SawStop in the shop

[Dave Wright #2]

The SawStop 10" Professional Cabinet Saws are finally rolling out to Average Joe shops. Mine came in last week. There have been some detailed threads elsewhere, but I thought to mention it here as a follow-up to the earlier threads.

I finished the saw setup and power feed Saturday afternoon. No technical problems worth mentioning. I would say that this one went very smoothly compared to previous major power tool setups. For now all I can offer is preliminary comments and assurance that it's not vaporware. We lowered all 659 pounds (shipping weight for the main crate) of it to the shop floor last Tuesday evening.

What a gorgeous saw! My wife says that it looks like it should be going 200 mph around Daytona. I couldn’t help stepping out to the shop for a look every now and then despite being plenty busy this weekend. My Delta Contractors Saw suddenly looks so old, small, worn, and crude. The SawStop height and tilt wheels turn so smoothly. They lock down with such a light touch, though I’m not sure they need to be locked down because I haven’t noticed any creep or backlash. Very smooth running too. I am going to get a great amount of pleasure out of working with this saw.

So far all I’ve done is cut up a piece of scrap plywood to calibrate the fence scales and check operation. Blade alignment is spot on and the cuts are clean. Everything works as represented by Steve Gass. I have some experience with Unisaws and the PM66 in our Guild shop. So far this machine appears to be in a different class. It is expensive but you get what you pay for. Plenty of thoughtful design, quality materials, and precise manufacturing.

I am happy to field questions about the saw, and will post from time to time with field experience updates.

[Jim Becker]

Nope...it can't be in your shop. We can't see it. Pictures are required to prove that it exists! :D (Congrats on your new saw...)

[Tyler Howell]

Talk is Cheep Dave. We want pictures!:mad: :mad: !

Conrats on the toyl! Did you do the hot dog test yet???

[Maurice Ungaro]

Sounds way too nice to be in any shop associated with anyone posting here. Please provide your address so we can arrange for removal and return your shop to "normal" standards.:rolleyes:

Maurice

[Dave Wright #2]

http://www.woodcentral.com/vpix//pic193868.jpg

[Michael Ballent]

Doubt that he would want to spend the 50 bucks plus the cost of the blade... Congrats on the saw, now if they could license the technology to the other manufacturers the price would come down... I am interested in the saw. Anyone know how many they have sold?

[Dave Wright #2]

Yep, my plan is to leave the brake testing to the woodworking magazines. The price might come down, but I bet not for a number of years. There is a whole lot more iron, machining, and electronics in this saw than others. Current buyers may be paying for R&D, but future buyers will be paying for marketing and middlemen. The price might not come down - or at least not without corners being cut elsewhere in the design.

I happened to have just asked Steve Gass for an update on the waiting list. There are now about 800. That number of orders might be filled by April 2005. Incoming orders are matching or exceeding their production rate though. As for "how many have been sold?" I guess that would be orders filled plus orders placed. Maybe 900 total.

[Frank Pellow]

The saw does look good Dave. I am happy to see one actually in someone's shop and happy to hear that, so far, the saw has met your expectations.

Congratulations, and thanks for being brave enough to take one of the early saws and testing it out for the many who I hope will follow. I also hope that reports from you and others continue to be good.

I sure would like to hear something about this saw that actually tests the saw and does not concentrate on what I consider to be a monor safety feature.

[Rich Person]

I believe mine is around order #700 and change and they are estimating March/April 2005. Perfect timing for some more reviews to come around.

Dave, just out of curiosity, what number is yours? (number off the line and/or serial number).

[Dave Wright #2]

Cool. Another order holder @ SMC. I'll check mine for any telltale numbers. It's from what I consider to be the first full production run, and it might have been one of the first dozen that were shipped from their warehouse. I preordered mine real early. One day I visited their site and the order page wasn't up. The next day I dropped by again and it was there. I noticed that the preorder was non-binding so I went ahead and put my name down. It wasn't until over two years later, when I saw the machine in person @ IWF, that I decided to go through with the order. The saws may be numbered, but I doubt that they were tracked through shipping and released in the same order.

