gabzachuck

I think a lot of people settle for mediocrity because their motives are dictated by the what they think they can get for the least amount of money. Recently my neighbor had her kitchen remodeled, and when she asked me to repair a cabinet door that subsequently broke, I had to painfully inform her that what she presumed was cherry was actually packing crate wood with a thickly lacquered finish. I've always been enthused with antiques, mostly because if they have withstood the test of time that pretty much equates quality. I create my own furniture mostly because I can get what I want and the quality I want & not what simply is locally available. That also goes for craft & imported beers, imported coffees and most of all precision tools. Compared to fifty or more years ago it's absolutely amazing the wide variety of interesting things available to the average consumer now. This very much bodes well for the imaginative person that now has vast resources to chose from when they feel they want to be creative.

After Norm left, my wife & I had to content ourselves with Scott Phillips. Really nice man, but sometimes I looked askance at what he was creating at times. In this new show the "instructor" seems so enamored with himself over the craft and his poor patronized assistant, that the presentation suffered as a result. The beauty of Norm's shows was that he was a regular guy & could be just like a friend you used to know down the street. If young Tommy Mac can't get control over his narcissistic behavior and get his act together he sure won't have me as a viewer much longer.

Although I've owned and used my RAS for over 35 years now, I have to concede that their day has come gone. If I had to start all over again however, which is clearly not an option, I would probably go with the Festool Kapex and setup some kind of station for it. But before you TS guys get swelled heads, consider this, with the overwhelming success of the new track saws becoming more and more commonplace, isn't it possible we COULD be talking about the demise of large table saws in another 20 years? Think about it.