I have a vintage Unisaw with a 1HP Repulsion-Induction motor (the
bullet). My blade is a Forrest WWII and I recently had to do some
cuts on a bunch of 4 X 4 PT pieces which included ripping them to an
exact 3" width. Nary a hiccup, although they are not oak. Still,
there's horsepower, and then there's horse-power.

If you're buying a (new) cabinet saw, 3HP should be the minimum. If
it's a contractor saw with a single (normal) belt, I think 1½ HP would
work out OK for most homeowner stuff, but if you're thinking hybrid
(like a Craftsman zip code saw)... I'd imagine the wider, serpentine
belt would help on anything really tough.

For the money you'd spend on a "better" contractor-style saw, you can
often find a quality used cabinet saw. But you have to have some
patience to wait out the best buys. Even if a minor rebuild is
necessary, you'll wind up with a saw that looks and cuts like a $2000
new saw and it'd be hard to spend $900 on a decent used cabinet saw.


On Fri, 18 Nov 2005 22:47:26 -0700, "mywebaccts (at) PLUGcomcast.net"
"mywebaccts (at) PLUGcomcast.net" wrote:

Okay, a friend of mine has been admonishing me not to buy a 1 1/2 HP
tablesaw. He says that a minimum of 3 HP is warranted for any decent
tablesaw.

Now, I'm not planning on going into the woodworking business. I just
want to outfit my workshop with good equipment so that I can't blame the
equipment on the lousy workmanship that comes out of it!

The reviews for various 1 1/2 HP tablesaws seem very good. Whether it's
Grizzly, Delta, or another good brand, people seem genuinely happy and
satisfied with the abilities of those tablesaws.

So ....

Can anyone tell me why the extra horsepower would be needed? I doubt
that I'll ever be cutting through anything thicker than 1 1/2". Heck,
I'm not even sure how often I'd be doing that much!

Thx!

Jack