Saw Stop
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It is a very high quality saw regardless of it's safety features and in addition to the amazing brake, it has a riving knife. The riving knife probably prevents more problems, but the brake is a true finger/hand saver. I know a guy with only a thumb on one hand because of an incident with a table saw.
If I were in the market for a table saw, I would be hard pressed to choose another.
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@schreiberbike said:
If I were in the market for a table saw, I would be hard pressed to choose another.
I'd love to switch to a Saw Stop saw. I can do all the justification but can't bring myself to spring for it.
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Yes it's a remarkable piece of technology, and both the cabinet saw and the contractors saw are very well made pieces of equipment. I witnessed a live demonstration of the "hot dog" test at my local Woodcraft store..it was pretty impressive. That being said, I think personally for me the price is a little outrageous. The contractor saw alone once you get the necessary accessories for it and spare cartridges for both conventional blade and dado, your looking at over $3500.00...for a CONTRACTORS SAW! Not to mention that if you do trigger the cartridge you are also out a blade as well( I use Forrest WWII blades at almost $100 bucks a piece). I can get a brand new Powermatic 2000 with a 50" Biesmeyer fence for allot less than that. But what price do you put on your fingers? I think they are great saws, and I put a high value on my fingers...but I just can't afford the technology.
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Now can you compare all those prices against micro surgery to reattach your thumb?
From what I have heard about the prices of medical costs in the USA I think it's a no brainer.
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I suppose theres also quite a high chance of triggering it accidentally though, like if you brush the side of the blade for example. Could get pretty pricey pretty quickly if you did that a few times.
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Remus, it'll only retract the blade if you touch it while the blade is spinning. I set the blade height on my saw so the gullets just clear the top of the wood. brushing the side then would be as bad as coming in from the front.
Hazza, your point is dead on accurate and one should include potential lost income in the cost. Maybe even the cost of the project you bleed all over after your run in with the saw. I know all of that stuff but it is still difficult to make the leap.
In my years of using a tablesaw I've only been injured by it once. That was when the saw was new. It wasn't pluged in nor was the blade installed. I was cleaning the cosmoline off the top with mineral spirits. While wiping out one of the miter gauge vigorously I slit open my finger on a tiny burr left from manufacturing. Several slices like paper cuts that hurt like crazy when the mineral spirits got in.
I have a healthy respect for the saw and keep my hands out of the strike zone. -
@remus said:
I suppose theres also quite a high chance of triggering it accidentally though, like if you brush the side of the blade for example. Could get pretty pricey pretty quickly if you did that a few times.
There is a chance that you can trigger it accidentally when sawing lumber thats not fully dry...like pressure treated. The saw has an override switch that allows you to disable the safety feature if you are cutting wet lumber or if you might be cutting metal with it as well. I am mostly a cabinet/furniture builder so I rarely need to saw wet wood...I am always working with plywood or kiln dried hardwoods.
Like Dave R, I have also been using a table saw for many years and luckily have not had any bad run ins with the blade...thats not to say it wont happen, but experience does lend itself to better safety practices. Before I throw the power switch I plan out how I am going to make my cut..even if its a simple rip..and when the blade is running I am always aware where my fingers are in relation to the blade. I never rush while using the saw..if you talk to allot of table saw injury victims ( my wife is an E.M.T and she has transported a few table saw accidents) they will say they were in a hurry, or they were just making a quick cut...you let your guard down and thats all it takes!
I have a few friends that are in the commercial cabinet making business and they have been telling me that allot of commercial shops are buying them...seems their insurance companies are giving them discounts due to the increased safety factor of the saw.
Hazza, thats the point I was making in my first post..compare the cost of the saw to what it would mean to loose a finger..or more than one..you really cant put a price on what your body parts are worth..but the insurance companies don't seem to have a problem doing it!
I just flat out can't afford one...hopefully like allot of other new technology it might come down in price when it's been on the market for a while. The cabinet saw has been out for a few years but the contractor saw just came out within this year..so I guess I will have to be careful on my regular old fashioned flesh chewer and hope I still have enough fingers left to get the three grand out of my wallet for a Saw Stop. -
I too was considering a SawStop a while back, but then I ran across this site (http://www.eurekazone.com/index.html) and never looked back. I haven't sold my old table saw yet, but I almost never use it.
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I'm a hobbyist and I haven't got a table saw. I've been getting by with a home-brew guided rail system. If I were to buy a cabinet saw, I would be spending $2 - 3,000 to get a decent saw with a riving knife. At the point where I'm going to drop that kind of money, going up to $5,000 for a SawStop sounds pretty reasonable.
It seems reasonable to recognize that the table saw is the most dangerous tool in the shop. If I wait until I can drop $5,000 for a saw, it may never happen. I'm thinking that I will go in the direction Dik suggests above and get a high quality guided rail system which works with a circular saw and a router. That would largely replace a table saw, a miter saw and a router table.
I've always thought in terms of the table saw as the center piece for a shop, but I'm slowly moving away from that idea.
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@dik harrison said:
I'm thinking that I will go in the direction Dik suggests above and get a high quality guided rail system which works with a circular saw and a router.
I don't think you would regret that move if you decide to make it.
I live in the UK and have a Scheppach 4010. I saw the Saw Stop a couple of years ago but unfortunately they are not available over here, so after a bit of research I found the system Dik is referring to and bought one. Very soon after purchasing it I found it easier to use and just as accurate as the Scheppach, but a lot safer when working with large sheets, and very soon afterwards stopped using my Scheppach table saw.
I was so impressed with the product and the whole concept I am now starting to distribute them in the UK and am now also working on a 'Planning' package (based on Sketchup) for customers (DIY and Trade) to plan their cabinet layouts (kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, study etc.
The package will include some Dynamic Components I am working on, various handy plug-ins I have found, such as a cutting list Plug-in to give them the board sizes they need to cut, and some 'instructional videos' showing how to layout the room and place the cabinets.
There is a lot of work in the components to create the required configurations and get them to work correctly to give the correct cutting list sizes, and there will be quite a bit of work doing the videos, but I'm getting there.
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We talked about the sawstop before but it's worth re-visiting.
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