Well I have been into woodworking now for about four years and have come along way.  I have completed several small projects and one very large (which I still need to post pics of.)  Thanks in no small part to all of you from which I’ve always received sage advice.  I consider myself fairly skilled and knowledgeable both from my experience and the fact that I am an avid reader.  Of course I still have more than a lifetime of things yet to learn.  Now, I find myself in the awkward situation of having to impart some of my limited knowledge on a good friend of mine…my father.

He (my dad) is just getting into the woodworking scene. He has always been good with his hands working on everything from engines to rough (and some trim) carpentry.  He wants to start with some kitchen and bathroom cabinetry for his hunting cabin.  They are going to be your average cabinets with frame and panel doors.  Thereafter his wants to tackle a trestle style dinning room table.

His current tools consist of garden variety carpentry tools (skill saw, drills, nice new miter saw, pneumatic nailers, etc…)  He just bought a porter cable 895 combo kit and PC router table (I wasn’t on board with the router table) and just today purchased a Jet 1100RCK dust collector (same as mine.)  Now it’s off to the almighty table saw. 

He seems to be very excited about his new hobby and has many years doing it to look forward to but he is worried about dropping thousands on tools and then finding out he doesn’t have a passion for it.  Of course I’m of the mind that you should buy the best you can afford.  Especially for someone who is just getting started, you can save yourself a world of frustration. 

So far it’s narrowed down to: any manufacturer, cabinet or contractor, 30″ or 52″ rip capacity.  I am leaning toward a hybrid General or Delta.  I’m not sure about rip capacity.  My saw has a 30″ Vega but that’s a function of the size of my shop.  He wants to know if he’ll need the extra capacity. I’ve told him that yes, inevitably you’ll always run into a situation when you will need more at one time or another but the question is is it often enough to warrant getting it.  I guess since I build more furniture than cabinetry that it was hard for me to answer definitively.  Can anyone shed light on this question in particular.   Moreover can anyone suggest a size and saw that they would recommend for someone in my dad’s situation.

P.S.  Sorry about the digression throughout the entire post.