My week

[Leon]

So far 50%

That is going to become a smaller number however as I have a bunch of panel projects coming up.

[Leon]

It probably is a good idea, but not a necessary one.

[Larry Jaques]

Amazing.

Ayup.

How about you other 55 and 75 owners? What's your ripping quotient?

-- An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last. -- Sir Winston Churchill

[Swingman]

I'm of the opposite opinion ... Anti-tilt on the Makita is totally unnecessary when the saw is operated properly, and most dangerous when not.

The "anti-tilt" is a good idea ONLY on very short bevel cuts, ONLY if the guide rail is clamped to the work piece and the underlying cutting/table surface, ONLY if the saw is being improperly operated on the short cut, and, more to the point, ONLY because it has no riving knife.

In the middle of a _long_ bevel cut, and since guide rails are clamped only at the ends, no anti-tilt lever made will keep a long guide rail from flexing slightly and lifting off the work piece without proper handling by the operator.

This flexing of a long guide will guarantee kick back (yes C-less, even in sheet goods) and particularly so on a saw with no riving knife.

(simply holding either saw securely, and with a consistent down and forward motion it proper operation, and is all that is necessary with a saw equipped with a riving knife)

Any piece of equipment must be operated properly, and anything that gives the operator a false sense of security often ends up extremely dangerous.

You can bet that this is one of the reasons you rarely hear about a kickback problem with either Festool plunge saw.

[Larry Jaques]

My opinion is that you're overstating things along this line. Safe and proper operation should be a "given" hypothesis.

Either that or they think "Dayum, this saw cost so much, it couldn't have kicked back unless I was doing something wrong. I won't say anything about it because it's _all_my_fault_!"

-- An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last. -- Sir Winston Churchill

[scatter]

I have a protool (made by festool) non-plunge saw with riving knife. It's become my main saw (with tracks and an older MFT) for everything including ripping. I'm one of those people without a table saw though. I do a lot of plywood so my ripping solid timber is probably more like

10%. It'd be nice if festool was better at handling rips of long narrow pieces - their system really requires support pieces and the workpiece clamped to a surface. (in that application I think the eurekazone system has an edge with it's dual clamping tracks underneath.

[Larry Jaques]

Thanks for the feedback.

I take it that you don't have the Festool MFT table?

I hadn't heard of Eurekazone until now. Festering prices there, too, eh? Do you own one of these as well?

-- Most people assume the fights are going to be the left versus the right, but it always is the reasonable versus the jerks. -- Jimmy Wales

[Swingman]

You're certainly welcome to your opinion. Mine is based on considerable use and operation of the particular genre of tool (rail guided plunge saw) ... yours, admittedly not.

Anyone is free to decide for themselves which opinion has the most merit.

The only time "safe and proper operation" becomes a "given hypothesis" is immediately following the first accident ...

What is indeed a "given" is that these tools are not for everyone.

[Lee Michaels]

"Swingman" wrote

Then there is the "given" that some people should never operate power tools under any circumstances.

From there, I suppose, there is a continuum of comfort level for each kind of tool. And there is a whole lot of hysteria and emotion concerning different types and classes of tools.

The ultimate demonization of a tool would be the radial arm saw. I grew up around them and used them for many years without any kind of problem. But many folks, who don't understand that spinning saw blades are inherently dangerous, cut off portions of their anatomy with them. Therefore, these saws are "bad". Or at least, politically incorrect.

Now we see another process at work. A super critical perspective of tools "that cost too much". But cost is relative. The folks who buy many tools are using them for their business. If the tool isn't doing its job, you would hear about it.

I may lust after tools I can't afford. But I am not going to whine about the tools because it is not in my price range. Nor am I going to whine about it if I can not justify the expense of the tool based on my current or future use of such a tool. If these tools did not perform a useful function, they would cease to be a viable product to manufacture and distribute.

Nuff said, end of rant.

[Swingman]

I used a RAS almost exclusively as the 'goto' tool to build a couple of recording studios years ago. Have always have had a healthy respect for the tool, and got excellent results using it. (I don't think there was such a thing as a SCMS in those days)

That said, the pucker factor still goes up to this day when I see/got to use a RAS, which is probably a good thing.

That said, a router with a big bit, or an angle or taper cut on the table saw can flex the sphincter just as easily as the RAS for me.

Quality is expensive upfront, cheap over the useful life of the tool.

Good rant ... I buy whatever it makes business sense to buy to do the best job possible in the most efficient manner, and always try to build a purchase into the price of a job, or two.

When the pleasure from using a tool coincides with a legitimate business justification to purchase it, it feels good on all counts, including the fact that you're doing something right. :)

That counts for all "tools", from hand to software.

[scatter]

I do. It's an older mft800. It's great for cross cutting or for working on pieces already cut so that they'll fit on the table. Believe it or not, it's best feature for me are the precision placed holes. It's trivial to make 90 or 45 degree cuts. Guides and stop blocks are easy to clamp down.

Yeah, it's what I started with many years ago. The tracks and clamps are good but I was disappointed by the workmanship of many accessories. I use my 2 Ezone tracks for cutting stuff down to size or for long, very thin rips.