I'll jump in and echo much of what has been said. I owned a SS for over 25 years, first real WW tool I owned. It made sense for me because my shop was in a basment (converted coal bin actually) of a very old house with 7' ceilings and a total work area of about 8 x 12. It was OK for small projects, though I see many people turning out some very nice work on a SS, but it does not do any one thing very well. As soon as I had the room I went for stationary machines.
If you do wind up with the SS let me give one word of caution. PLAN. Because you need to set up each tool for use you can't 'forget' to do something and just go back an make a quick cut or drill one more hole. Plan every step to minimize your set up time. Also, repeatability can be a real issue as there are no scales for ripping, and the table tipping can be a bear to get right. Forget about a bevel on the end of a long board.
You have to ask yourself why there are so many used ones around for sale. I have two theories. 1. People who want to move on to higher levels of WW grow out of them, 2. Lots of people attend the demonstrations, have visions of furnishing their entire home in a few weekends, and take them home only to become frustrated.
Sorry, I don't mean to sound bitter. I loved my SS and made lots of things with it. I just wanted more accuracy and less time 'compensating' and setting up.
Last word - promise - buy used. Many are hardly out of the box condition. Be patient, look around.
Last edited by Rennie Heuer; 11-07-2006 at 12:20 PM.
I have been black and blue in some spot, somewhere, almost all my life from too intimate contacts with my own furniture. - Frank Lloyd Wright
I have been black and blue and bloody in some spot, somewhere, almost all my life from too intimate contacts while building my own furniture. - Rennie Heuer