nolnryd

I agree 100% with Dreamcather! The guy that got cut up is an idiot!!! Why poor Ryobi is getting sued is a mystery to me?

I am the first to take the guards off any table saw or chop saw that I buy. They are dangerous, and give the operator a false sense of protection. I also find you spend more time trying to use a hand to move the guard so you can see your work piece, that you are no longer supporting the workpiece correctly, and the cut becomes much more dangerous than it needs to be.

I own eight table saws, and not one of them is a Saw stop! I don't want a Saw stop! They are too expensive, and they ruin your blades. I have no use for that! If that idiot that got cut up wins this lawsuit, it will be over for all of us. There will be no more regular, conventional, table saws anymore. You will have to buy one on ebay.

I completely agree with suburbangeorge! Why would anyone admit this was their work? First off, I find it hard to believe you would use cement board in a shower. I guarantee it will crack in the corners, and in the seems. Floating the walls with a mud bed is by far the superior application for tiling a shower. I have been a builder for quite some time, and never once have I seen a wall that was perfectly straight, or plumb. Floating allows you to dial in every shower wall to be plumb and square. Using cement board is a joke! And where is the Aqua Bar? There should be some sort of waterproof paper behind the cement board. Regardless of how nice that shower seems to be when it is finished, it will fail over time.

The simple fact of the matter is... You really need both a RAS, and a Chop Saw.

I am a general contractor in the San Diego area. We build custom homes from the foundation to the roof, and everything in between. I have a cabinet shop where I have two RAS's set up, and a Chop box as well.

There is no beating the RAS when it comes to cross cutting. The fact that a 14" 3hp RAS has far more power than any chop saw, or sliding compound miter saw on the market today, and that is a huge benefit. The point being that each saw can do something the other one can not! Cutting multiple pieces all the same size, the RAS wins that challenge easily. Cutting up base, casing, or crown, the chop saw wins hands down. You need them both.

I have a 14" Delta-Milwaukee RAS set up for cross cuts. Then a 12" DeWalt chop saw set up for miters. Then a 10" Delta-Rockwell RAS set up for dados. They are all permanently mounted on an 18' table with a fence. I have four or five other slide compounds, and chop saws that I use for job site work.

To say that the RAS is extinct, or a thing of the past is a stupid comment. I can't think of any professional cabinet shop that I've been through, that doesn't have a RAS or a cutoff saw of some sort. A chop saw just wouldn't hold up with their tiny little motors. I think the author of this article makes a mistake when he tries to feed us this line. "In short, sliding compound miter saws (the bigger cousins of the chop saw) have taken the place of the radial arm saw." I think a more accurate take on the overall view would be to say "the sliding compound miter saw is geared toward the home owner and hobbyist. Someone who is not a professional, and has no need for a RAS." They can get by with a sliding compound miter saw. But a true professional (a production framer, or a production cabinet shop,) would never be able to get by with only a compound miter saw. They need a big powerful RAS!!! And that's all there is to it!