There's probably dozens of guys here who can give you criteria for a
"good" contractors saw vs a poor one, and as far as how useful these
tools are... well, I hate to say it but its not always about the
tools. I inherited one of my dad's two table saws and its a really
old craftsman... maybe circa 1970? Anyway, my dad had used this saw
to everything from job site work to cabinetry, and people were paying
him good money for his work. My first criteria would be that it's a
10" saw, then it's got to have a cast iron table, and a reasonably
powerful motor. Plus you should be able, with a little care... to
make good, clean, straight cuts. Whatever.

I happened to be in Sears a couple of days ago and saw their 3/4
cabinet model OR35505/OR35506 and I liked it. Don't get me wrong...
I've used a Unisaw plenty of times and they are beautiful machines.
But I wouldn't want to lug a Unisaw into my 15 X 20 basement shop and
deal with it coexisting with my two benches, jointer, SCMS, and all
the other "stuff". Did I mention a lolly column? I have a mobile
base on my saw, and I can easily move it, or rotate it, or lock it up.
The one drawback is the dust, and I hope to remedy that with a compact
DC setup this year.

If I were looking to spend $500 on a replacement saw, I think I could
be very happy with either of those Sears saws. And of course there
are other comparable/better brands that might be in the same price
range, but I'll go back to the comment that it's not always the brand
that makes the finished product but the person using the tool.


On Fri, 07 Jan 2005 03:31:02 GMT, "Mike W."
wrote:

Im just curious to see people's projects (on their websites) who have a
contractor style saw. I keep seeing pictures of these Norm like sites and
get discouraged to even try to get a new tool. Seems like everyone I see
has one of these stationary cabinet saws. I'm going to be in the basement
for a while with a small shop and would like to verify that one can 'get by'
at worst with a nice contractor style saw. Or do I have to step up to one
of the 'woodworkers' saws like the dewalt DW746?

Post a link to your site if you have one with pics of projects done with
your contractor saw... and tell me what kind of saw it is if its not posted.

Thanks a ton.