Woodworker's Journal 2006-30-5, страница 55

By Rob Johnstone

Meditating on

the

Difference

Discerning the differences between these categories of table saws is not so simple. Figuring out which is right for you might even lead you into a contemplative confluence of a very personal sort. Be at peace; the Journal's yogi of tool geekdom will lead you down the path of power tool enlightenment!

What's in a name? As the bard observed, "... a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." So a name's meaning is not as immutable as it first appears. This is especially true of technology. With time, as a product evolves, so too do the names we use. In the computer world, the question used to be "Do you use an IBM or an Apple?" Now, the same question is framed, "Are you a Windows® or

Mac person?" That same sort of shift seems to be at work in the sphere of table saws. For many years, the three main categories of table saws used in our home-shops (and even small professional shops), were benchtop, contractor's and cabinet saws.

Historically, these names were simply descriptive in nature: The benchtop was used on a bench; contractor's saws were developed