It should come as absolutely no surprise that the tablesaw was the overwhelming choice as the single must-have machine, in the latest poll on Knots, the online forum at FineWoodworking.Com. Seventy percent of those voting in the poll chose it. The bandsaw was a very distant second, with 16 percent of the 1,361 votes cast. The other choices each received 6 percent or less of the vote. The graph below gives the specifics:

Many voters’ choices in the “other” category were intriguing and clever. Here’s a sampling:

“A light bulb. Can’t use a tablesaw unless you can see.”

“My stress reliever, companion, and trusted buddy is certainly my lathe.”

“My Shopsmith. Then I don’t have to decide.”

“The famed and yet hard to find electric board stretcher. I can’t can’t tell you how many times I’ve cut a piece just a hair too short on the table saw or what have you, and almost like magic, I’ll fire up the board stretcher and  the problem is fixed.”

“A Delta dust system with a 1-micron filter bag.”

The poll is an unscientific (but, we hope, entertaining) feature of Knots. There’s a new poll posted on the home page.

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