Thomas Porter's Workshop

Wow, now that’s a tool to build a shop around!

-- Paul, Texas

Nice table saw. Will that let you cut a sheet of plywood by yourself? It looks like it has the european style saw guard, but I can not tell if it has a riving knife.

I have been thinking lately of a sliding table saw, but have not heard of many who have them? How do you like it? I see Rikon has an affordable model (less than $1300), and will let you cut a sheet of plywood so that is of interest to me.

Besides cross cuts, a sliding table saw would seem to have advantages in angle cutting as well, because of the long miter support bar.

I am looking forward to seeing the rest of your shop pictures soon.

-- Bill, Turlock California, http://www.brookswoodworks.com

Yes, I can cut a 8’ piece of plywood without any assistance. Not only that… it’s a 14” blade, so I can stack 6 or 7 sheets of plywood on top of another and cut the whole stack at the same time. It has a 120mm scoring blade as well. It’s a 7.5 hp main blade and a 1 hp scoring blade. The scoring blade is adjustable to the saws kerf and puts a really clean score on the bottom of the piece to prevent tear out. I don’t know anything about the Rikon model but I do know that I also have a Powermatic 66 with an excalibur sliding table and it doesn’t even compare. They are night and day different. This saw cuts so clean that it leaves a mirrored finish. The stops on the saw go out as far as 120+”. It’s pretty incredible. I got this saw used from a cabinet shop but brand new I’m told it costs somewhere between $14,000-20,000. I’ll post some pictures of it later if I get some time.

-- Thomas Porter, Phoenix, AZ, www.thomasporter.com

That’s a serious looking tablesaw, Thomas! Your description of stacking sheets of plywood…man, that can make short work of carcass prep!

-- You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. (Plato)

Great start on the shop. The table saw makes a lot of people drool. Good job.

-- I've been blessed with a father who liked to tinker in wood, and a wife who lets me tinker in wood. Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †

Drool…...

-- Bill, Turlock California, http://www.brookswoodworks.com

Hi Thomas,

I am sorry that it took me so long to get around to looking at your shop post but am I glad that it came up on my list. Those are some wonderful tools that you have to work with. And I did notice some sawdust in there as well. This makes it look like a perfectly normal shop. :)

Thanks for the post. I would love to work in a setup like this.

-- Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful- Joshua Marine