Saws from this run, and presumably later ones, have a red and yellow master disconnect on the right side of the saw. This disconnect does not appear in the FWW test photo or the SawStop website photos, so those saws are preproduction versions.

I will post here if there are any problems with the saw. For now it looks like you'll be getting a great saw. I might get around to posting some assembly notes for the benefit of those here who have them on order. For example, the electrical connections are designed for crimp-on loops. You can rig the power with regular stranded copper, but should use the proper loops for a meticulous installation.

[Chris Padilla]

Looks slick, Dave. That is a massive top, too! Look forward to additional comments from you as you use it.

[sascha gast]

congrats on the saw. i love the safety aspect of the saw, but i can't decide if i love the look. it's a lot of black, absorbing shop light. not that color matters and i can't say i LOVE my yellow monster, but i wish it was a lighter color.
sure looks solid though.

again, congrats and now make some dust.

sascha

[Charles McKinley]

Hi Dave,

Nice looking saw. I really like the big shut off button. I'm still waiting to make a knee swithch for my PM66.

Sascha, have you heard of spray paint? ;) Once it is yours it can be any color you want.

Work safe... Maybe by the time i have my pennies saved the system will be availavble on the ManiMax combo.

[Dave Wright #2]

The gloss black looks even more eye-catching in person. It's as close to sexy as any saw I can think of, and not in a goofy way like recently designed Hitachi handheld tools. There's a dark side (pun intended) to the color scheme though. The gloss black is spotted by TopCote overspray. Wipes right off the powder coating. The extension table is gloss black PLAM too, which will bother me until it gets enough scratches to qualify as patina. The cabinet interior is flat black. You need a flashlight to make adjustments inside unless the zero clearance insert is out.

They don't seem to have wasted much time on the color scheme though. I think it was essentially set way back when they started their company. The website always had that look too.

Ever go to custom car shows? That's sort of the look. The winning cars are as strong functionally as they are aesthetically. Under the hood this saw has some pretty cool parts.

It would be an ironic turn for a SawStop buyer to paint their saw PM yellow, particularly when you remember that the "SawStop Cabinet Saw" shown on their website early on was actually a PM66 that had been painted gloss black.

[Dave Wright #2]

The shutoff paddle is put in exactly the right spot too. I walk up to the saw feeding stock. My left leg naturally comes to a stop a fraction of an inch in front of the paddle. When the cut is done I simply bend my knee slightly and the paddle chunks (solid feel and sound) in and stops the saw.

[sascha gast]

Hi Dave,

Nice looking saw. I really like the big shut off button. I'm still waiting to make a knee swithch for my PM66.

Sascha, have you heard of spray paint? ;) Once it is yours it can be any color you want.

Work safe... Maybe by the time i have my pennies saved the system will be availavble on the ManiMax combo.


nah, i won't paint it,hahaha. hey, just wanted to show you my knee/foot switch for my PM66. works great. little doorstop screwed to the base so i won't knock in the switch. very safe.

sascha

[Kelly C. Hanna]

Beautiful saw Dave! I look forward to hearing the nuts and bolts reports later.

[Charles McKinley]

Hi Sascha,

Thanks for the pic. The switch is much longer than I had planned. I like it. Thanks for the tip on using the door stop. Those magnetic switches are expensive.

[sascha gast]

your welcome, longer is better, since you can turn the saw off with your foot.

sascha

[Alan Turner]

Dave,
Thanks for posting. I am thinking about one also, but wondered what happens if it goes out of business, and then you end up needing a new cartridge. Is it worthless? Can you run the saw without a fresh cartridge? My applicaiton would be for a teaching situation, and of course the attraction is for the student's safety. Did you disucss this with the vendor? Is the owner approachable? I seem to recall that the saw comes without a fence, and that you need to add one. Did you get the Bies? And if so, did it come correctly drilled, etc., for the Bies? Did they ship the Bies as well or did you have to go to another vendor for that?

