Not impressed with new SawStop ICS

[jim mills]

Why would you believe that? Festool bought them up earlier this year so I would believe support should continue. It’s not like they were bought by a group that sells off the good bits and drops the quality to junk levels and relies on the old name until it is no good anymore.

I'd say that's exactly why. While festool maintains the high cost & "quality", companies like ryobi, poorter cable, and dewalt will come out with cheaper versions of flesh saving saws, and sawstop sales will eventually plummet.

[jack forsberg]

Resawing 2¼" wide plywood strips for flushing the carcass to the face frame on drawer openings. Currently we double rip, cut shallow, flip, finish the cut.

It's fast and works well, but there's no room to be stupid. The blade needs to be reasonably sharp, and everything needs to be waxed up really well. I've never even had a scare doing it, but I'm pretty focused doung it

one of those thing that thats the material left over and we all like not to waste . I take it that each one is a little different and so you are dialing it in with the saw for each unit . I would not get a SS for that i would find a Hitachi re saw so it has more uses . nice little machine and with the 3" band cuts to a finish . i found one for $300

[Tim M Tuttle]

It will be interesting this year and next year most of the Patton restrictions become obsolete. A new playing field will be introduced. Touch lamps have been around for 30+ years... good for Gass for making a few billion dollars on SS. SS had a great marketing team. I’m pretty sure support will dry up in the years to come.

. I highly doubt he made even $1 billion. Just this past year SawStop sold their 100,000th saw. Assuming an average price of $3000 per saw that's only $300 million in revenue for the life of the company just on their saws. SawStop did $40 million in revenue in 2016. He made some good money I am sure from the sale to Festool but even if they valued the company at 2x rev I'd bet that Festool bought it for less than $100 million.

[Simon MacGowen]

companies like ryobi, poorter cable, and dewalt will come out with cheaper versions of flesh saving saws, and sawstop sales will eventually plummet.

Which is a good thing as more and more woodworkers will get to enjoy the benefits of the finger-saving technology.

Bosch probably would also have to reduce its entry prices which are comparable to the SS jobsite saws' in face of the new competition. The big question is when?

The goal should be to deliver this kind of safety technology to the mass and not just to the current small segment (100,000 is still a very small number compared to the number of saw users out there). Make it a million and ten millions down the road.

Even better when such safety technology is extended to other cutting machines such as the bandsaws.

Simon

[Darcy Warner]

Thank goodness I can choose to not have to have any of that stuff.

[Martin Wasner]

. I highly doubt he made even $1 billion. Just this past year SawStop sold their 100,000th saw. Assuming an average price of $3000 per saw that's only $300 million in revenue for the life of the company just on their saws. SawStop did $40 million in revenue in 2016. He made some good money I am sure from the sale to Festool but even if they valued the company at 2x rev I'd bet that Festool bought it for less than $100 million.

Wild guess, but if they're making 5%, which is pretty good, they'd only make $150 per saw after paying the bills. That doesn't figure in how long they were under water on it too. R&D, and tooling isn't free.

Still more than I made in the last ten years.

[Martin Wasner]

one of those thing that thats the material left over and we all like not to waste . I take it that each one is a little different and so you are dialing it in with the saw for each unit . I would not get a SS for that i would find a Hitachi re saw so it has more uses . nice little machine and with the 3" band cuts to a finish . i found one for $300

Exactly, we scavenge the build out from drops that are useless for anything else, though once in a while I'll hack a full sheet until 2¼x21½ pieces to fill the rack back up.

Every one is different, even though it really shouldn't be. Plywood varies a lot, machining errors, cumulative errors, stretchers being off a freckle, or not seated properly. Many variables. It'll be better with a cnc, but it won't be perfect.

I've got a MM16 sitting right next to the saw we size build out on. I hadn't really thought about a power fed bandsaw for cutting it. I will say that cutting it on a tablesaw is really fast, and size changes are simple.

[Nick Shattuck]

If they are only profiting 5% of revenue then I feel sorry for him picking such a bad business to get into. Rule of thumb for a low-volume producer would be closer to 50%.

[Tim M Tuttle]

If they are only profiting 5% of revenue then I feel sorry for him picking such a bad business to get into. Rule of thumb for a low-volume producer would be closer to 50%.

Yup, at 5% you're basically losing money.

[Roy Turbett]

I've had one misfire on my ICS and SawStop didn't replace it for free. I was out $70 for the cartridge and $55 for the blade.

[Simon MacGowen]

I've had one misfire on my ICS and SawStop didn't replace it for free. I was out $70 for the cartridge and $55 for the blade.

You only get a freebie afte you submit your activated cartridge for their verification that the activation was due to a contact of the blade with a human part.

Simon

[Matt Mattingley]

I've had one misfire on my ICS and SawStop didn't replace it for free. I was out $70 for the cartridge and $55 for the blade.

You only get a freebie afte you submit your activated cartridge for their verification that the activation was due to a contact of the blade with a human part.

Simon

So would you get a free one if you admitted to trying to cut america’s favourite wiener??? It is the wiener saw, trademarked buy Gass himself.

I actually think there’s more to it than just meets the eye... They actually send a movie crew out, to hand you the new cartridge. This is how they promote their product on fear. Fear, Fear of litigation(on copyright),... I’m still waiting for Gass’s ICS Real slider that he promised to the market, And his improvements to overhead dust collection.

In the end, Gass became a sell out... He should’ve become the Intel Pentium processor inside!

In the end, you bought the best warranty that comes with the saw. 2019 and say you bought a three year extended warranty... at what price does this vintage machinery electronic technology come at? And at the end of year three year warranty do you expect to be fully serviced at a reasonable priced???

Like your car, would you trust the brakes buying offshore or would you want to buy OEM?

Let’s get real. How do you know it works? How do you know it’s gonna work in three years? It’s called test and replace. Once a year you’re suppose test all emergency equipment.... and renew (or replace) if faulty. So the wiener saw should have a wiener sent through it at least once a year..........or you can’t trust it.

It’s just like a smoke Detector. They expire and should be tested once a year. Hopefully you test your smoke detector more than your saw stop. At least then, when your saw stop lights on fire, your smoke detector might save the rest of your family.

When’s the last time you checked your smoke detectors? And your fire extinguishers?

[John Lanciani]

Let’s get real. How do you know it works? How do you know it’s gonna work in three years? It’s called test and replace. Once a year you’re suppose test all emergency equipment.... and renew (or replace) if faulty. So the wiener saw should have a wiener sent through it at least once a year..........or you can’t trust it.

When is the last time you tested and replaced the airbags in your car, or tested your smoke detector with real smoke instead of just pushing the test button? Do you actually test your fire extinguisher or just trust the gauge which might just be stuck on "OK"?

[Charlie Hinton]

I couldn't remember which company had acquired Sawstop but since it's Festool and they are not the kind of company that tries to compete at the commodity level I would not be surprised if the patents SawStop holds are renewed.

[Martin Wasner]

I'm curious what Festo is going to do with Sawstop.

They might've just bought it to park money for a while and won't do anything with it. That happens.