Well back when I was building cabinets and doing more woodworking (probably 20-25yrs no wait cabinets were done by kids first birthday I think so could be more like 27yrs ago) , I slide into Festool's. Like anything at the top you pay more than the actual gains. it might cost twice but you get 50% improvement only kind of thing. That said. I love my festool equipment. Back then there were not a lot of track saws. There are definitely more options now. And not sure I could justify the Festool, given other options out there.

There is ZERO comparison to manhandling sheet good around a table saw. if your cutting an 8' sheet you need about 10' on the infeed and 9' out the outfeed so your looking at needing nearly 20' of space to make a table saw work. I find I use the track saw for a lot more.

Get some foil backed foam (1/2") put that down on your table or saw horses, drop your sheet good on it, drop your track, adjust cut to be about 1/4" more than wood, and away you go, foam board will last you along time (can go thicker so it holds up better). But piece is always fully supported, cuts always come out clean. I think I have 2 5' tracks, a 3' track would be great. Also not sure I need a total 8' its pretty easy to line up track on cut and continue the cut, If your cutting lots of sheet good, get the total length but if you only need 8' cuts occasionally its an option.

Can't really give advice on today's tools as its been a long time. There use to be some great woodworking forums, I know many have ended, but I gotta believe some are still there.

Look forward to seeing more replies.

Will add, not having to deal with cord would be a nice add, but then vacuum wont come on when you pull the trigger for the saw, and collecting saw dust was a big draw for going to festool for me and you would still have the vacuum hose, so I guess I just talked myself out of cordless being that much better.. LOL (in my defense, last project was t-11 siding outside, and I just let the dust fly, there the cord was something to be careful of.) And i guess that's the other advantage of the track over a table saw (a real one not a contractor saw.. lol PM66 for me, of course saw stop came out the next year) I can take my tracks to work sites, (As I said use it a lot even on smaller cuts)

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Just Triing
Triathlete since 9:56:39 AM EST Aug 20, 2006.
Be kind English is my 2nd language. My primary language is Dave it's a unique evolution of English.