In my thinking about table saws, I’ve gone from the extreme of the huge cabinet saw down to thoughts of screwing a circular saw upside down on a piece of plywood and calling it a day. Somewhere in the middle is a guy named Steve Jones who has invented a way of using a Festool circular saw on the Festool Multifunction Table to make a table saw. The amazing thing about this is that the Festool circular saw has a riving knife and has probably the best dust collection system around. It doesn’t look like these kits are in production, but it was a pretty great idea. While it wouldn't have the power for heavy-duty stuff, it would probably suffice for most jobs. It would be a plywood-cutting monster. Either way, I love his thinking and creativity on this.
With just a little more looking around, I saw that Triton has a knock-down table saw system as well. I own a Triton router that is a really great machine, so I'm always interested to see what they come up with. I’m not sure I’d want to have one of these, but you have to admit this thing is pretty innovative. It also has lots of attachments for routing, sanding and even planing. It reminds me of the Shop Smith. Very cool ideas. Not sure where they'd put the lathe though...
Speaking of table saws, I might have an exciting announcement next week. I'll keep you posted.