Roland Johnson 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.

The Powermatic 66 is one of only three in the test group that you can’t shut off with your knee, and the blade/miter slots were out of parallel to the point of requiring adjustment. An extension table and legs are included.

Three years prior, Niall Barrett reviewed this saw and found that it had the look and feel of an industrial-quality machine. The tilt and blade-height adjusters worked effortlessly. The saw has a massive cast-iron trunnion, and the fence is bigger than anything else he looked at, at the time. The saw also comes with a high-quality SystiMatic carbide-toothed combination blade.

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Shop Fox W1826

The thick, felted bag on this Shop Fox is a plus and a minus. On one hand, it makes the unit much less expensive than collectors with canister filters, and also lighter and easier to hang on the wall. Without a separate plastic bag to catch chips, however, they stay in the felt bag, and the shortish zipper on the bottom makes it tough to shake them out. Otherwise, the W1826 is an excellent value.

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Rockler Dust Right 650 CFM

While all five of the smaller units will collect chips efficiently when deployed properly, the 3/4-hp Rockler was just a bit more powerful in our suction test.

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Freud Super Dado Saw Blade Set 8" x 5/8" Bore

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