Table Saw Advice

[<nospam]

Hello all,

Hoping for some advice on a 15 amp, 10" table saw purchase. Newbie woodworker with $300 budget. Generally, I'd be building furniture (bedroom set, coffee tables, bookcases, maybe some work in the kitchen, etc).

Thinking of three options:

1) Ryobi BT3100 2) Delta TS300 3) Delta TS220LS (and use rest of money to add a Freud SD508 dado set)

The Deltas have different drivetrains (?). Belt & gear on the TS300. Floating jack shaft on the TS220LS. What's the diff? Which is better? I assume the belt & gear since it's on the higher end model. Also the TS220LS has a cheesy plastic miter gauge, but I could at least get the better one that comes on the TS300 after-market for cheap ($60). The fences seems identical.

The Ryobi appeared to be nicer overall. The default miter gauge and fence seemed better. And I have heard some nice things about their customer support (and spent some time in their web discussion board and user group).

My concerns would be if one of these models were problematic with after-market upgrades (replacement fences, miter gauges, etc). Like if the miter gauges slots were and odd sizes or whatever, making it hard to find items to fit.

Any advice would be most appreciated.

Thanks.

(Please reply to group as the email address in this post is bogus.)

[<nospam]

Other differences I just noticed on their web sites:

Make | Model | Blade Speed | Depth at 90 | Depth at 45 | Rip to Right | Rip to Left

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

----------- Ryobi | BT3100 | 4800 RPM | 3 9/16" | 2 1/2" | 30" |

31" Delta | TS300 | 5500 RPM | 3 1/8" | 2 1/8" | 27" | 12" Delta | TS220LS | 5000 RPM | 3" | 2 1/2" | 20" | 13"

(Hope this ASCII table comes out readable.)

The Ryobi can rip 4x4 in one pass and has better overall ripping capacities (widths). Are these differences in blade speed significant at all?

[Rich Stern]

Skip the Freud dado in favor of the $20 stacked dado set from Harbor Freight. With a tight budget, the saved money is better spent on clamps, glue, sandpaper, finishing materials, etc.

Rich S.