How much to pay for my last lathe

Direct descedents, yes. Exact copies, no. For example, you can't buy a Jet configured with a a short fence these days. All of the old unisaws had short fences. Fences have changed as well. Nobody reccomends a 1939 fence.

There is evolution.

Every group has the zealots, (may I point out the fellow who suggested that I buy a Stubby).

You need to read between the lines to fine the truth.

Table size... which has been addressed by fence evolution and aux. tables.

Today's cabinet saws are copies of the 1939 Unisaw. Not enough evolution in the design to notice. Pretend all you want, but the Unisaw, or Jet, or Powermatic 66 purchased today, are the same as the Depression era Unisaw. I don't really consider all of the accessories you hang on the outside to be part of the saw. But I suspect some do consider the accessories more important than the underlying saw.

What does table size have to do with working plywood? If you talk to professional woodworkers they will tell you they use a vertical panel saw to dimension plywood. No table or fence at all. Or some use a horizontal table saw with minimal table to the right of the blade. None of these use fences at all. And on horizontal table saws, the fence usually ends at the blade. Its only 2 feet long at most. Or what about the people who use a Festool circular saw and guide rails? No fence or table at all but more precise cuts in plywood than any cabinet saw will give you. It seems table size and fences have absolutely nothing to do with cutting plywood accurately.

Accurately dimensioning plywood requires 1. accurately guiding and controlling the blade through the stationary plywood, or 2. accurately guiding and controlling the plywood through the stationary blade. 1. is accomplished by a Festool saw and guide rail or a vertical panel saw. The plywood is fixed in place and the blade is mechanically controlled and guided when it is pushed through the plywood. 2. is accomplished with a horizontal sliding table saw. The plywood is fixed to the slider and the slider is then mechanically controlled and guided as its pushed by the stationary blade.

A cabinet saw does not allow either of these to happen. You the person are pushing the plywood through the blade. Your actions are not mechanically controlled and guided. You use a varying amount of pressure against the fence applied at changing angles when guiding the plywood through the blade. The plywood being cut is free to move throughout the cutting process. It is not fixed and under control.

Imagine you have a piece of plywood with a concave edge along the 8 foot length. How are you going to get a perfectly straight edge along the 8 foot length using a cabinet saw and auxillary tables? Unless you use a 16 foot long fence, you can't.

Sorry, I brought it up. :) A.

Fortiter,

At the risk of splitting hairs.

(specifically in relation to a fence)

Perhaps no more so than a chuck, drive center or a toolrest is to a lathe. Are tires an automotive "accessory"?

I will conceded that additional outfeed support is an accessory.

There are is a significant population that feel that a quality fence is critical to decent performance. I say that an aftermaket fence did wonders for my old contractors saw.

The one thing that a table saw does best is rip. This is impossible without a fence. Therefore I do not consider it an accessory, but an integral component.

A special-purpose saw which very few hobbyists own. I'm not sure that's relevant.

Respectfully, I disagree. I found when building kitchen cabinets that having infeed and outfeed support significantly mitigated the tendency of large sheets to "shift in a bad way". That is, if you have to hold the sheet stock

I thought we were taking about table saws.

1. is> accomplished with a horizontal sliding table saw. The plywood is

A monster sliding table would be nice, but good outfeed support is a much more common compromise for us mere mortals.

Arguably, no more control that you have over the scew in your hand as you turn.

Ummm... by setting the factory edge against the fence perhaps?

Even if I wanted to make 47 or so 7/8" strips 8' long, I would rip the ply longways with a hand-held circular saw creating a relatively serpentine cut. I would still have 2 factory edges from which to clean up the "rough cut" while making the weight of the work-piece much more easy to "control". I would them keep the factory edge against the my "acessory fence" and move the "accessory" using one of those "post-depression-era" fence scales with micro-adjust. My keeping the factory edge against the "accessory" I would prevent any propogation of error in the straightness produced by the cut.