Well this has been a most interesting post. Chuck you aint off topic you bang on.
You make very good points. When i bought the saw i will admit to being a total idiot. What i knew about a CMS was minimum. So I bought the biggest most flexible version of a dewalt 12 inch slider that was around.
Its not a bad saw. But like you say Chuck you gotta check it all out and tune it up etc. I put a real nice freud blade on it and even put a zci into the center bar.
I think as a construction saw this would be tops.
But if i want a piece of mahogany trimmed square for the purposes of shoulders on the edge of tennons then i think my table saw is best.
Allen you must either be very heavy on your tools or you had a total run of bad luck with mechanical stuff. Touch wood i dont have these issues.....yet. But to be fair i think you get to use you machines a whole bunch more.
Thanks Chuck for taking the time on the detailed input.
Getting through the marketing hoopla is the difficult part. I aint come across a single store where i can test machines before i buy.
I have often thought these machine stores dont know what the heck they doing.
A while back i went to a LN road show held at a local lumber yard. Well you could pick up and use and cut samples of wood with a workbench being handy with vice and all and not just one but several. All the LN tools were there and they could not write up the orders fast enough there was a line up. If that does not say something about letting people like us try out the tools before we make a purchase and having someone knowledgable around to help out.
The thing is when you a hybrid DIY, hobbiest, furniture wanna be maker the range of applications you want to use the saw for ends up making you choose flexibility as opposed to fit for purpose.
Sometimes it really does make sense to rent a tool for a specific purpose.
Then buy a version of the same for a more dedicated frequent specific purpose.
The real good thing is with having access to the pool of resource here we can cut through the marketing hoopla when needed.