Questions before I purchase new TS..

[cpritchard]

Dustmite,
did you make that router extension, or did that come with the saw? If you made it, it looks great!

[Knottscott]

Dustmite,
did you make that router extension, or did that come with the saw? If you made it, it looks great!

Made it. I made one in the original 16" extension but it was just too short for my needs. Thanks.

[drumpriest]

Very late in this discussion, but chiming in anyway. I am the proud owner of a PM2000, upgraded from my BT3100. My motivations were many, one of which is that I didn't want to downgrade my safety features when I upgraded my saw.

Concerning the Shark. Buying a shark guard for a saw that isn't equipped with a riving knife doesn't give that saw a riving knife, the sharks for those saws attach to the splitters. RK's are an integral design element.

The RK was vital to me, and ease of removal of the guard and RK is INSANELY GOOD on the PM2000. An easy to use safety feature is a feature that gets used. I didn't really agonize over my purchase decision, I am young, and into woodworking, this saw will last a long time, and was a wise investment for me.

I have taper ripped 3" solid oak on the PM2000, with no troubles, if you are regularly going to be doing such things, a cabinet saw makes sense, if not, and the RK isn't as important to you, then I'd recommend a hybrid. Most of the cab features without the price.

I have the 50" rip capacity PM2000, but in all the projects I've done, I've never ripped wider than 36". I use the extra capacity to use my rip fence (with a stop block attached so as to not reference off of the rip fence directly) to set the lengths of my cross cuts. Nice repeatable cuts that way with my miter sled.

In short, cabinet saws cost more, no doubt, power is a big reason, better parts overall, and in the higher ends better safety features (PM2000 and SawStop). For me, given my love of the work, and my projected time doing it, it was worth the $$$. I didn't want to have to justify to the wife or myself another TS upgrade in 5 more years.

[tomscanio]

If the riving knife is important to you, you may want to wait. I believe I heard in this forum that any new model table saws after 1 Jan 08 will have to have riving knifes. That being said, models don't change very often.

tomscanio

[eezlock]

new table saw?

Chris, I think you would like the 3650 if you get it, a lot of good reviews
on Ridgid's website about that saw for sure. If you don't like the stock fence and rails that are on it now....upgrade them...I did and I like my saw a lot better now! I went with the Delta T-2 30" fence and rails and I would not have any saw....no matter what brand or type without a T-square type fence, they are better built and more reliable than stock units. You could always sell the fence and rails on E-bay, they will even fit some of the older Craftsman (Emerson built saws) and recover most of the cost of the new Delta T-2! Lowe's put the Delta on sale pretty regular at or near $129.00,
full price is only about $150.00...gives you something to ponder anyway.
eezlock