ThomD
>Todd, you are not in tool hell. I am not an old tool nut, but I have been looking for a decent DT saw for, maybe 20 years. I have yet to see a single useable one, and often the prices are 5x what you quote. The reason people refurbish is because they are stuck with the junk. Imagine you were walking by box upon box of minty dovetails saws for 10 bucks, do you think the average person would be purchasing crummy ones covered with rust and refurbishing them if there was an abundant supply? Do you think new dovetails saws from a half dozen sources would be manufactured today if they were just lying on the street waiting to be picked up. Do you think Franz KLauzs would have bought new Independence saws for everyone in his shop, had decent antiques been thick on the ground?

I am becoming a hand at getting machine tools. It took me 2 years to find my first decent lathe, etc... Just last week I got given a milling machine and a surface grinder. Now it is more like a mater of turning the tap off than turning it on. But it cost several years, a few bad buys, etc... to get to that point. Most people are still milling around the chinese machine tool suppliers. Also I have all my time to myself, I would not get any of these deals, even the early bad ones if I was still working. Doubtless there is someone local who is getting the same deal on DT saws, but it's pointless to pretend that anyone can do it.