: Beyond that, the quality of your ripping will be determined by the quality of
: your table saw. A large Powermatic is going to give you a much better
: ripped surface than a Makita table top contractor's saw.

Any new (or used) table saw should be considered a kit when you first get it home. You will need to spend some amount of time tuning it. The Powermatic will be better than the garage sale Craftsman but both will need tuning.

Real quick. Using C clamps, clamp the trunion guides to the trunion with the blade at maximum heigth. The trunion is the piece that allows the blade to tilt. Just loosten the bolts that hold the trunion to the table. Clamp a piece of scrap to the miter guide. Put a screw at the end on the scrap near the blade. Mark one tooth of a good straight blade. Set the screw on the scrap so it just touches the marked tooth when it is near the front. Move the marked tooth and miter to the rear and check the clearence with the screw. Tap the rear trunion the direction indicated. Repeat until screw clearence is the same at both ends. Tighten bolts and recheck and adjust as necessary.

When this is complete, the blade is parallel to the mitre slot. Now use the scrap and screw to adjust the fence, leaving slightly more clearence on the back. It may be necessary to repeat this every few years on cheaper saws. I use a dial indicator rather than a piece of scrap and a screw only because I have the indicator.

I once bought an almost new Craftsman saw real cheap. It would not cut without burning and once threw a cut off piece hard enough to punch a hole in the shop door. I read an article about tuning and found that the saw was badly misaligned. After tuning the saw worked great and still does.