Good thoughts on the blade vs. hp. Good to know.

Galen,

I have used the Z5 quite a bit. Most of my radii are in braces with a far away origin.

The Z5 seems like a great tool for profiling ends of rafters and projecting cross beam / half lap stuff. I used to do those projections with cyma recta or cyma reversa, but now I just do angled cuts with the big saw. I like that look better at this time.

In long sweeping radii, gentle curves with the Mafell seem to wander and belly. The blade capacity is just not that big. Although you can take it to 10X and I think even 12X if the cut is along a gentle curve it seems to want to follow the grain. Nothing worse than running a $5K tool only to have to finish up with hand tools to fix. It also runs through blades quickly and they are not inexpensive.

In short if I was doing 10" radii all the time it would be the portable, but I'm not, so I am looking to go the stationary route with infeed and outfeed tables like dovetail described.

Haven't used the carpenters chainsaw much. The Prazi once or twice, but was not impressed. What kind of texture does the chain on the Mafell leave? Is it clean? I don't work much s4s, so I am not looking for that, but the bandsaw mill I am getting stuff from leaves a nice "light rough" texture. Sorry about the oxymoron.