Sawstop Safety

[George Yetka]

5 years into using my sawstop and feeling blessed I havent triggered the brake once. Well yesterday I was cutting a piece of ply that had a screw in it and saw a bunch of sparks flying. Im assuming that I have been running with the brake deactivated the whole time. Time to take the manual back out.

[Jack Frederick]

George, I don’t think your can run it in safety mode continuously. My understanding is that you have to start the saw in safety every time you want to use it that way. Once you shut the saw off, it goes back into normal mode. I have had the same experience as you cutting something that should have or seemed to me like it would have triggered the safety, but it doesn’t do so. I wish I had your record of operation without triggering the cartridge.

[Clark Hussey]

You can run metal through the blade, without brake activation. The metal needs to have current through it to activate the blade. Was the screw some distance from your hands?

[Myles Moran]

You can run metal through the blade, without brake activation. The metal needs to have current through it to activate the blade. Was the screw some distance from your hands?

The screw would have to have contact with the operator or saw top, or sufficient conductive mass to have the same effect as a finger touching the blade.

[Alan Lightstone]

The couple of times I had my SawStop trigger was when it hit metal. Both were when making zero clearance inserts and it hit metal on the larger part of the inserts. So I'm really not sure if you need current going through the metal. In my cases it sure didn't.

And Forrest just told me that my Woodworker II blade that was triggered is not repairable. Sigh.... Expensive mistake.

[George Yetka]

The screw was far from my hand about 8"

[glenn bradley]

The screw was far from my hand about 8"


Then I would imagine everything is fine. The saw will not fully power up if the Power On Self Test doesn't pass. When in bypass mode, the saw resets to normal operation when the stop button is pushed. I do use the bypass mode to test certain materials (things I probably should be cutting anyway ;)) or to test performing certain operations like running a metallic portion of a jig close to the blade. In normal operations I have run through hidden metal items in plywood without activation. I have also activated the system by cutting what I did not realize was conductive UHMW plastic material . . . I realized what I had done just as I heard the 'thunk' sound ;-)

[Scott Clausen]

Touch the non spinning blade to test if it registers contact, if yes you're good. The screw would need to contact the blade AND the tabletop or your skin at the same time. If the screw is just imbedded in the wood and insulated electrically from you and other saw parts you won't trigger.

[Dave Mills]

** Edit: I should note, Trent Davis from SawStop says that the sensitivity of the brake while the blade is not spinning is much lower than when the blade is spinning, so my test isn't correct relative to when the blade is actually moving. **

I just ran an experiment, because this comes up so often. I held various screwdrivers up to the blade, and when holding them by the insulated handle, no blinking. So I started putting more and more massive things up. The next to last was my LN 60-1/2 plane - no blinking. This photo is of my LN 62, the first thing to cause the light to blink with just its own mass. So rest assured, you can cut anything up to a block plane in half without triggering the brake or using bypass. Larger than that, use bypass. :)

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[Stephen White]

George, I don’t think your can run it in safety mode continuously. My understanding is that you have to start the saw in safety every time you want to use it that way. Once you shut the saw off, it goes back into normal mode. I have had the same experience as you cutting something that should have or seemed to me like it would have triggered the safety, but it doesn’t do so. I wish I had your record of operation without triggering the cartridge.

You mean you can't run it in bypass mode continuously. I think the blade brake is active by default unless you (on my contractors) turn the key and put it in by-pass mode and the light is flashing green and then on restart it will reset itself to the blade brake cart being active.

[Jim Eisenstein]

FWIW, I recently tripped the dado cartridge on my PCS. Hit a hidden screw in dry wood. There was no contact to
my hand or any other obvious pathway to ground. There were, however, a few sparks. Possibly there was electrical
breakdown through the air, like when you get a shock touching a doorknob after walking across carpet.

[David Buchhauser]

I think the blade brake is active by default
I certainly hope this is the case.
David

[Ryan Leduc]

** Edit: I should note, Trent Davis from SawStop says that the sensitivity of the brake while the blade is not spinning is much lower than when the blade is spinning, so my test isn't correct relative to when the blade is actually moving. **

I just ran an experiment, because this comes up so often. I held various screwdrivers up to the blade, and when holding them by the insulated handle, no blinking. So I started putting more and more massive things up. The next to last was my LN 60-1/2 plane - no blinking. This photo is of my LN 62, the first thing to cause the light to blink with just its own mass. So rest assured, you can cut anything up to a block plane in half without triggering the brake or using bypass. Larger than that, use bypass. :)

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How do you like the Woodpecker rip flip? I've been debating it.

[George Yetka]

** Edit: I should note, Trent Davis from SawStop says that the sensitivity of the brake while the blade is not spinning is much lower than when the blade is spinning, so my test isn't correct relative to when the blade is actually moving. **

I just ran an experiment, because this comes up so often. I held various screwdrivers up to the blade, and when holding them by the insulated handle, no blinking. So I started putting more and more massive things up. The next to last was my LN 60-1/2 plane - no blinking. This photo is of my LN 62, the first thing to cause the light to blink with just its own mass. So rest assured, you can cut anything up to a block plane in half without triggering the brake or using bypass. Larger than that, use bypass. :)

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So first I couldnt use it to cut up hotdogs and now I cant use for cutting up large planes. What is this thing even good for?