Thread: Feeling a bit down....

Stuart's original point about the engineering and design of table saws has hardly beenn addressed in most of the replies.
What you said Stu is quite valid. I think it is probably just as easy to design and build something well as it is to do it badly, and for not a lot more.
I have a Jet table saw. Good little unit. After using it sparingly for a couple of years now I know exactly what I would change about its design and build and I'm sure it would cost very little, if anything, extra to transform it from a god saw to a really good saw.
Two points come quickly to mind: the riving knife/guard setup and the lousy mitre jig.
Perhaps older designs have persisted becuase of tooling costs. I would think that with modern technology those costs could be recouped fairly quickly. Or is penny pinching greed the real problem?
Do organizations like CT, Jet and others ever canvas the opinions and advise of their buyers? Not that I've seen! This approach might be helpful to them for improving rheir products.