Official Luthiers Forum!

I just caught the latest episode of "Ask This Old House", and they were doing a piece about table saw safety. First they showed how to properly rip a board on a portable tablesaw, and then they showed how to crosscut on the new SawStop Contractor's saw. Of course they did the obligatory hotdog test, and it didn't even nick the hotdog.
That's an amazing product...
Hopefully, every company will buy the technology and in the future all saws will have it.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

[QUOTE=Hesh1956]Any thing that saves your hot dog is sure to be a wiener.... [/QUOTE]

OMG... That just set a new standard.   

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

I've been reading about this technology for about five years and they did try to take it to all the major manufacturers.  They all turned it down so SawStop started making and marketing their own brand. 

When the brake is activated an aluminum disk and another part have to be replaced at a cost of about $100.  Even so, it is a LOT less than having a finger reattached,,,,,,,,

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Steve Walden
Aspiring Builder,
Bartlesville, OK

We have a Sawstop here at McPherson. We have never seen the safety
feature activated, but just purely as a table saw it is a very smooth and
accurate saw.

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John Mayes
http://www.mayesluthier.com

I guess my point was that the contractor version has now hit the market, which we all knew was coming. I didn't mean for us to re-debate the history of how the company came into being or people's takes on agendas etc.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

just curious, anyone know what one (sawstop) costs?

I personally use my table saw very little. I guess I have heard a lot of horror stories and honestly don't find much need for it other than ripping a big piece of wood or something. They need one of those things for a band saw.

I remember when this product first was marketed almost 10 years ago. I
never figured out what was happening in the business politics behind the
scenes, but it was slated as "soon to be available" for at least 7 years,
while taking pre-orders the whole time. I'm quite glad I didn't pre-order
one in '99, because it would have been years before the deposit paid off
in equipment.

It's a great idea for a technology, and I would certainly be interested in
buying one in the future. The most impressive part to me is the quality of
the saws they are making, more than the SawStop technology itself.
They've rated very high in "out-of-the-box" accuracy and overall quality,
indifferent to the safety features - they simply are making excellent saws.
For now however, my old Rockwell cabinetmakers saw (and a good bit of
respect for the tool and safety practices) will do me quite well. By the time
I'm ready to change over I'm guessing it will be a much more affordable
option, especially considering that the patents I'm sure are well over half
way to expiration.

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Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation.

I think that this premise of this tool is fantastic. If $ weren't an object I would pick one up in a second. Anything that makes the job safer yet still performs the work well gets a thumbs up in my book... and it appears that this saw will ensure that you have a thumb to raise!!

I get on several other strictly woodworking forums as well. Many of the guys have them over there. One guy has had 3 misfires. another guy had 2. One guy tried to cut a piece of green treated lumber and got a misfire.
Without a special add on, you can't run a dado blade on it.
My opinion on the technology is that we're using high tech things to make up for stupidity in safety.
On the big PLUS note: it's one heck of a saw. Because of the force caused by the blade retracting, all of the hardware is seriously beefed up and smooth running. Sounds like one heck of a tool.

[QUOTE=Pwoolson]
My opinion on the technology is that we're using high tech things to make up for stupidity in safety.
[/QUOTE]

Paul is right. Almost all shop accidents are the result of improper procedure.

However, I'm of the opinion that the penalty for stupidity should not be a finger or two. I know that I can't guarantee that I won't be stupid once in awhile. If only I knew when I was doing it, I'd be better off.

I was once moments away from turning on my table saw when my dog licked my knee and I involuntarily jerked. The dog was not allowed in the shop and had to go through three normally closed doors to get there. Accidents happen.

We have had the Saw Stop cabinet saw in the shop where I work for about 6 months one. This is in a lab at a University where a lot of students are employeed part time. All the students receive equipment specific training before being allowed to operate any of the power tools, but many of them have no prior experience, so we feel this saw is good insurance. In that time we have had one mis-fire. Someone was cutting some thick laminated wood and it tripped. No idea why; mositure was not the issue. The photo shows the blade and brake block removed as a unit. A piece of the stock that tripped the brake is shown also.

Say what you want about stupidity, but I remember the day my grandfather ran two or three fingers on one hand through his old Craftsman bench saw. The fingers were re-attached, but he could never really use them again. He had many years of experience operating this saw and many other machine tools. This was quite late in his life and perhaps his attention or reflexes were not what they used to be. Perhaps this is another good case where a saw brake system makes sense.