I am a carpenter by trade and build some of the projects you mentioned. My
suggestion is going with a circular saw and rip fence to start instead of a
table saw. You will be doing a LOT more cross-cutting than ripping lumber,
and the circular saw just cannot be beat for this. If you just need to buy a
new tool, get a 12" miter saw, it will serve you better at this point. I
would recommend your first project be to build a good set of sawhorses
-dave



"Larry" wrote in message
...
I am about to plunge into the woodworking hobby and I am looking to
buy
my first table saw. I am not going to use it to build furniture or
cabinets.
I am mostly going to use it to build outdoor pergolas, trellises, and kids
play stuff. At least initially. I have done some reading on the subject
recently. Initially I was partial to Craftsman, but after reading all the
bad reviews and reports I have ruled that out. Especially since they are
not
really significantly cheaper than Jet and Delta. I toured my local wood
working store and they had a few models to choose from. The two I was most
interested in were a Shop Fox W1703 http://www.shopfox.biz/w1703.cfm and a
Jet 708301K

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...&s=hi&n=228366.
They were both $699.00 in the store. They did not have any comparable
Delta
model on the show room. The Shop Fox looks a bit nicer, and has a better
fence for certain. Seemed to be a little better value for the money
without
the name. That was the one the store guy was suggesting.

What I want to know is whether its OK to deviate from the Jet and Delta
name
on this one? Is Shop Fox established enough yet? I ususally prefer to go
with the top seller for reasons of part availability, repair help etc..
And
secondly, is it worthwhile to pay the extra $100 to get cast iron wings
instead of stamped steel? Thirdly, are there any good online places to get
such equipment? I found a few on my own, but wondering if you pros out
there
have better sources. Thanks.

Larry