I have a 10" Powermatic cabinet saw and a 16" rockwell Radial arm saw.

I use my RAS to:
crosscut wood
Dado
Miter
make tenons
cut steel
cut brick
cut concrete

I use my table saw to:
Rip

I would not want to be without either but "I" would probabally give up
my table saw first. Standard practice for me when cutting a piece of
stock to length is to cut a 1/4" off the end to start out with a nice
square cut and then measure and progressively cut the stock to the
lengths I want. I could not imagine trying to cut a 1/4" off the end
of 10" board with a table saw.

BTW: I paid $500 for my 16" 7.5 hp RAS and $750 for my 10" 3 hp
powermatic cabinet saw.

On Sun, 13 Jul 2003 00:48:14 GMT, takashi wrote:

Hi, I just started out woodworking. I am looking for a power tool which
is the most versitile of all. Some people recommended that I should buy
a table saw first, but others say that I can do more things, using a
radial arm saw. For example, a radial arm saw can be used to do both
cross-cutting and ripping. With some attachment, it can also be used as
a router. Since I can only buy one power tool at time, I am hoping that
somebody could give me a suggestion. Are the things that I said about a
radial arm saw correct?
Thank you in advance.