I just thought I'd throw this out and see what comes back.
Personally: I cut my teeth back in the dinosaur age when a RAS was the preferred cutoff machine, a good one weighed in at several hundred pounds and took a day to set up. But you could get a dead-nuts straight crosscut at 90 degrees up to 24" wide depending on how big a saw you wanted to buy.
Now we have the lightweight saws that do everything and tilt every which way but upside-down, but they only cut 12" at 90 and more-or-less straight. Even the most expensive saws with the best blades can't produce a straight cut to furniture-grade standards on a standard FAS board(8" or less), much less at 12". I realize this is subjective but I have yet to get a crosscut from my Kapex with the Forrest Chopmaster blade that I can hold up to a light against a straightedge and not see gaps in the cut. To me, that's not furniture-grade quality. Back in that dinosaur age when I cut for a trim crew with a 12" B&D Pro compound miter saw, it was good enough for what we were doing but it definitely wasn't furniture-grade.
We all have table saws that have remarkably precise bevel adjustments and miter gauges that equal or exceed the accuracy of the tablesaw, where's the need for a chopsaw that doesn't compare in accuracy? If you're not a trim carpenter how do you justify the need for a tool like this to use in your shop, other than convenience? And do you need to spend $500-$1500 and the space it occupies in your shop for that convenience?
Like I said, I'm just throwing this out for discussion. Let's hear your thoughts.
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