I just read the whole thread...let me offer a dentist point of view...
My "competition" in the dental world isn't the myriad of other dentists in town (there are a LOT of them in my town, many with lower prices). My actual competition is every other product on the planet that people deem more important than dental work ...Prada, Mercedes, vacations in the Bahama's.... etc. As consumers we are bombarded with products day in and day out that steals our attention away from what we (should) truly value. After being on this site for a while, I don't think any of the builders here are in "competition" with one another. Rather, the builders are part of a community of sawyers sharing knowledge, for the benefit of all. What MM offers, others might not want, what Brad offers, others do want....and vice versa. Frankly, when everyone plays together on the same team, the whole community wins. Far as I can see, the builders here likely have more work than they know what to do with, which is awesome! I think every member on this site needs to feel fortunate that they are actually part of something larger than themselves, and that giving up a Friday night to port a saw isn't a bad thing...in fact, its likely WAY more productive than what most people are doing anway.
At this point, I think there needs to be some other builder that can play with popups and squish bands all in house, other than MM or Brad...and see what they come up with. I trust that if its proven that popups are easier, and cheap and yield the same results, that more people would be doing them, AND along the same vein, that if flat tops and cut squish bands truly are "the best" way to do it...and it yields the most powerful saw (best product), then it'll become more common as well.
Just my 2cents.... thanks for the space.
