Rocketj

Rob, Found myself in a similar situation a couple years ago. Bought a Grizzly floor stapler (currently on sale for $159 I recall) for 199 and it worked fine. Used it a few times more and still have no problems. Comes with shoe plates for different thickness flooring material. Haven't noticed the poppet issue you mention, and so far only used it on pre-finished. One of my carpenters (Amish) just borrowed it to do a 600-650 sq ft floor (pre-finished) and his only problem was it jammed once. He's used it here, so he just added more oil and it worked fine. He may have over oiled it (is that possible) because I note oily discharge from the exhaust ports and wonder if it could stain unfinished wood - will have to clean it and keep an eye out. At the time I was deciding, your article was not out yet, so I went with the wisdom that said staples had twice the grab (twice the 'nail'). Years ago the comment was that staples were coated with a glue that melted with the frictional heat of penetration, then re-set. Is that still the case? There was no mention of that in your piece. And, any comments on Grizzly floor staplers/nailers? Their staples are about half the price of the national lumber yard store (can I mention Lowe's here?).
Rock

I bought my Delta 10" back in the mid 70s, after I bought my first house and had lots to repair. It got me through that house, then the next house where I converted a 2nd floor porch to a sitting room 14 X20 with 5 ea 5X5 sliders looking out to the back yard. Now I'm in the country, rebuilding a 200 year old Post and Beam where nothing is plumb or straight or even machined - the main members are all hand hewed, and I ripping off 3 layers of siding to go back to the clapboard style. I'm using rough cut Larch, and the 5/4 trim boards all pretty much have to be ripped to width. This August the RAS suddenly quit! I have a young neighbor down in town who "fiddles" with all kinds of stuff, so he came over, we removed the motor, and he took it to his shop. Called me the next day - he found 35 years of caked on saw dust inside the cowling. The soft start switch and the thermal overload switch had both burned out. Delta had to search (the model has been out of production for a decade or so) but found them in an hour and called back. For $60 including shipping I was back in business in a week. I have a chop saw which is good for certain things, but we have found problems with it. I agree with others - the RAS is great for cutting certain dados, ripping (sometimes - I like my cabinet saw for ripping, but I can easily move the RAS to the back deck from the shop, not the 450 pound cabinet saw), compound miters, etc. I think safety is an issue - someone mentioned 2X4s sailing through a wall ... I think when ripping, you want to turn the head so the blade rotates toward you and you push the work into the blade, then it can't grab the piece and fling it.

Not to dampen CBFarley's comment, there is a "water cycle", which means water goes through states, but doesn't disappear. Water stored at the polar caps as ice, kind of just stays there. If we change its state from solid to liquid, it enters the liquid-vapor cycling regimen, and using it doesn't change the water levels at the coast. Rain falls, is used, evaporates, goes into clouds, and starts over.