I for one would much apprciate it if you would keep us updated on your new tool as it seems to me that while expensive, there are certain settings, such as a school, where lthe safety features would be quite important.
Alan

[Norman Hitt]

I just wonder why they built it as a right tilt saw???????????

[Frank Pellow]

I just wonder why they built it as a right tilt saw???????????
That's not the problem. A number of people (including me) will argue that right tilt is better for them. Of course, a number of people feal better with left tilt so the problem is that they do not offer both. I ecpect that when (if?) the sales get high enough they will offer both alternatives.

[Rich Person]

I just wonder why they built it as a right tilt saw???????????The SawStop is a left tilt. The motor cover is just on the other side because the tilting mechanism is different.

I wouldn't expect a right tilt option. It hasn't hurt PM to have left only, and I think the SawStop people see the right tilt as part of the safety profile. I'm not saying left is safer, that is just what the current thinking is.

Personally, I was pro-left, then pro-right (don't do much miter cutting), then pro-left once I decided to go with an Incra fence (easy to rezero fence with change in blade thickness).

[Dave Wright #2]

Rich is correct. PM and Unisaw designs have the motor hanging out when the blade is at 0 degrees, then rotating beneath the blade as you tilt. The SawStop's motor, and entire assembly hangs in a gravity normal position, beneath the blade, during 0 degree cutting. It swings out to the right as you tilt the blade to the left.

[Dave Wright #2]

Alan,

I don't think the saw will run without an unreleased cartridge mounted in proper proximity to the blade. Yes, there is a blade proximity sensor. You might want to ask this of Steve Gass yourself though (steve@sawstop.com). He's very approachable and responsive to e-mail inquiries.

You would want to have a couple cartridges on hand to allow class to get back on line with minimal delay. What if SawStop goes out of business? In that case the saw would be fairly easy to rewire as a conventional table saw that happens to be massive and have a riving knife and other safety features.

Yes, the saw is sold a-la-carte. Fence, extension table, and shipping are priced separately. I got the 36" SawStop fence that is essentially a Bies fence with some technical improvements. It came in the same Yellow Freight shipment as the saw, though in two separate boxes. The SawStop fence has glide pads on both sides of the T member, is adjustable for table perpendicularity and clearance, has scales for cuts on both sides of the blade (36" right, 12" left), faces that can be easily removed and replaced, a cam pad that doesn't flip up and get in way as you drop the fence onto the rail, and slightly shorter length (37" vs. 42"). So far I'm happy with the SawStop fence. It looks better with the saw too. Of course it bolted right on; I don't know if I would have had to drill holes to remount my Bies. Mounting the SawStop fence was trivial. The tube has slotted holes that allow the owner to choose between tight perpendicular sliding and easy tube liftoff.

I would think that schools would be the #1 source of SawStop customers. If glitches can be ironed out and SawStop stays in business I would expect them to become standard fare at shops that have a lot of different operators, many novice level, and carry insurance.

Regards,

Dave

[Alan Turner]

If I need a couple of the cartridges, then I think I will need to rethink my teaching of safety.
But thatnks for the info. and keep it coming. YOurs is the first review I hve seen of a production model in action.

Alan

[Dave Wright #2]

Two cartridges doesn't necessarily mean two accidents. Teach with dry lumber and equip your saws with non-conductive accessories (wood miter gauge fences, wood pushsticks, and keep the tenon jig parts clear of the blade) and there will be little chance of unjustified brake releases. A student touching the blade side before it has come to a complete stop, and the green LED stopped flashing, will release the brake. OOPS!

The various disconnects may help out in teaching situations and for shop security. A master disconnect can accept a padlock. The main power switch downstream from that has a plastic tab that can be removed to prevent unauthorized access (as is common on many power tools). The Bypass Mode is controlled by a key that can be removed and stored somewhere else.

