality" category. Been there, done that, exercise in frustration for anything that's cut at angles (mostly the bevels) and needs to be supremely accurate.

 

[Jon Minerich]

Contractor's Saw

Hi Everyone,

I purchased a SawStop Contractor's Saw 6 months ago and love it. It was easy to set up and fine tune. It is accurate and the dust collection works great when I hook it up to my vacuum.

About 4 months ago, my neighbor bought the Bosch Contractor Saw from Lowe's. I like it as much as mine. While it won't protect my fingers like the SawStop, it cost about 1/3 as much.

In my opinion either saw is great. Both fold up for easy storage and come with the wheels and carriage as part of the deal. Both are very stable. So either one would be a good choice.

Jon

 

[Paul A Andrews]

A friend of mine just sustained an injury and took a bunch of stitches in his thumb. This event has elevated his focus on safety and he has discovered SawStop. He has also discovered a technology which ostensibly has the same safety feature, although it operates somewhat differently, called Whirlwind. This stops the saw blade by anticipating the contact rather than detecting it. All the information he has appears to be quite dated, at least five years old. Is anybody familiar with Whirlwind? Did it get any traction in the market? Is it a genuine alternative to SawStop. Any help with this much appreciated.

 

[Bill Boehme]

A friend of mine just sustained an injury and took a bunch of stitches in his thumb. This event has elevated his focus on safety and he has discovered SawStop. He has also discovered a technology which ostensibly has the same safety feature, although it operates somewhat differently, called Whirlwind. This stops the saw blade by anticipating the contact rather than detecting it. All the information he has appears to be quite dated, at least five years old. Is anybody familiar with Whirlwind? Did it get any traction in the market? Is it a genuine alternative to SawStop. Any help with this much appreciated.

This sounds too much like a spoof "invention" at work that the engineers named the "Anticipatory Regretter". It was supposed to enable a development team to preemptively regret a bad decision and prevent questions like, "why didn't you anticipate that" from the customer. Regretfully, the device didn't perform to expectations. I suppose that we should have anticipated that.

 

[Bill Boehme]

While my segmenting experience is no doubt not as extensive as yours, for what its worth I agree with you. I drank the Forrest Kool-Aid, and the WWII is a heck of a good blade, but it is not noticeably better than my Freud.

I recently threw a 60T Freud "finishing" 7 1/4" blade on my table saw and have used it to cut some strips for bowl-from-a-board laminations and have been very pleased with the results. I will probably use the same little blade for my next set of segmented rings and expect to be happy with the results. $19 from the BORG and a very thin kerf. When it gets dull, I'll toss it in the garbage and buy another one.

My Forrest blades are all well over 20 years old and have been sharpened several times. I haven't bought a new saw blade for my Unisaw since the early 1990's. I always bought my saw blades when the woodworking show would come to town and I think that I paid somewhere in the neighborhood of $80 back then. I don't know what if any Freud blades were available back then, bur I'm pretty sure that there weren't any Diablo blades. I think that money-wise I'm better off than the throwaway blade route. I haven't kept up with developments blade technology I might give the Diablo a try if I ever wear our my stash of Forrest blades.

 

[Barry Crowder]

I've had my 10" Diablo blades resharpened and they come back incredibly sharp. Depending on the number of teeth (the place I use charges more for more teeth), they're not quite throwaway.

Might not be able to sharpen as much as a Forrest blade, but still cheaper to resharpen than to buy new. Having said that, they're inexpensive enough that you can have multiples and use one while the other is getting sharpened.

 

[Mark Hepburn]

Brent,

There's a lot of good advice here and so I may not be adding much (but that's never stopped me before):

I agree with you and the others; the money you spend on a quality saw is money well-spent.

I've been through several saws including radial arm, portable TS, hybrid and so on. If you have the footprint, the budget and really plan on using the saw for more than segmented work then a cabinet saw would be what I'd get in your position. Yes, you'll probably spend a loooong day getting it into your basement

This is especially true if your work includes more flat work, which is what I've mostly been doing the past 40ish years. It's hard to beat the precision of a heavy, quality table saw with a good fence, dust collection, and miter gauge. Also, a riving knife is something I'd never be without again.

Also, I never buy a tool with resale value in mind but that's just me. On the other hand, if you buy a really good tool for its own merit, generally you won't want to sell it (but when you do, you can get a pretty good price. I just sold a Bosch Axial glide for close to what I paid).

I don't have an opinion on SawStop personally and am on the fence (pardon the pun). My slider, properly used, is inherently safer than most of what's out there. But lots of people here on this forum that I respect recommend them and that's well worth considering.

And there's not a saw I've ever bought that shipped with a blade worth using for fine work. I have a couple of the Ridge Carbide blades that I prefer to the Forrest blades for smooth cut and this will be important for cross grain cutting for segmented work. Also, you might consider an aftermarket miter gauge like the Incras or others. Dial in to a high tolerance and you're set.

Having said all that, if you know that you don't want to do large scale work and don't need a table saw for lots of different applications, perhaps you could spend on a Kapex instead? I don't own one but plan to. I've tried one and it is superb in virtually every aspect. I know that Malcolm Tibbetts says he uses one. Benefits are a pretty wide cross cut capability as it is a slider (as Bill mentioned). Also, it's very precise, has a small footprint and you could build a wall-mount station perhaps that would minimize its space requirements in your shop.

So, there's my .02 and remember that my thoughts are probably worth what you paid for them.

 

[Jon Minerich]

I am an owner of the Sawstop contractor saw and I love it. The quality, size, stability, and safety make this one heck of a saw. Having said all that, about 6 months ago my neighbor bought a Bosch contractors saw from Lowes. Except for the safety feature I believe the quality and features of his saw are every bit as good as mine. I was fortunate that I could afford the Sawstop, but if my budget was an issue, I believe the Bosch would be a very good contender.

 

[john lucas]

I had to help a friend look for a high end saw a year ago. We checked out all the top end. While we were at it I looked at a lot of the contractors saws because sooner or later I will be downsizing. As near as I could tell without actually cutting on one the Saw Stop had a lot of good features and was extremely well built. I did not take into account the actual saw stop function while looking at the saws. I wanted to compare the fence, miter gauges, and how everything else worked. It still came out on top.

 

[Fadi Zeidan]

Haven't read all the thread, but when I was thinking into getting into woodworking, I was waiting for REAXX job site bandsaw. It was not out yet, and haven't followed up on it. Sawstop was suing to block it from entering the market.

It is same as sawstop, but does not damage the blade and you get two fires per carterage. It also does better job at detecting wet wood from the demos.