I went to a BBQ at Robin's place and saw some of the picture frames and bookshelves he's built since he bought a 10" table saw. I was very impressed. Made me want to try my hand at building some stuff.

And then the discussion popped up that Robin is leaving for his post doc in California soon and probably won't have a place for his table saw there. So he said he might lend it to me, or sell it to me. Cool! Now Robin has been making some really impressive picture frames and jewlery boxes with his table saw, but he's been using it to do miter joints and stuff like that. It's really not the right tool for the job, but he's doing really well with it.

If he lends it to me, I'll be tempted to make picture frames with it as well and I'll fuck it up, because I don't have the anality or patience for that. Now if I had a miter saw.... then I'd whip out picture frames like nothing.

...Which got me to thinking... I could use a miter saw. Aside from picture frames, which I haven't really been itching to produce lately... a miter saw is a great way to precision cut small lumber. Recently I've been thinking about building a base and canopy for my future paludarium. I worked out a plan for a sturdy base that could hold a 100 gallon aquarium, but in order to be strong I'm going to need a lot of very evenly cut 2x4's and what-not. And some sort of radial arm saw would be perfect for that. Plus, I could make picture frames the right way.

I'll still need a table saw for doing dado cuts in the frames and the aquarium base, but with any luck I'll be the steward of Robin's tablesaw this fall.

I found myself pricing miter saws at Home Depot, but when I drove down there they had closed early and I couldn't give them my money. So I ate at India House and came home miter-sawless.