Hi -

I'm the owner of The Sawdust Shop who's newsletter was referenced
earlier in the thread.

Here are my observations of having used the SawStop for the past 18
months in my woodshop and having sold dozens of them. I have also done
the hot dog demo over 20 times.

Regarding the speed and depth of cut. Feeding at a slow rate makes it
almost impossible to find the cut on a hot dog. When I demo I feed as
fast as possible can, way faster than I would ever feed when cutting,
The resulting cut is approx. 1/64" deep. It would bleed, and require a
band aid, but no stitches.

Regarding the forces to the trunnion. The SawStop is designed to absorb
the forces that occur when stopping the blade. The arbor is about twice
the diameter of competing arbors, the trunnion is heavy duty and the
entire trunnion assembly breaks free at the front of the saw and pivots
down to absorb the force of the stopped blade. This is what causes the
blade to drop below the table when the brake activates. I was skeptical
at first too, but have had no problems with my saws after repeated
firings of the brake system.

Regarding misfires. There were a few in the first month we had the saw.
This was traced to noisy power and SawStop sent us some filters that
corrected the problem. Never had a misfire since on the 2 saws in our
woodshop. All current saws that are shipping come with these filters
and we haven't heard of any misfires from any of our customers.

Wet wood. It will fire if it cuts VERY wet wood. Basically there has to
be contact between the blade and your hand or the blade and the table
via the water in the wood. If you suspect wet wood there are several
ways to test it prior to cutting to prevent triggering the brake
system. When the saw is off (blade not spinning) you can touch the
blade with the wet wood, or with your finger and a red indicator light
will flash to indicate that it would have fired if the blade had been
spinning. You can then use the bypass key to disable the brake system
for cutting that piece of wood. We have cut a lot of wet wood and have
never had the system fire. It has to be very wet.

We sell Jet, Powermatic, ShopFox, and SawStop table saws. The SawStop
has the best quaility of the four and is probably the finest
manufactured piece of equipment I have ever used. My theory on this is
that because they were the new kid on the block they were determined to
make a high quality machine so that the quality would never be
questioned and would not be a barrier to a sale. Even without the
braking system I would purchase the SawStop. It's just that good a
machine.

Other nice features, the riving knife, the quick-release for changing
between the guard and riving knife, the zero clearance inserts lock in
to the saw, power disconnect switch, heavy cast iron table (no
vibrations), air-assist shock on the elevation control.

Someone asked for cons. The only con I can come up with is that the
dust collection could perhaps be better. It's way better than most saws
but a lot of sawdust still collects in the cabinet. It's a minor
thing.

Anyway, that's my $0.02.

-- Craig