Is A SawStop Table Saw Worth the Money

[Howard Swope]

I am getting ready to make a table saw purchase. I have pretty much decided on getting the SawStop

It looks like a high quality saw and the safety features can't be beat. It is about double what I had originally wanted to spend. My thought was that if it prevents one injury it has easily paid for itself. An extra 2 grand seems like a lot of money until you weight it against the loss of a finger(s), and then that 2 grand seems like nothing.

Thoughts, comments, advice?

Thanks, Howard

[tdup2]

Got the money? Get the saw. Maybe a little overpriced till you need that instant stop!!! It is a very nice saw. Hopefully you'll never need the stop but it's there for piece of mind.

Tim

[tdup2]

Got the money? Get the saw. Maybe a little overpriced till you need that instant stop!!! It is a very nice saw. Hopefully you'll never need the stop but it's there for piece of mind.

Tim

[Leon]

As many would attest, I would strongly recommend it if you can afford it. Having lost half of my thumb 18 years ago on a TS that I had turned off, you can not be too careful. From most reports, everyone is happy with their purchase of the SawStop and it appears to be a top quality product.

[Toller]

Damn, but that's the question of the century! I thought only an idiot could put their hand into a TS; then I nearly cut my finger off on a BS last year. Now I am not sure. (It has healed cosmetically perfectly, but still hurts at times.)

I think that all woodworking tools are dangerous. The solution is to be really careful using all of them; not to spend $2000 to make one safer. For instance, I now use push blocks when routing a rabbet on a picture frame, when a year ago I would have used my hands.

[Leon]

Actually only an idiot thinks that it cannot happen to them.

And that is a good upgrade in the thought process of operating procedures but accidents often happen when there is no wood being processed. And I thought only an idiot could cut half their thumb off when not cutting wood. ;~)

[RonB]

Me too. I put a "to-the-bone" notch in the end of a finger a few years ago with the saw's motor off. I flipped the switch off, started to walk away, and realized I had left a cut-off piece on the table. I carelessly overreached the still spinning blade and "bang"!

That's a hard hit when bone is involved. Very painful, but an invaluable lesson in safety. I am lucky, and a much more careful woodworker for it.

RonB

[russellseaton1]

I've read some of the reviews on the SawStop, and as others say, its a good quality saw. You could argue about how much extra the safety feature is costing compared to the extra quality you are purchasing. With fence, table, 5 hp motor, you are about $3600. About $1000 or so more than a similar Powermatic 66. Is that too much to pay?

If I were looking to spend $3600 or so for a table saw, I would not buy a SawStop. I would look at one of the European sliding tablesaw models. Might have to pay a bit more than $3600, but I think you get a far more useful saw with the built in next to the blade sliding table. And the sliding table adds considerable safety. And the European saws also come with a riving knife like the SawStop. The cabinet saw (Unisaw) is a product of the 1930s. I can understand why SawStop chose to make a cabinet saw with their safety feature since that is the only kind of saw Americans know and buy. But I think they missed the boat by not putting their safety feature into a far more usreful, modern sliding table saw.

[goaway]

If the sawstop TS was available when I bought my TS I would have spent the money. Think about it the extra cost over the life of the saw, which is likely a minimum of twenty years. Take the extra cost and divide by twenty. Still sound like a lot of money. If you need something to push you over the edge here it is. "Do you ever have children in the house? " Anyone who thinks they can keep an eye on a kid all the time is a fool. Accident prevention is the cheapest when done before the accident. Last but not least ask someone who has lost a body part in a accident if they would prefer it never happened. Never meet someone who would say no.

Paul

[Edwin Pawlowski]

They didn't miss the boat as it is still on the way over from Europe. Fact is, a slider would not sell well here. Be it right or wrong, that is a fact of life and they want to make money so they went for a saw that will have higher potential sales volume.

[TSW632]

I've had 8 1/2 fingers for thirteen yrs now. That experience makes your question easy for me. Oh and by the way, as far as I can tell, you can't get around paying at least a $400 s&h fee on top of that $3600 someone else mentioned. Still worth every penny to me.

[Leon]

Yeah, the bone being hit is pretty violent. I still remember how my whole hand shook as I cut it away from the tip of my thumb between the nail and the finger print up to the first joint. I also remember the nurse at the ER commenting "Knarly".

Unfortunately I was clueless what happened. I initially thought I had a kick back until I opened up my hand that was clutching my left thumb. I never could figure out what happened until I almost did it again about 1 year later. One year later I did the same thing, I finished cutting a through dado and turned the saw off. Then I reached with my left hand to the far end of the rip fence to lift it up and off the table top. This time however I felt the wind coming off of the dado set. Fortunately this time my thumb was too short to come in contact with the blade. Now I watch the blade come to a complete stop before making any adjustments.

[todd]

My answer would be that only you can answer that question. The good thing is, if you decide to spend the money, you're not compromising on the saw from everything I've read. I'm a Kelly Mehler disciple and believe that a person cannot be 100% focused on using proper technique 100% of the time over the course of their working life. And even when using proper technique, accidents happen. Sometimes it results in a part flying across a room (done that), sometimes it results in a kickback (see Stoutman's recent experience), sometime it results in a finger getting nicked, and sometimes much worse. In my opinion, if I had the money available, I'd spend the extra $$ to get the SawStop.

todd

[nailshooter41]

Damnit Leon... talk about wry and dry. "Fortunately this time my thumb was too short to come in contact with the blade."

I laughed so hard I almost fell out of the chair!

Thank Gawd you cut half your finger off long before so you were actually safe. It's a good thing; you coulda been hurt!!!!

Talk about being grateful for small favors...

Take 'em where you can get 'em, eh buddy?

I'm still laughing.

Robert

[Leon]

Yeah, yeah, that's uh, that's right. ;~)

No sense in grieving about what's done, might as well look on the bright side.

[Say What?]

[snip]

Not to mention those great deals on factory reject gloves!

[Swingman]

Unfortunately, I can do one better for a "table saw accident" when not cutting wood. I "filleted" a thumb, to the tune of 13 stitches, on a TS with the blade off and not even plugged in!

Always endeavoring to be safety conscious, and taking advantage of all opportunities to further that goal, I was installing an overhead blade guard, and, in the process, created a perfectly functioning guillotine.

The E-room logged me in as a "table saw accident" ... though I doubt that I skewed the statistic by much.

[Leon]

It's getting pretty bad then the safety device is the part of the saw that gets you. ;~)

[Swingman]

Pretty much my usual run of luck ... if you haven't noticed. :)

[Russ]

When common sense and caution fail us, as they do all of us at one point or another, the safety device would be nice to have.

I however can't get over the greedy inventor's attempt to legislate his device into every saw in the US. When his invention wasn't snapped up by all of the major manufacturers as he assumed it would, he lobbied to make it illegal to manufacture or import saws without a safety device (his being the only one that would meet the requirements) installed.