If I had the money with nothing else to do with it, this is the saw
that I would buy. I researched it a bit in the past and found some
interesting tidbits.

The pros are obvious, I can think of ten reasons (fingers) to buy the
saw. Cons: Price. When the brake activates the brake cartridge and
the saw blade are ruined. You can see that in the demo. New product
so not much road testing.

It got me thinking, why hasn't other companies licensed this
technology. My answer was interesting.... I don't speak for any side
in the issue, this is just my opinion.

History: The guy that invented the system was a patent attorney that
wanted a safer table saw product. He spent a few weeks thinking of
solutions and this product idea is the result. His goal was to license
the idea to all the saw manufacturers. He came close with Delta, but
the everyone pulled out. He said heck with it and created his own saw.

Why did they not license the product? Two sides to the story. Saw
Manufacturer side: The technology provides too many false positives,
not proven to work 100% of the time. A false positve costs big bucks
and customers will reject that. (This could be a huge con if you are
dropping $100 some bucks for new blades and brakes all the time.) A
negative for a saw manufacturer is that someone actually cuts off their
finger using the sawstop technology in their saw. They will get sued
because the product doesn't perform as advertised. It is too much of a
gamble for "unproven" "unreliable" technology.

SawStop side: The large manufacturers love the technology but the
lawers got in the way. The legal analysis said that some guy developed
a safety system in a few weeks in his garage. They have been
developing tools for 50 years and couldn't make the saws safer. As a
product manufacturer in the USA, they have the responsibilty to make
the product as reliable and safe as possible. If they adopt the
sawstop braking system we will be admitting that they failed and will
open themselves up to legal liability for every person that chopped off
a finger with their non-sawstop products. Bottom line is that adopting
the sawstop will cost us money.

An interesting note about this issue is a lawsuit was filed suing a
large saw manufacturer saying that they could have implemented a saw
stop type system on thier product but have not. Ignoring this saftey
feature makes them liable.

In the end I think we will see the saw stop on all saws or none at all.
Personally I think an individual on a budget will have a hard time
buying the saw at the price point. A group style shop, such as a
cabinet shop or school could spend the extra money to reduce liability.
In your case, you are representing a group of people. Could you
eventually be held liable for not choosing the SawStop?

As an important note to this post, I do not offer any specific advice
for this post. I have no experience with table saws, but I'm looking
to start woodworking -- I watch New Yankee Workshop on Saturdays
Since I've looked into this a bit, thought I'd pass on the information.








O D wrote:
Can some of you people that work with this kind of tools for a living ,
please tell me the advantage of this saw stop saw for about $3,000.? I
know it is only a 10" cabinet saw also. Right now we have a 12" delta
and 2 ea 10" unisaws. All three are 10-15 yrs old but work fine. Except
they will eat fingers if inserted. Our shop
(retirement community in fl) has the money to buy, but I am having a
hard time trying to convince myself to buy this. I have read all the
other stories on here about this saw , but nothing to make me say hey
"we need this, can't live with out it". Think someone said yes it will
stop the saw but will it cure the problem of why it stopped the saw.
Also do you have to buy the saw stop blades? How about the sharpening of
them? And there are questions that I am sure I don't know to ask yet.
Pig in a poke? All this and asking myself what we could get with the $3
Gs.
Some people see all the sales brochures and say they want it, but you
never see the mfg tell you the cons. So What are the cons. I know the
answers are here, just have to find them. Thanks all.