The author looked at 13 popular 3-hp, 220v 10-in. cabinet saws. In addition to evaluating the saws for power and safety, he also tested for tabletop flatness, for runout at the arbor shaft and arbor flange, and for parallelism of the blade to the miter slot. He found that all the saws offered plenty of power, solid rip fences, smooth controls, and flat tabletops. But the Powermatic PM2000 goes even further. It has an easy-to-change riving knife and a good blade guard. The shut-off switch is especially easy to reach with the knee, and the tabletop is the second largest in the test group. Furthermore, it’s the only saw that includes retractable casters (although lowering them required a lot of effort, a problem that is being corrected on newer models). An extension table and legs are included. The Powermatic PM2000 tied with the SawStop for author’s choice of best overall.

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Grizzly G0495X Industrial Helical Cutterhead 8-in. Jointer

Regardless of the board’s grain, this jointer produced excellent results. Its fence was totally flat, worked smoothly, and locked well, staying in place even after jointing multiple edges. Getting the fence to 90° was very easy, but the 90° stop was a little tricky to set and the fence did not go back to square when using it. For those who would use it, there is also a digital depth-of-cut scale.

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