Equipment cost can amortize to zero in the long run. The thing you are avoiding acknowledging is that the table saw + chop saw + router+table+bits, planer, join

Equipment cost can amortize to zero in the long run. The thing you are avoiding acknowledging is that the table saw + chop saw + router+table+bits, planer, jointer, sander + misc hand tools do not cost zero dollars initially. Furthermore all people that live north of a certain latitude do not live in houses and this mythical card table is only going to allow you to glue up carcasses of a certain size--a size much smaller than most bookcases at IKEA/Target. The fact that woodworking would not be as much fun if you had to burn everything is essentially an admission that labor cost is not zero. As far as the sawstop strawman and FUD go, I have never heard anyone say "I don't need to drive safely and be aware of my surroundings and other drivers because I have a seat belt and and air bags." Similarly I have never heard anyone advocate working carelessly around a sawstop simply because there is a blade brake. People on the internet say a lot of things but all of the people that I have talked to that own a sawstop table love it and I have never heard them say that they have had any misfires.