I haven't been following rec.woodworking for awhile so I guess I
forgot how I'm not supposed to like Sawstop. No I don't work for
Sawstop(Or any other mfg for that matter. When they tried to force
their "invention" on the rest of the companies I got pretty irate at
them myself.

I was on a holiday trip visiting relatives when I decided to stop by
a local industrial machine outfit to see if the new Powermatic 2000
was in. I've used PM 66 and 72(I own a General myself) but I have also
used a large Tannewitz which had a sliding table and a riving knife
and really grew to like it(the riving knife, actually the sliding
table also). However my next upgrade will probably be something with a
larger blade which neither the PM 2000 or Sawstop have. I was
interested in at least seeing the PM2000 because it is new and because
of the riving knife and I had nothing better to do during the day.
When I got to this dealer he was just unpacking a PM 2000 which was
the first one they had received. It turns out they also had a Sawstop
set up but when he first mentioned it to me I told him I wasn't
interested in it.

I spent some time there looking at the PM2000 and some older used
equipment they had available and the discussion got back to the
Sawstop. They told me they liked the saw and I asked if they had any
misfires. They told me one of the first saw they had had a problem
turning on(something to do with the safety check) but Sawstop sent
someone out and retrofitted a part and it's been ok since then. I
don't really remember how many they said they had sold but I think it
was less then 15. I took a closer look and worked a few controls. Nice
large table area for a 10 inch saw and pretty smooth working controls.

About a month later I was having a general discussion with someone
very knowledgeable about heavy duty industrial woodworking machinery
and they mentioned they had used a Sawstop. He explained to me that
the Trunion assembly was very similar to the heavy duty industrial
stuff probably because of the way they had to get the safety gear to
drop the blade. He felt even without the "safety" aspect the saw was
very well made ands he was very impressed with a lot of small things
they did in building the saw.

Like I have already said my next saw will be something with a larger
blade but like anyone once my interest was raised I did a little
looking and it sounds like they built a very nice saw.

This gets me to the visit to my local dealer and the comments they
made when I kidded them about having a new Sawstop on display but no
new PM 2000. I been dealing with them for awhile and have faith in
their judgment. They showed me a few things I wasn't aware of and
although I like and own other Powermatic products the Sawstop appears
to be a machine in a class above the PM2000 even ignoring the so
called safety features. Worth a look to anyone in the market for a saw
of this level of performance along with PM, General and Delta. Nice to
see someone come up with a solid new design. Sure surprised me.




On Thu, 01 Jun 2006 15:03:13 -0500, Andy wrote:

On Thu, 01 Jun 2006 09:00:21 -0400, None wrote:

PM 2000 is Chiwanese. My local Powermatic Dealer won't stock the unit.
They are not impressed with the quality. They do carry the 66 72 and
other older design powermatic units. They will order it if requested(I
don't know if they have sold any that way)They also have the new
Sawstop(which they are impressed with). I believe the last time I was
there they said they have already sold abount 3 dozen Sawstops.

Would you mind telling us exactly how long you have been working for
Sawstop?