In article ,
wrote:


I have decided to stop fighting with my old TS trying to get a
straight/square cut. The poor thing is getting old, it was second hand
when I got it. Anyways i was at a tool place today and was looking at
a very nice Porter-Cable. About $600 Cdn . I told him about my
troubles with getting a good cut on my old one. He then indicated that
the PC was not for me because it was "direct drive". He said that i
should get a "belt drive" which is inherently a lot more accurate, and
stays more accurate. I'm not sure what direct drive is. This guy was
running the store by himself and was very busy, so didn't get much
time to query him. Am i correct in thinking that "direct drive" is
when the blade is on the motor shaft itself? I'm quite sure that I
have never seen a belt driven TS and i wonder who/what models of
reasonable priced belt driven are out there right now? Should i expect
to pay a lot more for a belt driven? I've come to accept the fact that
i may have to pay more, but am quite willing to do that as i expect a
new one now will last me for the rest of my woodworking days.
Ken in NS

He gave you good advice.

And, yes, you are correct in your understanding of 'direct drive' vs
belt drive.

_All_ the 'serious' "table saws" are belt-drive. Direct drive is used
only for the "little" -- generally 'low precision' -- "benchtop" table
saws.

Belt drive saws _are_, in general, *considerably* more expensive than
direct drive saws. Only a comparatively small part of the price differential
is attributable to the actual 'drive' design. The rest of the price
difference comes from the belt-drive saws being "built better" -- heavier
construction, heavier-duty parts, more precise engineering, etc.


Some manufacturers of belt drive table saws:
Milwaukee
Delta
DeWalt
Grizzly
General / General International ("Made in Canada" / "imported" from Pac Rim)
Jet
Ridgid
Ryobi
Emerson (sold by Sears)

Several of those manufacturers _also_ make direct-drive saws.

I don't know Canadian markets -- I _think_ prices tend to run somewhat
higher than US (over and above the exchange-rate differential, that is).

In the U.S. market, in U.S. dollars, the 'standard of reference'
cabinet saws -- the Delta UniSaw and the PowerMatic 66 -- list for
circa US$1600. Quality 'Contractor' saws list for around half that.
At the other extreme, you can find undersize, underpowered, direct-drive
saws for as little as US$100.


You _can_ do 'quality work' on a very low-end saw. You just have to
work *really*hard* at it. Know how to tune/adjust the saw (and be prepared
to *do* it frequently), double-check (at least!) your settings for every cut,
etc., etc.

For 'more money', you get machinery that you can tune/adjust once, and then
pretty much forget about having to re-adjust, ease of 'repeatability',
less need for 'babysitting' settings, etc. This translates to better
productivity, and improved "ease of use".

For a "serious" woodworking, the -minimum- you want to consider is a good
'contractor' table saw -- something like the Delta 34-444, or equivalent.
And, if you can 'nearly' afford it, and have the dedicated shop space for
it, give serious consideration to stepping up to one of the good 'cabinet'
saws. These are lifetime investments.

If the budget is seriously constrained, you've got to look at the Ryobi
BT3100. It lists for about US$300, and is in a class by itself. You've
got to spend (at least) _double_ the money to get something appreciably
better.