Well, I purchased a new Ridgid R4512 yesterday. I have an old Craftsman table saw that was my dad's and it would cut wood pretty good but.....thats about all I can say about it. I needed to upgrade if I am to get serious about woodworking and wanted something that would give me good straight cuts and was built well with out breaking the bank (with two kids in college, my bank is pretty breakable!).  Anyway, did some research and decided on the Ridgid.... it seemed to have the better reviews and options I was looking for.   I have it half way put together as of this morning and there are a couple of points that I would recommend to people who do buy this....number 1, definitly plan on having help loading and unloading this thing!! It is heavy. The people at the store loaded it and  my boys and myself were able to get it unloaded and put in my shop. Other times you will need help is pulling the saw body out of the box and, standing it upright once you have the legs and wheels installed. Number 2.... the instructions have been pretty good so far (bigger pictures would be nice since my eye sight is....well.....not as sharp as it use to be). Also, when you are putting the legs together, there will be one leg panel that has four holes in it to mount the rip fence storage brackets... be sure they end up on the side opposite the blade/miter fence storage (which would be on the right as you are facing the front of the saw as it would be standing upright). If you dont, you will find that the miter giude will interfere with the rip fence.  Maybe I missed it in the instructions but I went back and looked and didnt see anything about this.   I am hoping to get to finish the installation today and will post more of my adventures later.
  Well, finished her up the other day. Things went well with the exception of a few of my....well...lets just say, not so smart mistakes (I highly recommend reading through the assembly instructions prior to starting the acutal assembly...duh..). Ok, it went togther well and I had very little adjustments to do. The blade was ever so slightly out of parellel with the miter gauge channels but that we easy enough to fix. I also had a problem with the rip fence catching down in the channel where the two pieces of the front fence come together because of a very slight mismatch in the height. I couldn't get it adjusted out so, as bad as an idea as it may have been, I took a wire brush and ever so slightly knocked the edge down. It fixed the problem but there is still a slight bump when sliding the fence.   I made my first cuts with it and all I can say is wow! It runs smooth (passed the penny test but flunked the dime test...lol...), cuts straight and when I set the rip fence at 6 inches it acutally cuts a board excatly 6 inches wide! I know....most people probably expect that but, compaired to what I was using before, this is a great saw! I admit I haven't really used it and time will tell but, as of this moment, I would recommend this table saw for people like me who dont do wood working for a living but do want a solid acurate table saw and dont want to break the bank (I paid $499 at Home Depot). 

 To sum it up...
- read the instructions through before beginning.
 - it will take you a few hours to put together so, plan on taking your time and doing it right.
 - save your back and get help when it comes to the heavy lifting. - it is a very solid saw, metal gears, smooth movement when raising/lowering the blade and changing the bevel angle. - with the wheels, mobility is easy and smooth which was also important to me.
- my wife is mad at me because I went out and bought it myself and she was planning 
   on getting it  for me for Christmas but, it was worth it!!

  
 If you have any questions, please feel free to shoot me a msg and I will answer the best I can but, be aware that I am not a pro so dont be suprised if you get an answer like "oh, you need to make sure the thing'a-ma-jig is lined up with the what'ca-ma-call-it."....lol....


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3/21/12    It’s always good to see what someone thinks of a tool right after they purchase it but, I always wish they would write something after the new has worn off and they have used it for a while.  So…

  Well, it’s been a few months and I still feel really good about the table saw. I have been pleasantly surprised at the overall accuracy of the saw. The fence has held true as well as the bevel angle setting. I would recommend that you take a brush and clean the dust from the motor every now and again. I would have like for the back cover to be easier to remove for cleaning the inside of the saw. It’s not that it’s hard but it would be nice if it was just a matter of turning a latch or two to remove it instead of having to remove 6 screws.   

 
     It has had plenty of horse power for everything I have run through it so far which has been limited to oak and pine. The wheels and the lift mechanism make it easy to move around the shop. It does come down pretty hard when setting it back down on the legs which kind of worry me as far as it jarring something out of alignment but it hasn’t affected anything. It would be nice if you could somehow ease it down gently.

  All in all, I have had no problems with it. It has run great every time I have hit the switch. It is a really great saw for those of us who don’t have thousands to spend but want a quality table saw.