I bought the PCS 1.75hp about a year ago and I am happy with it. I thought briefly about the contractor version briefly. If I remember right, it only comes with the lesser fence. I looked at both fences but decided I definitely wanted the better one. That was a good selection. I used to always check the fence with a steel ruler but normally do not now. The scale is accurate. Reliably. I have cut hardwood, oak and hard maple, over two inches deep with it. It only struggles when the kerf binds up due to the wood warping it closed. A wedge in the kerf will resolve that. I tripped the overload on the motor once cutting 1 inch thick oak that warped back into the blade. The thick cuts have not been a problem. I initially tried to use a shop vac to get the dust but that did not work well. The outlet of the saw sometimes plugged up. I have a HF 2hp DC hooked up to it now and that works fine. I don't think the dust collection is great but it works. SawStop puts a chute around the blade, which is good, but the mechanism requires the connection to the back be flex hose (so the blade can be tilted). That 4 inch flex with a tight bend hurts airflow. The cabinet also has larger holes than it needs to have. But it probably works better than most cabinet saws. The height mechanism and tilt mechanism work great. Tilt is a lot of wheel turning but I don't do that often. Height moves quickly. I had to square the top to the blade but that is pretty well designed.
The saw is heavy but I got it home and set up by myself. They put the saw on my trailer with a fork lift at Mann tool in Columbia where I got it. I built a mobile base for it to raise it up to the 38 inch height I wanted. I tilted the saw out of the trailer directly onto the mobile base. Then I bolted the side tables to it (they are heavy). It takes awhile to set it up. The instructions are good, with good pictures and the hardware is well organized there are just a lot of steps.
The saw is heavy but I got it home and set up by myself. They put the saw on my trailer with a fork lift at Mann tool in Columbia where I got it. I built a mobile base for it to raise it up to the 38 inch height I wanted. I tilted the saw out of the trailer directly onto the mobile base. Then I bolted the side tables to it (they are heavy). It takes awhile to set it up. The instructions are good, with good pictures and the hardware is well organized there are just a lot of steps.
