In one of the James Bond episodes (don't remember which), the Bond-girl du Jur, famously spits out, in disgust...."Boys and Their Toys"! I've always thought that to be pretty much right on the mark with the males of the species. I can completely envision, Ug and Og sitting around in the cave discussing the relative merits of the rock vs. the club. As for myself; maybe it's that I didn't get enough Legos to play with as a child... who knows? I've always like things that were modular, that could be added on to, and even better, adapted and changed to become something else. Not Transformers per se, but things that could grow, part of a system.
I very specifically remember the gun that Napoleon Solo used, that could be transformed from essentially a Walther P-38K into a telescopically-sited, carbine, with sub-machine gun capabilities!
At the time, this was the toy that I wanted in the worse way! I suppose you could say that I never fully got over the concept.
On Saturday morning, I sold my little Black and Decker table saw, and that evening bought one of these. It's a Ryobi BT3000 "Precision Cutting System". What does this power tool have to do with a 60's spy TV show have to do with each other? For those of you familiar with the typical table saw, you can probably already see it. To the left of where the blade rises up, is a "Miter" extension that is mounted on a slide. This allows the user to push the wood over the work surface without the need to buy/build another device (called a sled).
To the right of the blade area is another extension that you can see an orange dot. That's not a dot. It's a hole which along with those 4 holes around it allows for a router to be attached to this table-top, thus making use of it AND the fence for use as a router table. These two extensions can be moved from side to side or back and forth as necessary for easy use. There are also a number of other add-ons as well as other built-in innovations that eases use such as the completely shrouded blade with a bag/shop-vac port to keep sawdust largely contained. It's all mounted on a cart with wheels to allow it to be easily moved and stored.
I think this original Ryobi ad will help you relate this power tool with the Man From U.N.C.L.E. toy gun above! But that's just the beginning. Apparently, this saw has a bit of a cult following among the wood-working community and all manner of add-on have been created for it.
Here's one that the owner has built a storage cabinet inside the cart, along with miscellaneous adaptations to make it easier to use.
These are two different types of what's called "out-feed tables" which are just a fancy way of saying a flat surface to support your wood so it doesn't droop or fall in the floor as you cut it. The top one as you can see is attached to an already extensively modified table which is quite large.
Here's a CAD type image that someone has made most probably so that they can use it in designing add-ons to work with this saw. I'm sure you get the concept. In short, I've been seduced by the modularity of this tool! I can completely see myself, spending the next year or two adding on to and adapting it in all manner of ways to customize the new toy to fit my woodworking needs. Is it the best table saw ever? Not even close. It did cost $175 making it a "zero sum" upgrade, my favorite kind ($125 birthday gifts, $50 sale of old saw). At some point, I can completely see myself out-growing the rather gimmicky "sliding miter table". But until that point, this will be a great big-boy toy to play with!
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