Honestly, if your going to spend near $2k then Just bite the bullet, cry once, and get the Sawstop. Not only is it as good or better in every regard to the pm2000 or delta Unisaw but it also has the blade stop safety feature... which, I mean why wouldn’t you want that?! Your finger is worth way more than $2k and the hospital bills will be ten times that should you have an accident!
Like I said, best part is you don’t sacrifice quality of the saw for the blade stop safety feature... even without the blade stop feature it would be hard to argue that the saw stop is any less of a saw than a Powermatic or Delta or General, definitely better than a Grizzly or Shop Fox...
If your not cutting 8/4 hard maple or don’t have 220v then get the 1.75hp Hybrid version...
Maybe 2 times a year Sawstop offers deals through Rockler or other retailers where you get a free Mobile base or over arm dust collection and blade guard for free... this is the best and only ‘deal’ they offer
But honestly, do yourself a favor and get one. For the price you really can’t get a better saw....
They also have a “contractor” saw option that’s less money, but, in my opinion, the best value would still be the Hybrid 1.75HP as it’s a full cabinet saw body, with a smaller 120v motor... most owners with this saw never need any more power, unless they continually rip thick rough sawn boards or process their own lumber, etc... if you mainly work in plywood or 3/4 up to maybe 6/4 stock with the occasional super thick 8/4 or more board though, the saw will be 100% enough for you. Just make sure it’s on it’s own 20amp circuit and get a thin kerf Forrest WW2 blade
Another option is the Dewalt DWE7491 if you are just starting out in woodworking this is a very adequate saw with a 32” rip capacity and super nice fence system, they typically sell around $400-$500
However if you have the room for it, a used contractor saw can also be had for about $500 too off Craigslist, only thing is you have to watch the ads like a hawk as the good deals are gone in minutes... the only saws you find on CL sitting around for sale are over priced ones in the contractor saw market... (cabinet saws tend to sit longer as there is less of a market)
So, if you do have the space and don’t need mobility the Contractor saw option may be better than the DeWalt. Both are a good choice if u want to try out woodworking a bit before you commit to the Sawstop....look at any contractor saw from Delta (ones made from 1995 to 2001 I believe were the best, made in USA, beisemeyer fences, etc)
Another contractor saw to look at is the Jet JPS or older JWTS 10 I believe ... just stay away from the blue in color ones as that means they are pretty old and if they don’t have a beisemeyer clone fence, then it’s only worth like $250... as you’ll need to replace the fence that comes on those with a Delta T3 beisemeyer clone, Incra, or Vega aftermarket fence and rails which will cost about $300
There is also the Powermatic PM63 and 64A that are great saws... they usually have a beisemeyer clone fence too and the best motor out of all the used contractor saw options
Then there’s Grizzly, Ridgid, Shop Fox, Steel City and a few more brand of contractor saw to look at, just remember, no beisemyer clone or unifence for delta then you shouldn’t pay over $300
If you need to upgrade the fence, the Delta T3 is the best bang for buck option, it’s a slightly downsized beisemeyer clone that comes with rails and everything needed to mount it to any saw for $250 I believe
I have owned about 15 tablesaws over the last 10 years... everything from the Dewalt 745 and 7491 to about 7 different contractor saws, (the best being a delta circa the year 2000 that had extension table and true beisemeyer fence) from Jet, Powermatic, Delta, Grizzly, Craftsman and Ridgid, all the way up to 3 different cabinet saws including a Unisaw and PM66... after all of those saws I can honestly say the SawStop is the best, there was nothing those other saws had that the SawStop doesn’t have, and it has one thing they don’t, peace of mind for my fingers!
One caveat to note... older contractor saws or cabinet saws will NOT have a Riving knife and adding one aftermarket doesn’t have many good options (there are some but none that are as good as a stock riving knife) so that’s a consideration... any new saw has to have one by law... so the dewalt will, etc... regardless of what you say about a Saw Stop feature, the riving knife is very nice to have, when ripping a long board, the board will tend to want to pinch in on the blade when deep in the cut, this will cause a kick back which can hurt like hell! (And cause serious injuries) The riving knife stops this from happening and works WAY better than the old blade guard and teethed pawl system on older saws
To answer your question about benefits of a Cabinet saw over contractor saw though... A cabinet saw has the motor mounted to the cabinet itself, not the bottom of the table. This makes it a thousand times easier to make adjustments to the table to blade relationship, meaning you need to true that up by moving the table so that the miter slots are perfectly square to the blade... on a cabinet saw this is done in mere moments by loosening the table and moving it around until it’s square to the blade... on a contractor saw the blade and trunnion are connected to the bottom of the cast table by 4 bolts, so, you need to get inside the saw, loosen those bolts and move the whole trunnion system around to square it to the table, problem is there is little to no adjustment and it’s a pain in the ****... not fun!
Also a Cabinet saw has more power, more weight, larger table, often a better fence but not always, runs on 220v typically, has better dust collection as the cabinet is closed in where a contractor saw is open. However, contractor saws are smaller which can be a good thing, they are easier to move, and therefor easier to sell.
As I mentioned earlier about the “hybrid saw” from sawstop... this is basically a cabinet saw with a smaller motor, so the trunnion and blade are cabinet mounted which is better but it has the 110v less HP motor of a contractor saw... anyway, SawStop is not the only one who makes these, you can find them used from Craftsman, Jet and Ridgid and Grizzly, even Delta... I owned a craftsman hybrid saw model # 22114 and it was a great saw, Ridgid also makes a similar one... the Craftsman I had did NOT have a riving knife but some of them do, I believe they became mandatory around 2010 so any saw made after that should have one!
Wow! That was a lot of typing... but, table saws are one thing I know ALOT about
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although I’m sure someone will chime in and say everything I said was completely wrong! which is completely OK... that’s the best part of GJ is everyone has an opinion and it’s up to you to figure out what will work best for you based on our experiences/opinions.. Good Luck, Update us when you make a purchase.
