Saw Stop vs Others

[N80]

I have been dabbling in woodworking for years. Mostly just built in shelves and such with big box dimensional lumber. Over the last few years I've been using wood (primarily white oak, red oak and ash) to make simple furniture. I have a good bandsaw, a planer, a 10" bench top jointer, a lathe and a compound miter saw. What I have never had is a table saw and I spend a lot of time working around that lack. Now I'm considering one. I've used old contractor table saws in the past.............back when I was too ignorant to know how dangerous they were when combined with ignorance.

I cannot afford and do not have space for a cabinet saw so I'm looking at a contractor level saw. Of course the Saw Stop saws have an obvious appeal in regard to safety but they seem to be quality saws. I've read all the debates about their cost and potential downsides. I'm not looking to debate that here. One of the main arguments I hear is that they are overpriced compared to Jet, Powermatic etc. But when I look at similar sized and powered contractor saws I am not seeing much of a price difference if any and so what I'm wondering is if I am comparing apples to apples. Saw Stop does nickel and dime you to death on accessories and add-ons. The saw I am considering is their contractor saw with 1.75hp and the upgraded fence and table extension. About $2300. The Jet and the Powermatic are about the same price.

Am I missing something?

 

[WinterDeere]

I remember when SawStop first hit the market, probably around 1998 or 99, originally as an add-on for other brands, before they came out with their own saws. I used to be an avid reader of all the popular woodworking magazines then (including “Popular Woodworking”, lol…), and they basically all raved about SawStops saws when they hit the market. I have trouble remembering a single negative review, although it’s admittedly quite a few years (and likely design revisions) back.

That said, if the competition is Jet and Grizzly, you can’t do much worse. I’ve owned machines from both, in fact I still have one JWBS18 next to my Crescent 32” saw, and they ain’t exactly heirloom quality machinery.

I’m astounded by the pricing. My 2400 lb. Oliver 14” dual arbor cabinet saw with rolling table, quadrant, two miter gauges that each weigh more than Jet’s entire table saw, and fence, all ran me $650 with a 5hp motor. That said, getting it home by myself was a feat not outdone by the Egyptians building their pyramids.

I watched my FIL cut his finger off on a Delta contractor saw, about 15 years ago. After that, I remember thinking that, if I ever buy a new saw, it will be a SawStop. Why not? I do believe the claimed problems against them are exaggerated, and likely will never occur to most users. Can you still defeat the system, if there’s a rare occasion you need to cut wet wood, etc.?

 

[N80]

You can deactivate the safety brake. It takes a few steps but is not complicated. You have to deactivate it if you cut anything conductive which includes wet treated lumber, metal, etc. Replacement brake modules cost about $120 and are simple to replace. The blade is usually ruined. So an activation can cost a couple hundred bucks if it ruins a good blade.

I had a good friend who lost a finger on a table saw. He had years of experience.

I bet if that Oliver was new it would cost $8000.

I don't feel like I have to have a Saw Stop just for the safety aspect but if they don't cost much more than the competition the added safety would at least be reassuring.

 

[EddieWalker]

I had a Craftsman table saw with a Biesemeryer Fence that I paid extra for that I really liked for a long time until it was stolen. The fence really made it a nice saw to use. Then I bought a lighter, very portable Bosch table saw that was great for jobs I was on, but after ten years the motor seized up on me and I haven't replaced it yet. I inherited a Grizzly cabinet saw, but haven't used it yet and I don't even know if it works.

In my experience, the scariest things that a table saw does is catch the wood and throw it at back at you. I haven't been hit, but I've had it fly by me so fast that I barely saw it happen. Every time I was either cutting a lot of plywood into squares or making long pieces of wood into shorter pieces. Now I use the chop saw or my cordless saw to do those things.

If I was buying new today, I think it's worth the extra safety to buy the SawStop table saw. Things happen very fast when they go wrong on a table saw and there isn't any way to prepare for it.

I'm not sure if 1.75 HP is enough. The portable Bosch table saw is 4 hp, and that was pretty good for most of what I did with it.

 

[dadohead]

I met Steve Gass (Saw Stop founder) in 1998 at the WWF show in Atlanta. We both were displaying in the new products area so I talked with him extensively. Saw Stop (just a saw module then) made a huge splash! On the business side, there was a problem: no tool company wanted to take it on. Adopting the design meant having a 'safe' saw along with their current line of 'unsafe' saws. Nobody would do that.... so they let him simmer on the side hoping he'd just go away. He was in a bind. He even shipped his proto saw to John Deere Horicon Works at my request and demo'd (mowers are rotary cutters too!) I watched as JD senior management came to the same conclusion: "this could be a problem for us... let's do nothing." Steve  had to go into the saw business.