Tom Watson *outs* me and writes:
Keith Bohn (AKA Unisaw A100) is the man on this sort of information
and I would direct any questions about comparative quality between
different generations to Unisaws to him.

Jon Endres, PE, who by the way hasn't been seen on the Oh
Dubbya Dubbya Em lately and hasn't paid his dues, chimes in
and wrote:
He kin only tell yuh aboot the 1939 models....

Yahbut, the things I can tell you about the '39 would (will)
fill a booklet. :-)

OK, the Unisaw speech.

A Unisaw is a Unisaw is a Unisaw is a Unisaw is a Unisaw is
a Unisaw is a Unisaw is a Unisaw is a Unisaw is a Unisaw is
a Unisaw is a Unisaw is a Unisaw is a Unisaw is a Unisaw.

There, I said it.

The Unisaw you buy today is more than likely going to be
every bit as good as the Unisaw your grandfather bought way
back in the middle of the last century. There are
*differences* though. Comfy yet? Got your favorite
beverage nestled inside your favorite NASCAR cozy? Good,
let's move along.

The '39 Unisaw is not the epitome of the Unisaw. Far from
it. It's a great saw and don't get me wrong. Owning one of
these four footers does automagically bring you membership
in an exclusive club but that's about it.

*If* I had my druthers I would be looking for a saw built
from about the mid-50's to the early part of the '70's. Fit
and finish on these saws is pretty close to being as good as
it ever was/will be.

If I were to avoid a Unisaw it would be from the mid-70's to
the early '80's. These can be immediately identified by the
Rockwell International Peace Sign Logo (RIPL). Rockwell was
on a *value engineering* jag during these years and quality
was not job one.

The major difference between the first Unisaw ever built
(mine) and the one that sitting on the floor at my local
Woodcraft is/are things like, the cast iron base (plinth) is
long gone. The cast iron motor cover is never more and
replaced (at first) by a sheet metal box and now a blow
molded plastic (plastique David) cover. The hand wheels and
lock knobs are kinda cheesy looking. The color (colour
David) is a putrid blue/green/gray or worse yet plutonium
colored (coloured David). There are some internal
differences but for the most part they do not telegraph to
what the saw was intended to do.

You will also have to consider that the new Unisaw does not
come with a soul but this really isn't too much of a
problem. The machine's soul comes from the user and a used
machine usually comes with more than one. For the record,
last night I saw, for the first time, Bob Schmall's Unisaw
and it has a soul. Bob bought it at Redmonds. Redmonds
regularly goes out and buys back saws from dealers and they
have them stacked to the ceiling so this saw was technically
not new but it did arrive to Bob soulless. Anyway, Bob has
had it for a yearish and the saw now has a soul.

Buy the Unisaw, give it a soul and stop fretting the thing.

UA100