Hybrid Saws:
Most of today’s contractor saws feature an inboard belt drive induction motor, as well as an updated splitter known as a riving knife, which raises, lowers, and tilts in unison with the blade. Because the riving knife is less cumbersome, and less likely to be in the way, it’s more likely to be in place to do its job. Due to the inboard location of the motor, today’s contractor saws are sometimes referred to as hybrid saws, which are a really a cross between a contractor saw and an industrial cabinet saw. One aspect of the older style traditional contractor saws that remains are the open leg or splayed leg enclosures.
There are also several hybrid models that sport full enclosures as opposed to an open or splayed leg stand found on the modern hybrid style contractor saws. These are occasionally misidentified as cabinet saws. Some savvy marketers promote the confusion by calling their hybrid saws with full enclosures a “cabinet saw”. Most of these models still feature table mounted trunnions with similar duty ratings as a contractor saw, but some do offer cabinet mounted trunnions, even though most saws in this class with cabinet mounted trunnions have much lighter duty components than an industrial cabinet saw. These are just some of the issues that complicate trying to categorize saw types. I suppose the nomenclature really boils down to semantics, but make no mistake about it….a hybrid saw with a full enclosure, whether it uses table mounted or cabinet mounted trunnions, does not have the same power, mass, duty rating, or robust design as a true industrial style cabinet saw. Modern updated hybrid style contractor saws and hybrid saws are available from companies like Jet, Powermatic, Shop Fox, Ridgid, Craftsman, Grizzly, Porter Cable, Steel City, General International, Woodtek, Saw Stop, Rikon, Craftex, King, Dayton, and others starting at about $525 going up over $2000 for a well appointed Saw Stop model.