Robert,

One of my neighbors is a full time trim carpenter, and he has one of
those. He really likes it for a lot of different things, and has
found it to be well worth the money except for one thing.

Thanks for the feedback. I appreciate it.

He has occasion to rip 2" oak stock from time to time, and he said it
is pretty obviously underpowered for that, which seems to fall in line
with reviews of this machine.

My old Craftsman only has an 11amp direct drive motor (induction though),
so I suspect anything will be a power increase for me.

Other than that, he likes it.

At this point, the 24" rip capacity seems to be the biggest limitation for
me, but I can only go 25-26" or so on my current saw so I guess that's not
much of a difference. I suppose I could always replace the fence system at
some later date (like I did on my Craftsman cheapie).

I guess my biggest concern is reliability and how well it's built. My
Craftsman, though an obvious cheap junker, has lasted at least 20 years,
probably closer to 30 by now.

Anthony