Table saw purchasing advice

[Bob10]

There's a PM 63 somewhere near 3 hours from you for $375
funny to see prices out there and the lack of selection.  I have more cabinet saws just under my house than I saw listed in 3 states out your way
https://jerseyshore.craigslist.org/tls/5922522765.html

[Tapper]

you would only lose to a vocal minority 

A vocal minority AND a silent majority. The financial arguments against SS grow weaker as time goes on and prices narrow.  It is difficult to put a price/value on a tool that will absolutely, positively prevent a catastrophic injury on said tool. If you don't believe it, talk to someone who has had such an injury. Not to mention the attendant hospital/medical bill.

As always, YMMV.

Doug

[knotscott]

From a glance, there are definitely some used saw within budget that are worth a look:

http://pennstate.craigslist.org/tls/5916427284.html - Unifence, 2hp motor, left tilt

http://williamsport.craigslist.org/tls/5911070732.html - has the upgraded fence, mobile base...pre-cursor to the Ridgid 3650

http://williamsport.craigslist.org/tls/5944629916.html - 3hp G1023, would need 220v, but what saw for $400.

http://harrisburg.craigslist.org/tls/5861697102.html - G1022ZF with the Shop Fox Original fence, and mobile base $300

http://binghamton.craigslist.org/tls/5910461834.html - overpriced at $500, but a good saw worth an offer of ~ $300.

http://reading.craigslist.org/tls/5941086288.html - A lot of saw for $200 if there are no issues with the elevation gear.

[KyleD]

The Dewalt will do anything you need it to do. It is loud and lacks the power and nice big table of the larger and more expensive saws. You will eventually move up to a better saw if you continue in woodworking. The move up eventually will require you to make new jigs but that is ok. One always gets ideas to make the jig better for their particular uses. 
The projects I suggest you do right away is tune the saw (make sure the blade is parallel to the miters slots and 90 deg. to the table),build an out-feed table for your new saw, a cross-cutting sled, and listen to your Aunt about doing things safely.

Kyle

[Patsfan]

my turn:

You don't want a used job site saw - that has bounced around in the back of somebody's truck.

make sure you get a blade guard with it (or invest in an aftermarket one.)

Same with a splitter

Use the blade guard - and the splitter

Buy a saw with a decent fence that locks down securely and check for parallel with the blade (this is setable.)

Older saws are pretty cheap, so you can add a good aftermarket fence and good blade within your budget.

Not saying I'd buy this one, but here is an example:

https://philadelphia.craigslist.org/tls/5917965953.html

take some time to learn proper technique - just because it has worked so far doesn't mean it is correct or safe.

learn to build sleds and jigs for it.  Cuts will be safer and more repeatable.

[Pirate]

If you would like a cabinet saw, but only have 110 volts available, a perfect saw would be a older Unisaw, with a 1 or 1.5 hp "bullet" motor.
They will run on 110 or 220. I've run mine on 110 for 10+ years.
Not sure when they last made them but think in the late 50's.
Don't think much about the age. (mines 71 years old!) They were made to last.

If I had no equipment and a small budget, and wanted to start cutting wood, I would buy a used Craftsman (older the better) saw for $100 +/- and make saw dust, while monitoring CL for a better saw, and any other quality tools that you could use.

[TDKPE]

RE: electrical hookups. I am likely looking at 120 volt saws. I will be running a 220 circuit for a newly acquired dust collector. I'm assuming that I can't run both the saw and the dust collector off of the same 220 circuit...although if that isn't correct, let me know. Don't have room in the breaker box for running two 220 lines...at least not without getting creative.

If you can run a 20A or 30A 240V circuit to your shop for your new DC, you can run a 30A or 50A 120/240V circuit instead, put an inexpensive main lugs panel in your shop, and be able to run circuits of any ampacity to anywhere in your shop.  Or just drop a couple right next to the panel with conduit if you don't know what you want to do yet. 

You need a 3-wire with ground cable instead of 2-wire w/ ground, as you need to carry the neutral to the new panel also.  But other than that, it's no more work, and takes no more room in your main panel (double-pole breaker).  You don't need a main breaker in the subpanel, but you certainly can have one if you like, and it can be used as a shut-off for shop receptacles and machines.  100A or 125A is the most common for such panels, but the feeder will be protected at whatever the breaker's ampacity is in the main panel, so a big main breaker is perfectly legal (it's just a shut-off at that point).

I wouldn't make a major TS decision with the built-in restriction of 120V only operation unless you really have to stick to the lower voltage.  Though contractor and hybrid saws can be perfectly satisfactory, and can run strong if the wire run is 12 gauge copper or better, and is relatively short.

I used this one in my shop, mainly because the other panels in the house are QO, and I wanted to maintain interchangeability of breakers.  But larger ones with more spaces are just as cheap.  I didn't want a larger one, and this one can have up to 16 circuits (2-pole loads count as two circuits in this case) with duplex and half-height breakers.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Square-D-QO-1.../100136882

   

Front left to right: 15A lights, 20A DC, 2 x 20A general purpose receptacle circuits, 20A 240V large tool circuit (with 5 receptacles), 50A 120/240V welder (in garage).

Just sayin'.  

[MsNomer]

Jarvis, TDKPE brings up a good point. Because of a certain 8-yr-old young superman in your house who offers to build a van like Aunt Sue's, you must have a kill switch for your shop tools.

[daddo]

I have wall type switches up high that open power to all my power tools and most outlets. Or I just hit the breaker if I'm going to be gone a while. The only emergency bang switches are for the metal lathe and a foot kick switch for the table saw.

[JarvisD]

That's a really good point re: the kill switch. Up to this point, I have unplugged any saw when I walked away to keep the little superman from getting in danger. Not as easy with what I'm looking at here.

At this point I think the saw will only be 40 or so feet from the main breaker box. Running wire and adding an extension box (and a kill switch) would not be hard. More things to consider for sure.