Hi Ken,
I'm another fellow Canadian and I agree with Clint's advice. I have the
Delta 36-650C but also looked at the General but $$$ were the deciding
factor. I got it for a show special of $700 CDN. The General probably has
a better fence though. I just want to add that General is supposed to be
working on their lousy manuals and maybe they have already improved them.
Otherwise, it seems most people are happy with there products.
"Clint Neufeld" wrote in message
news:rIYqb.338654$9l5.68091@pd7tw2no...
As a fellow Canadian, I'll give you my $0.02 worth. I was recently in
your
situation, but I didn't have any table saw. I was doing my cuts using
either my bandsaw, or my circular saw (aka SkilSaw). But I was able to
recently pick up a new tablesaw. I looked around for used ones, with not
much luck. Either the people still wanted like-new prices for them, or
they
were old pieces of machinery that would be difficult to get blades for
(like
8" Beaver saws). So I narrowed my choices down to the Delta 650C (with
30"
fence), the King 10GC (with 50" fence), or the General International
50-185
(also with 50" fence).
The Delta would have been a good choice for me because of the price
(around
$750, I think), and the power requirements (known to run good on 15amp
120V
circuits). The King looked almost identical to the GI saw, and they have
the advantage of the larger fence capacity, and more powerful motor
(upgradable to /capable of 220V). If they were paint the same color, I
don't think I could have been able to tell them apart. The King was about
$150 less than the GI, and the dealer for the King gave me much
warmer/fuzzier feelings than the dealer for the GI. But I went with the
GI,
partially because it's a Canadian company (although the GI saws are made
overseas) and partially because of the product reputation. When I went
out
with cash in my pocket (ok, credit available on my credit card, if you
must
know), I went to the GI dealer first, with the thought that if they had
them
in stock, and would cut me a deal of any sort, I'd walk out of there with
the saw. Turns out they had them in stock (which they didn't the week
before), and I got $50 off the saw, and about $150 off the blades.
So far, I'm pretty happy. The manuals for setting up the saw are awful,
and
plain incorrect in places. The manual for the fence is even worse, and
it's
a made-in-Canada product. But I got it together, and everything lined up
out of the box. I was concerned about blowing the circuit breaker in my
basement shop, but so far, nothing. I've only been slicing up plywood and
MDF so far, no 8/4 maple. My saw cost me about $900 CDN, and came with no
blades. I've heard that out East, you can get a package deal for $1000CDN
that includes the tenoning jig, the saw, a ripping blade, and the mobile
base. I ended up putting my saw on a home-built mobile base, but the
tenoning jig is over $100 anyways. I've sometimes wished I got the 30"
fence rather than the 50", as space is pretty tight in my basement shop.
but the saw itself is pretty much everything I was looking for. I don't
know if I'll be looking to upgrade it anytime soon. I guess if the right
Uni-saw dropped in my lap at the right price, I might.
Anyways, I hope this helps. If you have any specific questions, let me
know. BTW, all three of those saws are belt driven, AFAIK. Almost all of
the "contractor" style saws are going to be belt-driven. Kelly Mehler
wrote
a book about tablesaws
(
http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...46096,46119&ab
spage=1&ccurrency=1&SID=); you might want to see if you can find a copy of
it or something like it. You can also check out the forums for two of the
Canadian wood-working magazines. I know there's people there from your
neck
of the woods, and they might have some more input for you as to where you
might go to find a saw. They a
http://www.workshopbuzz.com/cgi-bin/...m/hw_config.pl
http://www.canadianwoodworking.com/c...bbbs_config.pl
Sorry for babbling on so long! 
Clint (in Alberta)
wrote in message
...
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