[Alan Turner]

YOur comments are interesting. If metal touches the blade, will that release the brake? I know I have sawn a nail or 2 by accident over the years.
Alan

[Chris Padilla]

Alan,

It seems reasonable. Metal conducts electricity and thus if you touch a metal object (Aluminum fence/jig/whatever) and that object touches the saw blade, the device will most likely kick because it appears that you have touched the blade.

However, it should be okay with an embedded nail since you aren't touching the nail as you ruin your saw blade by cutting it!

Remember, the Saw Stop cartridge is looking for a conducting path from your body (finger...flesh) to the saw blade. Keep this in mind and you should be able to minimize false triggers.

[Dave Wright #2]

Establishing an electrical path to the tablesaw top will also release the brake. My understanding is that the only brake release they've heard of on a non-beta production saw was an unjustified release, and it came from grounding the blade to the tablesaw top. The operator was cutting a piece of sheet stock that had some aluminum tape on the surface down toward the table top. When the blade touched the tape a path to the top was established.

[Chris Padilla]

Dave,

I wonder if the operators hand/finger was on the tape, too, or was touching the tablesaw top?

If I understand how this thing works, connecting the cast iron top to the blade shouldn't cause a trip because the device shouldn't see the unique human signal...unless some flesh was touching the tablesaw top or the tape.

[Allen Grimes]

Chris,

I dont think, it has anythng to do with a unique human signal. From what I understand is when electricity flows away from the blade it triggers the breaking mechanism (correct me if Im wrong anybody). Your flesh just the blade is electricly charged and your flesh sucks that electricity out. Im sure touching the blade to anything that is grounded would have the same effect without touching human flesh. I worded that very poorly but Im sure you guys get my point.

[John Shuk]

So what happens if you are standing on a non conductive strain releif pad whils cutting and no part of your body touches the saw body and your finger touches the blade. Does the brake engage? Lets take it further. What if you are cutting plastic and all of these other possible factors are in effect? I was under the impression that it somehow sensed a difference in density not electricity.

[Rich Konopka]

Dave:

Congratulations on receiving your SS. I hope you have more time over the Holidays to enjoy that fine piece of machinery. I'm curious in how many boxes it was shipped in and what kind of assembly was required.

Does the table and wings come separate?
at 600 LBS, can it be moved easily into a basement shop?
is there a mobile option?

Thanks for sharing the news !!

[Dave Wright #2]

Quotes from the Owner's Manual:

"When human skin comes into contact with the blade (or arbor), a portion of the signal is absorbed by the body due to the inherent electrical capacitance of the human body. As a result, the signal on the blade gets smaller and the detection unit recognizes this as contact."

"Conductive materials, such as aluminum and other metals...will ground the blade to the cast-iron table top, thus causing the signal on the blade to drop to zero and activating the brake."

It sounds to me like there are differences between the signal form resulting from body contact and table top grounding. The system is not 100% sure that it can tell the difference, and for sure it won't be able to sense body contact if its signal has been grounded, so the system defaults to the safety-oriented choice and releases the brake.

Edit: I just stepped out to the shop for a test. I turned the system on but left the motor off. Contact in this mode will result in the red LED flashing and the motor refusing to start up for five seconds. I touched the blade...flashing signal. I then held my electrician's pliers by the insulated handle, opened the jaws, and touched one tip to the blade and the other tip to the table top...same flashing signal.

[Allen Grimes]

Im not exactly sure how it works, John, and I can't answer any of your questions. What I said was just my impression of how it works. I really dont know anything about electricity.

[Dave Wright #2]

Hi John,

The system can be activated by being grounded, but all it really needs is to make single point contact with your blood stream. You could be suspended above the saw by insulating ropes and touch it with one finger tip and it would activate. People have asked "what if I'm wearing gloves". The answer is that the brake would not activate until it cut through both the glove and then your skin.

You have to receive an injury, albeit it a minor scratch, for the SawStop system to activate.

