Table saw ?

I didn’t even know Performax made table saws. They got their name with their drum sander I believe. They might well be just sticking their name on some Chinese saw so I would be careful. Rockwell used to be very good but I would be wary of them too. A lot of the time-honored old names are now owned by big companies that know nothing about what they are selling, and what they are selling is often Chinese junk.

-- Dwight - "Free legal advice available - contact Dewey, Cheetam & Howe""

”But anyway I know the advise would be to wait and get a good used one but because of $ being a gift and am I a big hurry I need to go this route. ”

There’s a very good reason for the advise mentioned above. The saws you’ve mentioned are very humble saws. The quality and safety difference in what you can buy in a good used saw for the same price can be huge. It’s worth a quick look through your local CL IMO.

Saws like the one below go in the $200 range in my area pretty regularly. It’s a significantly more substantial saw than those you mentioned. There’s a lot more operating room in front of the blade, there’s a much wider rip capacity, stronger, quieter, more reliable motor, more mass and stability, and better resale value. Pay $200 for a good used saw, and it’ll still be worth $200 if you choose to sell it. Simply put, it’s a safer more accurate saw.

More info—> Table Saw Classifications

At the very least, consider getting a decent portable jobsite saw as opposed to a really cheap benchtop.

-- Happiness is like wetting your pants...everyone can see it, but only you can feel the warmth....

If you do a search on Ljs there must be 100 threads on “what table saw to buy” You can gain a lot of information from those . In short most table top table saws are not worth having, and the $99 table saws they sell will only be something you want to replace 1hr after you use it for the first time.

-- W James Brokenbourgh Custom furniture maker http://artisticwoodstudio.com/

If you let chinese origin dissuade you from owning a saw, you may never have one.

The only saws you can buy new, in big box stores all come from China.

The saw in the picture above is probably about 6 or more years old and it came from China, or perhaps Tiawan (same difference) But it’s a good saw.

Bottom line, the best saw is one you can afford and have available now if you are in a hurry.

Having said that, a recent wood working magazine evaluation of portable table saws Rated the Porter Cable (sold by Lowes) a best buy. I don’t have that saw, but it was high on my list before I decided to get a stationary hybrid type saw.
The Porter Cable they reviewed, The PCB220-TS model number, that sells for $299.00. Has a stand, a decent fence, a standard miter slot, and can mount a dado blade. These are all good features to have and what I would consider my minimum requirements.

-- Michael :-{| Diapers and politicians both need to be changed often; and for the same reason.

I know a lot of people dis Ryobi equipment, but I find they are like other tools—they have good ones and bad ones. I wouldn’t waste time with any of their little bench top models (nor with Skil, nor Black and Decker, nor Delta—all the little ones are crap). But their BT3100 is in many ways an impressive tool. I had one (used) for a couple of years, and there were nice features: sliding cross-cut table, a decent stand, plenty of power, and it is the only 10” saw I know of that an cut a 4X4 in one pass. The rails front and back telescope, giving you lots of flexibility, though not without some fussing about. There’s also a router table built in, though I never used it with a router. Like all bench top saws that use a universal motor instead of an induction, it was loud, but no worse than anybody else’s. Thing is, you see them from time to time at very reasonable prices on CL. Early version of this saw was the BT3000, but that model had a weaker motor, and I’d stay away from it. Sears has a clone under the Craftsman name, but I am deeply leery of anything from that company. I know a lot of people find their stuff acceptable, and they sell way more than anybody else; the fact that a huge percentage of the power tools on CL are C-man may or may not tell you something about how well people like using them. I had one of their benchtops that had so much blade wobble that you could see it on startup. Would stabilize when up to speed, but as soon as it slowed down (as when cutting a piece of wood), the wobble would return and of course the cut would end up rough, with blade marks all over it.

Thank you. I will respond with a better response later if I can get my computer to work. I keep losing my post.