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.

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.?

Take a look at the site and draw you own conclusions:


--
Dave
www.davebbq.com

Dave Bugg wrote:

Take a look at the site and draw you own conclusions:

Sorry, I guess I should have included the URL http://www.sawstop.com/

--
Dave
www.davebbq.com

"O D" wrote in message
...
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.?
It doesn't eat fingers like your other saws do. How much are your fingers
worth to you?
Jim

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.?

None whatsoever!

Wait...

....nope! can't think of one!

Yep, I'm starting to want one!
As for the retirement shop, I'm reaching that delicate age myself and
starting to admit that with less frequent use, and sometimes distractions by
any number of extraneous things, I may not be as safe as I'd like.
In the retirement shop, with money on hand, it seems a nobrainer. I know at
least three people with mangled hands, all hobbiests!
Wilson
"Dave Bugg" wrote in message
...
Dave Bugg wrote:

Take a look at the site and draw you own conclusions:

Sorry, I guess I should have included the URL http://www.sawstop.com/

--
Dave
www.davebbq.com

For a retirement community shop, IMHO, it makes even more sense than a
one-person garage/shop. You're distributing the cost among a bunch more
people (say it's $1500 more than a Unisaw, and you've got 25 people using
the shop = $60/person). As someone else said, how much are your fingers
worth to you? More than $60, I'd wager. Heck, even my friend's fingers are
worth more to me than $60, although I'd probably want to watch when he tried
to test the saw (if I was shelling out the bucks for it, that is).

Also for a community shop, reducing the liability for an "incident" may be
an advantage. Not sure if your insurance company would think so (yet), but
perhaps worth checking.

And finally, old farts don't heal as quickly as young pups *duck and run*

I'm not sure what you mean by "it will stop the saw but will it cure the
problem of why it stopped the saw". It's supposed to stop the saw when
someone sticks their fingers in the sharp spin-y section. You're not
supposed to do that (AFAIK) whether you have a SawStop or not; it's just how
much of an impact it has on you that changes. One will cost you $100 for a
new cartridge, the other may cost you a trip to the emergency room. To be
fair, yes, you're probably less likely to do the whole thing again if you
don't have the SawStop (negative reinforcement and all that, and 10% fewer
fingers than you started with), but I don't really think that's a reason not
to get it.

AFAIK, you don't need any special blades for it. The only "special" part
about it is a cartridge that stops the blade which gets destroyed when
activated (i.e. it kicks in). There are some additional setup steps when
you want to use a dado blade (different cartridge, I think), as well as
needing to deactivate the system when you want to cut something conductive,
like aluminum. The reading I've done on it suggests that it's a well-made
saw, with a solid safety feature. So even if you never use the SawStop
functionality, you've still got a good (albeit more expensive) saw. I've
never seen anything that says it's a cheap piece of garbage that they stuck
a gimmick on.

Clint

"O D" wrote in message
...
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.

My saw doesn't eat fingers. His does? You know this? How?

"Jim" wrote in message
...

"O D" wrote in message
...
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.?
It doesn't eat fingers like your other saws do. How much are your fingers
worth to you?
Jim

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.

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.?

Tiny.

If you want to spend some money to upgrade safety, a quickly removable
and replaceable crown guard and a riving knife will give you nearly as
much safety for a whole lot less money.

OTOH, they're not bad saws or badly priced if you're buying a new saw
of similar quality.

CW wrote:
My saw doesn't eat fingers. His does? You know this? How?

"Jim" wrote in message
...

"O D" wrote in message
...
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.?
It doesn't eat fingers like your other saws do. How much are your fingers
worth to you?
Jim



Oh, it eats fingers, you just haven't fed it yet. Trust me, it's no
vegetarian...

-jtpr ("jimmy 9")

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.

No, you don't have to buy SawStop blades. Any 10" standard blade will
do. (However, I have seen comment here on the wreck that the Freud
adjustable dado cannot be used, likely because it is marginally over 8"
in diameter at some, or all, width settings.) My Freud stackable dado is
fine.

Should the cartridge fire, you not only have to buy a new cartridge, but
also replace the blade which is destroyed in the process.

Changing from a standard blade to dado, or vice versa, takes an
additional 30 seconds or so.

The blade insert is complex and expensive and not easy to duplicate. So
far I have not seen any third party inserts for the SawStop for sale.
The dado insert is made of walnut and mine was badly warped on receipt.
The standard insert is phenolic - no problems.

The manual that comes with the saw is by far the most comprehensive I
have ever seen for a power tool of this level of complexity but it is
full of errors - annoying things like the index pointing to the wrong
page numbers, parts numbers missing from exploded view diagrams, etc.

The shiny black finish on the saw and extension table shows every bit of
sawdust. I'll leave it to you to determine if that is a plus on minus.

All in all, I am very happy with the saw.

A co-worker of mine cut his right index finger badly on his tablesaw- for
the surgery to repair cost $8000.00, not counting emergency room services,
rehab, doctor's office visits and lost wages.
Gene
"O D" wrote in message
...
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.

