Selwyn":1cxuiags said:
Get a good table saw and make do with a compound mitre saw to save money. Will still cross cut 10 inches
The difference between a poor and a good table saw, besides safety, is versatility and accuracy. I started off with cheap Evolution SCMS and table saw. I still use the SCMS which is perfectly adequate for cutting things to length and angle, with some care in setting up the fence. I use it a lot. The cheap table saw was OK for ripping small stuff, but I now have an old Wadkin AGS10, which is brilliant. I can rely on the right angle being a right angle (hence don't need a planer/jointer), the saw finish is excellent and needs little smoothing, it can cut to accurate widths, down to about 1 mm, and in general I can rely on it to do what I want it to do. Night and day.
As has been said, it depends on your work. I do a lot of restoration, involving cutting things accurately to size and preparing them for the thicknesser. I do often make bookcases, for which the table saw is great. I never work with full boards of sheet material but get them cut approximately to size in the store, and don't use them much anyway. Someone who does mostly sheet material work, e.g. a kitchen cabinet maker without a full panel saw, would find a good tracksaw more useful.
I suggest you think of your past and future projects and think through how you would make them on different tools.
And actually, you have more workshop space than I do, so you do have room. I have a 16x8 shed where I do hand tool work, joint cutting and assembly. The SCMS and morticer live there. A small 12 x 6 shed houses the table saw near the door, a router table by the door forming the outfield for the saw, a lathe in a corner, and a small Inca bandsaw on a freestanding bench, which can be moved around out of the way of long plank feed. The door is opened for long stuff, and this shed has the more serious dust extraction.
Keith