Regards,

Dave

[Dave Wright #2]

Rich,

The whole shebang came in 6 pieces. Yellow Freight brought 4: the saw (657 pounds gross weight including both cast iron extensions and miscellaneous hardware), fence, fence rails, and extension table. Fed-Ex brought 2: the first with the manual, cartridge, and keys; the second with spare cartridges and the dado insert I ordered.

Assembly was pretty easy. Bolting on the left cast iron extension, screwing in the speed handle to the tilt wheel, and connecting the power cord got the saw up and running. The fence rails bolted on easily. The extension table slipped into place and bolted right on too. I had to attach the extension brackets and leg. The zero clearance insert had to be set flush with the top. The fence had to be adjusted. I installed the blade, mounted the cartridge, and adjusted the blade/cartridge gap. I checked the blade alignment and found it to be spot on. That's pretty much it. If the 230v circuit had already been available, and if I was in a hurry, it might have taken me an hour or two.

The crux move on getting it into the basement would be getting the saw down the stairs. Fully crated it's essentially a 42" cube that weighs 657 pounds. Saw alone might weight 560ish and be a 34" cube. Its heavy...top heavy. We rigged it carefully, and only had to lift it up from a pickup bed and lower it to the shop floor, but there were a few tense moments.

A mobile base is not available from SawStop, and some have pointed out that the saw's shape (curved front) and great weight makes it tough to use one of the universal bases. I'm designing and building my own mobile base.

Hope This Helps,

Dave

[John Shuk]

Dave,
I wish you the best with your saw. I can't say the MAIN safety feature is a bad thing but I think the riving knife is not given enough attention here. That is a major improvement over what the American market is used to. I witnessed a kick back and an amputation both in one night. I bet both victims would have wished for this saw.

[Frank Pellow]

Dave,
I wish you the best with your saw. I can't say the MAIN safety feature is a bad thing but I think the riving knife is not given enough attention here. That is a major improvement over what the American market is used to. I witnessed a kick back and an amputation both in one night. I bet both victims would have wished for this saw.
I agree with you John that the the riving knife on the Saw Stop is a MUCH more important safety feature than the feature that the saw is synonymous with.

[Dave Wright #2]

John & Frank,

The riving knife is a key feature for me too. I haven't used other saws with riving knives, but this one seems like it's well engineered to me. Remove the insert, pull up a lever, and the knife comes right off if you want to switch it for the full guard. The knife and guard slip onto index pins and line up the same every time. The knife is substantial but will barely work with a TK blade.

I have never been cut by a moving sawblade, but have experienced several kickbacks and dozens of near-incidents. None have hit me yet (knock on wood). Hopefully the new saw will keep that record intact.

Dave

[Keith Christopher]

I remember reading about this device, it detects changes in electrical resistance as the blade passes between two sensors. Whent he threshold is met a quick blow fuse blows and it burns, a wire that is holding the spring loaded stop is then released and it jams into the blade.

[Tom Whalley]

May I also add my congratulations! I also have my hat in the delivery ring. I recently purchased a Vega fence for my current table saw. Would you recommend using that one on this saw, or ordering the optional fence? I am waiting for the contractor's saw. Looks like you have the cabinet saw in the picture, is that correct? I would like to learn more about this from the standpoint of one who has the saw. How does it know the difference between human and non-human as far as deploying the stopping mechanism? Are "false stops" a concern, and what is necessary to replace once the mechanism has been deployed? Is it costly to get the saw back in operation at that point?

Thanks for your responses!

[Dave Wright #2]

Tom,

Welcome to SMC from another newbie! The SawStop is up and running in my shop, and has been getting regular use. I now have it plumbed to a Jet dust collector. I really like it, but readers should know that I'm coming from a Delta Contractors Saw instead of another cabinet saw.

My general recommendation would be for a SawStop buyer to get the SawStop fence. It has a number of improvements to the strong Biesemeyer design, bolts right onto the saw, and, for what it's worth, matches the color scheme. I would qualify that recommendation, though, to say that you should first see if the SawStop Contractors Saw that you have on order can come with the same fence as the cabinet saw. There may be differences.