Stopped at the Woodcraft store yesterday, and one of the salesman
started talking about the saw stop saw. He said it was $200, if the
system was to stop the blade. He also said, you had to deactivate the
system to cut wet wood. I wonder how wet it has to be to set it off?
oops, I guess the wood was wet.
I think I'll pass, and continue using common sense, and a sharp blade.
I just hope that in a few years all saws don't have to have the system,
and the price of all saws gets out of control.
If you don't want your wiener cut, keep it out of the blade.

It has a test mode where you can place a piece of the material you're
cutting in contact with the blade and it will signal if it would trip or
not. It's expensive to reset because it does destroy some of the
hardware (has to to disperse the energy from the blade) but it's
intended use is in large shops that have to carry liability insurance
and worry about employees or students doing boneheaded things. It has
it's place, but most likely not in joe average's shop.


Jason
The place where you made your stand never mattered,
only that you were there... and still on your feet


sailor wrote:
Stopped at the Woodcraft store yesterday, and one of the salesman
started talking about the saw stop saw. He said it was $200, if the
system was to stop the blade. He also said, you had to deactivate the
system to cut wet wood. I wonder how wet it has to be to set it off?
oops, I guess the wood was wet.
I think I'll pass, and continue using common sense, and a sharp blade.
I just hope that in a few years all saws don't have to have the system,
and the price of all saws gets out of control.
If you don't want your wiener cut, keep it out of the blade.

sailor wrote:
Stopped at the Woodcraft store yesterday, and one of the salesman
started talking about the saw stop saw. He said it was $200, if the
system was to stop the blade. He also said, you had to deactivate the
system to cut wet wood. I wonder how wet it has to be to set it off?
oops, I guess the wood was wet.
I think I'll pass, and continue using common sense, and a sharp blade.
I just hope that in a few years all saws don't have to have the system,
and the price of all saws gets out of control.
If you don't want your wiener cut, keep it out of the blade.


I would be leery of that salesman .. .. .. if a cartridge is triggered,
a replacement is $59 .. .. .. usually, up to 3-4 teeth might be damaged
on the blade, so whatever you might pay to have them replaced would be
an additional charge.

If you cut VERY wet wood, the system goes into an alarm mode, letting
you know it sees a potential problem.

The saw stop also takes some time to stop although it stops darned
fast. Watch the feed rate on the hot dog in the demo.

If you slide your hand in at that rate then you get cut that much.
The question is about how many people get hurt slowly sliding their
hands into a blade versus tripping or slipping and putting their hand
in very rapidly.

B A R R Y writes:
On 29 Sep 2006 14:50:33 -0700, "tomwalz"
wrote:

The question is about how many people get hurt slowly sliding their
hands into a blade versus tripping or slipping and putting their hand
in very rapidly.


Have you ever ripped with a 3 or 5 HP cabinet saw and a real rip
blade? Your hand is typically moving rather quickly while performing
this operation.

And that's what push-sticks and feather boards are for.

FWIW, sans editorial comment, from this months Sawdust Shop newsletter:

================================================== =

Another SawStop Save

Table saw
accidents can happen at any time and to anybody. One of our customers
who purchased a SawStop table saw from us back in March recently made contact
with the spinning blade with his fingers. The SawStop braking system triggered,
stopped the blade, and he ended up with just a scratch.

This is our third customer save since we started selling the SawStop and we
are glad to hear that it prevented a potentially tragic accident.

We are proud to be a dealer for the innovative SawStop table saw.

================================================== ==

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
...
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.

(I have not read all of the thread)

I wonder how the force of the high speed spinning blade is disipated? I
am betting that you have to replace more than the blade and brake unit,
like say motor shaft, motor mounts, motor adjustment screws and
anything else the torque throws out of whack.

Tater wrote:

I wonder how the force of the high speed spinning blade is disipated? I
am betting that you have to replace more than the blade and brake unit,
like say motor shaft, motor mounts, motor adjustment screws and
anything else the torque throws out of whack.

No, the trunnions, bearings, etc. are built extra heavy to absorb the shock.
IIRC, the trunnions alone weigh over 300 pounds.

--
It's turtles, all the way down

"Scott Lurndal" wrote in message
.. .
B A R R Y writes:
On 29 Sep 2006 14:50:33 -0700, "tomwalz"
wrote:

Have you ever ripped with a 3 or 5 HP cabinet saw and a real rip
blade? Your hand is typically moving rather quickly while performing
this operation.

And that's what push-sticks and feather boards are for.

FWIW, sans editorial comment, from this months Sawdust Shop newsletter:


Another SawStop Save

Table saw
accidents can happen at any time and to anybody. One of our customers
who purchased a SawStop table saw from us back in March recently made
contact
with the spinning blade with his fingers. The SawStop braking system
triggered,
stopped the blade, and he ended up with just a scratch.

This is our third customer save since we started selling the SawStop and
we
are glad to hear that it prevented a potentially tragic accident.

We are proud to be a dealer for the innovative SawStop table saw.

