I would love to see a major move in the industry to the SawStop table saw. Great features, quality engineering, and the protection of the SawStop mechanism. The saw is a bit more expensive than comparable saws, but certainly less than the medical costs to address any substantial injury.
These are available at the Woodcraft stores. I own a Delta Unisaw, and plan to make the trade to the SawStop soon. Just seems silly not to embrace technology that substantially reduces the very thing we are all concerned about. I’m surprised that these aren’t finding their way into the majority of shops.
Would be interested in what you guys think about this technology.
Replies
There has been much talk about saw stop. Use the search feature and you will see.
Pardon my spelling,
Mike
Make sure that your next project is beyond your skill and requires tools you don't have. You won't regret it.
I have also been considering selling my Unisaw and buying a SawStop. I have no fault to find with the Unisaw. It has performed flawlessly for ten years, and will probably do so for longer than I will be around. I use the splitter and Uniguard without fail, follow safety precautions, and have never had so much as a nick from the Unisaw. In fact, I have never been injured by any tablesaw since I bought my first one, an Atlas, in 1954. I do have one major consideration that has kept me from buying the SawStop. My observation has been that the greatest danger from a tablesaw is kickback, not sticking my fingers in the blade. Am I mistaken? I have absolutely no data to document this, I'm just going by my own experience. I understand that the riving knife is better than the splitter at preventing kickback. The SawStop has a riving knife. Does this say that most any saw with a riving knife, rather than a splitter, is as safe as a SawStop? Or nearly so?
I've seen the saw in person, and it looks like workmanship is as good as any in that price range, and I would consider when replacing my current one. I am weekend hobbyist and you would likely get different opinion from pros.
The thing about kickback is that in some scenarios, where the workpiece is being flipped over and shot back into your face, your hand actually gets pulled into the blade, as the workpiece launches. There used to be (maybe still) a video animation of this somewhere on the net, that maybe you can google.
Riving knife certainly helps. Ryobi BT 3100 (if still around) has one, so it is not rocket science.
Edited 12/20/2006 7:27 pm ET by stantheman
I have used both the SawStop cabinet saw (at Philadelphia Furniture Workshop) and my own Rigid TS3650 contractor saw. I would very much have preferred to buy a SawStop, but so far they have not released the a contractor saw version and a cabinet saw is not in my budget and won't easily fit down my basement steps into my shop. I like SawStop's integrated splitter which goes a long way to preventing kickback. The tilt mechanism tends to get sawdust in it when adjusted to an angle, and so doesn't come right back to 90 degrees without a minor cleanout. While I like my TS3650 fine, I will switch to a SawStop when I can either (a) buy it in a contractor saw version or (b) finally afford a cabinet saw.
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