Yes, the saw I have is the cabinet saw - full name "SawStop 10" Professional Cabinet Saw". That's the only saw that they have released so far. I think the first contractors saws are to come out second quarter of 2005 or so. Delivery volume has been slow in ramping up. To get a realistic idea of your saw's delivery you would have to know your spot in line and add some fluff to the mid-2005 date.

The saw knows the difference between a human and wood because the two materials typically have different electrical properties. A small electrical current is placed on the turning blade. When that voltage dips in a characteristic way the saw knows that it has touched a human instead of wood, and deploys the brake.

False stops are a possibility, but SawStop has designed the saw to recognize and avoid some of them, and gives the operator the knowledge to avoid and work around the rest of them. False stops should extremely rarely, if ever, happen to reasonably smart woodworkers who have taken a little time to understand the machine.

Once the brake has deployed, you have to work the brake and ruined blade, that are now locked together, off their shafts. That can be tricky, but the Owners Manual includes a number of tips. They should know because they have tripped the brake intentionally over a thousand times. You then snap the rotating arbor block back up into position, install a new blade and brake cartridge, and get back to work. The cost of this process is your blade plus $59 and shipping for the cartridge. Some people have speculated that SawStop will make people cavalier and careless. I doubt that, seeing how each actuation is fairly costly.

Once they have final production versions of the contractors saw out there, I recommend that you figure out a way to visit one personally. It wasn't until that stage that I decided to go through with my cabinet saw order. In person, comparing the saw fairly closely to Unisaws and PM66s that were also at the show, I decided that it would be a good saw to own even without the blade brake. So far it's been delivering the sweet ride I had hoped. The contractors saw will be very different though. The cabinet saw was designed to be a "no holds barred" machine. It's an expensive saw, but they put a lot into it too. See if you can figure out what's taken out on the way to a saw that cost less than half as much.

Those were terse answers. Let me know if you want more detail on any of the topics.

Take Care,

Dave

[Alan Turner]

Dave,
Thanks for the updates. A question. Since metal will trip the stop, will cutting through a nail also trip the stop? I have been known to do that, although generally not on purpose.
Alan

[Dave Wright #2]

Alan, cutting a nail will only trip the brake if the nail happens to extend through wood and its other end happens to be touching the table top or your hand at the same time as it is being cut. There is some chance that the brake would not trip even if the other end of the nail was touching your hand. The system needs either a fair amount of dry skin surface or a very small amount of blood stream contact to decide that it has hit a person. A nail tip against your dry finger might not be enough surface area.

Tom, I thought more about the fence question. The Vega is a good aftermarket fence. Your current saw can be sold with its previous fence. Using the Vega on the SawStop contactors saw would be a good way to keep the cost reasonable.

Regards,

Dave

[Chris Padilla]

Dave,

I thought that the SS had an overly large table top? I think most aftermarket are designed for a table top around 27-28" deep. What is the size of the SS top?

[Dave Wright #2]

Hi Chris,

It is large - 44" wide x 30" deep. That may be a problem with aftermarket fences that clamp on the back rail, router extensions, and maybe some other accessories.

The machine's layout is different. My Delta CS blade comes up somewhat behind the table center. When at full height the distance from the back of the blade to the back of the table is only 5". Outfeed table or rollers essential. Here is how the saws compare at full height:

Delta Contractors Saw: 13" blade to front, 5" blade to back, 27" overall table depth.
SawStop Cabinet Saw: 10 1/2" blade to front, 10 1/2" blade to back, 30" overall table depth.

The SawStop is much more forgiving of operation without an outfeed table but has a tad less table in front of the blade. That could be a minor issue for people who use their miter gauges to crosscut wide stock. I think SawStop decided that overall it was better to add dimension behind the blade. They may also have needed the real estate for the blade brake beneath.