Ok I do not disagree with the safty aspect o the saw stop . What I do have
is a problem with the above statment ( if it's word for word from their
newsletter) . As I understand it , a blade with 1/8 " kerf give or take,
spinning at X amount of revolutions per minute stops in 0.0whatever seconds
and comes in contact with any body part can leave nothing more than a
scratch. It's to late in the day and I've had more than a few so I'm not
going to do the math on how many teeth will have contacted the flesh on that
body part . Anything 1/8th wide is not what I would consider just a scratch.
A minor cut I can understand but a scratch is what you do with a fingernail
or something you get when you **** off the cat.
Jim

I'll do the math

assuming a 3450 RPM table saw with a 10 inch 65 tooth rough cut blade

From a fixed point, 65 teeth @ 3450 RPM gives us 3738 teeth per second
passing a fixed point. Sawstop claims to be able to stop the blade in
5ms on a bad day, so that leaves us with 19 teeth passing over your
finger in the time it takes the blade to stop. Now that's assuming that
you're able to instantly insert your finger into the path of the blade.
You would have to be moving your finger at over 150 ft per second or 103
mph to make that happen. Since sawstop is assuming 1 ft per second or
..7mph, your finger will make it roughly 1.525 mm into the blade. Skin
varies in thickness from between .5mm on your eyelids to 4.5mm on your
hands and palms, so if the saw is able to do it's job in 5ms and you're
honestly just not paying attention and aren't doing something boneheaded
like trying to force the board through the blade, you should have a
scratch roughly 1.5mm deep. It'll bleed, but not for long.

Take this for what it's worth, it's just math. Math and reality often
don't play well together, but the sawstop theory is sound. BTW, I'm not
affiliated with sawstop, I'm just an engineer and number crunching is
about as wild and crazy as I get on a Friday night.


Jason
The place where you made your stand never mattered,
only that you were there... and still on your feet


Jim Northey wrote:
"Scott Lurndal" wrote in message
.. .
B A R R Y writes:
On 29 Sep 2006 14:50:33 -0700, "tomwalz"
wrote:

Have you ever ripped with a 3 or 5 HP cabinet saw and a real rip
blade? Your hand is typically moving rather quickly while performing
this operation.
And that's what push-sticks and feather boards are for.

FWIW, sans editorial comment, from this months Sawdust Shop newsletter:


Another SawStop Save

Table saw
accidents can happen at any time and to anybody. One of our customers
who purchased a SawStop table saw from us back in March recently made
contact
with the spinning blade with his fingers. The SawStop braking system
triggered,
stopped the blade, and he ended up with just a scratch.

This is our third customer save since we started selling the SawStop and
we
are glad to hear that it prevented a potentially tragic accident.

We are proud to be a dealer for the innovative SawStop table saw.

Ok I do not disagree with the safty aspect o the saw stop . What I do have
is a problem with the above statment ( if it's word for word from their
newsletter) . As I understand it , a blade with 1/8 " kerf give or take,
spinning at X amount of revolutions per minute stops in 0.0whatever seconds
and comes in contact with any body part can leave nothing more than a
scratch. It's to late in the day and I've had more than a few so I'm not
going to do the math on how many teeth will have contacted the flesh on that
body part . Anything 1/8th wide is not what I would consider just a scratch.
A minor cut I can understand but a scratch is what you do with a fingernail
or something you get when you **** off the cat.
Jim

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

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

Craig, where have you been hiding? :~) Nice to hear from another person
with extended experience on the machine.

Thank you for the comments.

"Tater" wrote in message
oups.com...
)

I wonder how the force of the high speed spinning blade is disipated? I
am betting that you have to replace more than the blade and brake unit,
like say motor shaft, motor mounts, motor adjustment screws and
anything else the torque throws out of whack.


Its speculation and forming ones opinion from a guess that starts ill
informed comments about a tool.

B A R R Y writes:
On Fri, 29 Sep 2006 23:48:35 GMT, (Scott Lurndal)
wrote:

B A R R Y writes:
On 29 Sep 2006 14:50:33 -0700, "tomwalz"
wrote:

The question is about how many people get hurt slowly sliding their
hands into a blade versus tripping or slipping and putting their hand
in very rapidly.


Have you ever ripped with a 3 or 5 HP cabinet saw and a real rip
blade? Your hand is typically moving rather quickly while performing
this operation.

And that's what push-sticks and feather boards are for.

They have nothing to do with hand speed, which is the statement I
responded to.


The point is that your hand shouldn't be anywhere near the blade, no
matter the speed.

scott

In no way did I mean to denigrate the Saw Stop. My point was that you
can still get hurt with it.

In retrospect my answer was probably more reflexive than it should have
been. When I teach safety I emphasize that nothing is completely safe
and I show how it is possible to get hurt no matter how far fetched.

I once had an employee raise a guard and put her hand under a cutter
then flip both the on switch and the master safety switch while her
hand was under the cutter. When we designed the machine we were sure
no one was going to get hurt with it. Fortunately she wasn't hurt
badly because of the safety aspect but she was still hurt.

When we build equipment, we never tell people it is safe. We always
emphasize how to use it safely. We also always design in as much
safety as we can.

tom