I'm thinking about what to do with my chunk of the tax refund, if I can afford to spend any of it on anything non-essential this time around.
My table saw is much better than nothing, but I've raised the bar as high as it will go, and it's starting to really piss me off. I think it's time to put it to rest.
Now, the BT3000/3100 is a good, small saw with lots of blurfls, but I don't really want one because of the whole sliding table concept. I could change the way I work, and I will surely have to build a new series of jigs anyway, but I'm very comfortable with my sled and all its bolt-on accessory jigs. I think I would strongly prefer a table with good old fashioned miter slots to the sliding table thingie. Plus the sliding table sticks out, and I think I'd always be running into it.
So, let's rule out the Ryobi saws and look at what's out there in the small but not crappy arena. My priorities are:
- 0 absolute maximum upper price limit, cheaper is more realistic, sucking it up and going the extra 0 for some blurfl ain't gonna happen
- small form factor, like a benchtop on a stand, but preferably without direct drive and a screamin' demon universal motor
- must have a blade angle crank wheel, and be able to return with certainty to 90.0 degrees
- MUST COME WITH A DECENT FENCE
Those are the gottahaveits. Other things would be a bonus, like standard miter slots, ample room in front of the blade, ability to take easily made zero-clearance inserts, ability to take a full dado stack, easy to adjust, etc.
I don't really care about extension wings and the like. No room for them anyway. Even after I build a bigger shop, it's not likely going to be that much bigger, given the amount of land I have to work with. I'm settled in pretty comfortably as a box/small project maker, and I'm not looking for a big saw for big stock. I can live with doing all the big jobs with portable tools.
Suggestions for stuff I should be looking at? I suppose with my size constraints, I'm pretty much steering clear of contractor sized saws, and staying in the realm of benchtops. What did the people who didn't want a BT3000 buy?
Yeah, I should probably STFW.