A related note. The SawStop's blade rises straight up in approximately the center of the table. You could mark the fence with a line indicating the center of the blade because that position does not change, unlike most other saws. They also could have designed the elevating mechanism with a scale to tell you exactly how high the blade is above the table. It is driven by a large Acme thread screw and the system has no backlash. Predictable enough for a scale to have been devised.

Regards,

Dave

[Tom Whalley]

Dave,

Thank you so much for the reply - it was very helpful. Your thoughts about the Vega fence I have is exactly what I had in mind. Since I have a good fence, I did not want to have to invest in another one if unnecessary. I have been in contact with Renee from the company about expected delivery dates and she is thinking end of Q1 in 2005. That will be good.

[Dave Wright #2]

Tom,

End of first quarter next year? That's earlier than I would have guessed. The contractor version should be less expensive than the cabinet version for a number of reasons. The electrics would be simpler since there isn't a mag starter and there aren't voltage/phase options. The base is obviously less expensive. No cast iron wings. From what I could see of the early engineering prototype's interior the mechanism was of similar design but lighter. It does have a true European style riving knife. The contractor version is SawStop's attempt to make an affordable saw. They probably expect to sell many more, and probably have a much smaller profit built into the price.

Please post news as it becomes available. I look forward to your review comments.

Thanks,

Dave

[Tom Whalley]

Dave,

I thought of another question perhaps you can answer. I know the saw has a couple "T" slots for accessories. Will my current things work in these slots? I have a couple saw sleds, and the miter guage, etc., or is this a totally different width where these will not work?

Thansk again.

Tom

[Dave Wright #2]

No problem Tom. The slots are standard 3/4" wide x 3/8" deep with T bottoms to accept normal North American saw style woodworking accessories. Regular miter gauges, slot mounted featherboards, and tenoning jigs work in the slots. An existing two-runner sled might not work because the slots might not be exactly the same distance apart, but you would have that problem when switching between any two standard miter slot saws - even different samples of the same saw from the same manufacturer.

The miter gauge that comes with the saw is as nice as any OEM gauge I've seen. The bar is the best part. It has spring loaded balls that press against the slot sides to effectively eliminate play. You can adjust the spring loading force to get the sliding action that you prefer. I'm happy with the way mine came. A little friction but no play. The gauge head has adjustable stops for 0 and both 45s that are engaged by a shot pin. I would rate the gauge's bar as equal to any aftermarket unit but the head not as good.

[Tom Whalley]

Thanks Dave

[Ken Waag]

Dave,

I haven't been on the site for a while but I came across your thread re: your new SawStop TS. I've been following their progress for some time now. Don't want to start the arguments on this thread, so I'll keep my opionions to a minimum. Suffice it to say I'm glad to see the Saw hit the market.

I've appreciated your posts, both on the safety issues elsewhere and regarding your own experience with the saw here. I called a while back and got on the list. As I recall they projected April to May, so I hope they've been able to stay on schedule. At the time they were putting out about a hundred saws a week, with 800 already ordered and requests coming steadily.

It has been a while since your last post, so I just wanted to see how your experience with the saw has been going. So if you happen upon this post and get a chance, I'd be curious to hear the latest.

I was glad, when their design came out, that they went toward the high end of the market. The blade brake aside, it looks like they've made a saw that competes at the top of the list. With all of the "added cost" issues surrounding the brake, I was afraid they might feel pressured to aim at a low cost rather than a better saw. I'd be curious to hear your thoughts about some of the noted features (i.e. large table size, riving knife and blade guard, Larger arbor bearing etc.) I'm especially curious how well the dust shroud works as I made my own for my Jet which I'd estimate made about an 80% improvement.

I hope you're enjoying the saw and your woodworking. I'll look forward to any new information you have for us, and to trading notes sometime soon!

Thanks,
Ken

[Per Swenson]

I am so envious, but mine is coming soon!
Where there any problems with the weight issue?
The truck had a lift gate? I am losing sleep at night
wondering how I am going to get it to where it has to go.
Hey, did you feel like a little kid on Christmas?
I feel like a little kid at Thanksgiving.
Best of luck.
Per