No good wood topics so I posted this minor rant.

I needed a cheap TS for onsite construction on a single personal project. At Lowes I bought the lowest end Skill for $199. I knew I wasn't buying the best quality but it was almost a disposable purchase in a sense. I just needed it for a few months.

Honestly, disposable is generous. Yes I am used to a Saw Stop in my shop but this POS was nearly unusable from from the get go.

First noticed an annoying "nuance" that is a design flaw in my opinion but I am sure it is considered a safety feature. If the fence lock is not fully engaged in then sticks up and out at the front rail and won't let you align a board to the fence. On construction builds when accurate cuts are "nominal" I often mark a piece for width on the leading edge, lay it next to the fence up near a non-spinning blade and bump the fence over until I get the width set that I want, then lock down the fence.

Totally impossible with this fence lock.

However, turned out not to be a problem when the fence lock handle snapped off about the third time (literally) I used it.

I used a vice grip and clamp to lock down the fence after that.

Then I started to rip a 2x4 which was a bit of a task for this little machine so I moved slowly. However, as soon as I let up on the feed through pressure the piece suddenly shifted away from the fence. I thought I had some stressed wood or really lost my technique or had a bad fence alignment. However, after I had the same issue while ripping a 1/4 x 2 stop molding I figured out the "trunnion" is so weak and flimsy the the blade actually starts to flex toward the fence under the least amount of cutting stress. I tightened the slip collar at the back where it allows the mechanism to tilt for bevel and locked the blade bevel down as hard as possible and it can still felx at least a 1/4". It could flex a good 1/2" with factory settings.

Pretty much unusable design unless you feed so slow or you aren't worried about a snaking rip line.

I will toss this when the project is over. To trashed by paint spills and job site dust, dirt and scratches to return.