[quote author=60ndown link=1134320369/0#8 date=1134823125]
been doing construction for 25 years, cant think of anything i could do with a table saw that i cant with a skill? [/quote]
I have to agree with you, to an extent. There is so much construction around here it boggles the mind. Where does all the money come from? I never see a table saw setup, anywhere. Portable chop saws or miter saws are very common.
The main difference in what they are doing and what I want to do is that they rarely cut large flat panels. The days of custom built-in cabinets in your home is gone forever. For mostly cutting boards to length a table saw is just more stuff to carry and setup and every cut is usually a "custom" length, anyway. At one point, when I built a lot of horn cabinets I had 2 table saws, a router table, a joiner, a table sander, and for full sheets a wall mounted panel saw like you see Home Depot using to precut plywood for you. [Buying that expensive toy was a mistake.] I was all set to punch some cabs out in the back corner of my dad's shop and I did build many identical cabinets.
The main thing I used the table saws for was when I needed to make many repeat cuts all identical. It is the best thing you can get for that. The wall saw was not really accurate enough to do repeat cuts, even after spending all day adjusting runout, squaring movements, and tightening all joints, a total nightmare. They just won't stay in adjustment for very long.
If I'm getting ready to make 1 or 2 sets of cabinets I would much rather have a good quality hand saw and a panel (square cutting) jig and spend the money on better cabinet materials. If I had money to burn (again), space to fill up (again), and more time to build stuff (again), a heavy duty industrial table saw, not a hobbyist or home owner type (like one of mine was), would be the first new tool I would buy, but double the cost because I would get all the accessories that you need to make it an all round useful tool.