A track saw is great for roughing out full panels ( I use one for that), but for repeated square cuts, dados, rabbets, etc you can't beat a table saw with a sliding table attachment. Track saws are also great for job sites where a table saw isn't practical, but in a shop setting it's the workhorse.
I agree with the Unifence. That's what I use on my SawStop. Biesmeyers are good for strictly panel cutting, but for all the other things I do (tenons, dovetails, etc) the Unifence is the best. Shame the company and fence are gone (to China) now.
very cool with the pneumatic cylinders.View attachment 410050
I have made an MFT style table with the track lifted by air cylinder that incorporate twin linear guide rails. Sort of hard to see but it has some incra track for a fence to square and set the width. I actually would give up my unisaw if all I did was trim carpentry and plywood casings and such. But I do quite a bit of traditional woodworking so the unisaw is mainly just for ripping and when I am lazy and don't want to do dovetails I do box joints on it.
View attachment 410051
I was trying to see exactly what was going on with this . I have plenty of 80-20 and cylinders here . I wanted to make up a taper attachment with the stuff with flow controls .very cool with the pneumatic cylinders.
I was trying to see exactly what was going on with this . I have plenty of 80-20 and cylinders here . I wanted to make up a taper attachment with the stuff with flow controls .
My 1947 16" 7.5hp Redstar radial arm saw is the most used saw in my shop. It always cuts near perfect angles and goes back to a perfect 90 without having to check it or realign it. (I did check the 90 every time I came back from a miter cut for the first 5 or so years I owned it but have only checked in a few time in the proceeding 25 years of ownership) Now that I am getting my sliding table saw online I will have to see how much crosscutting gets transitioned to it instead of the RAS but I doubt I will ever not have a RAS in my shop... 45 years of cutting with a RAS is a hard habit to break!
Once I get the newer 16" Delta Long Arm RAS up and going I am going to have a VERY hard time sawing good bye to my 1947 16" Redstar RAS that has been my main saw for the past 30 years:
View attachment 409969
Great looking saw!Great looking saw. I just finished restoring and setting up its little brother, a '52 14" 40B. After being unhappy with a later model Delta turret and left a little bored with a DeWalt 7790 I hope that this will be the saw I keep for the next 30 years. Took about a year of watching to find it. It was not well used but also not real well cared for. Took a lot of cleaning up but there's hardly any wear.
I ripped on my RAS's quite a bit in the beginning (and even plowed some with a dado) since my first "table saw" was a Shopsmith and not always set up for ripping. Set up properly it's not as exciting as most people make it seem.
On the topic of the thread, I bought a 3hp PCS to replace my Shopsmith about a year ago and have been really happy with it. I'm a hobbyist (no rush) and careful with setups so I never expected to use the brake and haven't yet, but the price difference is small enough to comparable saws that it is cheap insurance.
The only issue I've run across is that they use some soft fasteners to secure the front rail and I stripped one out and messed up the threads on the rail when I was adding a router table to the extension. They offered to send a whole new rail out for me no charge but I just drilled and tapped it for the next size up and was more careful. Also thought it was weird that a safety-centric saw would ship without a Euro style fence when almost all their competitors have it. I'll probably swap a unifence to it someday.
Go for the 3hp , don't stop at 1.75, you won't regret it.Great looking saw!
I've had a hankering for a Sawstop to replace my 1965 Unisaw but the price in Canada is just insane.
A 1.75hp Sawstop with 36" fence is $4300 before taxes.
Are you sitting down?Go for the 3hp , don't stop at 1.75, you won't regret it.