Let me help you make your decision based upon real life experience. I was not very specific in my last post. So let me detail by comparison why I recommend the Sawstop. Lets put the safety feature aside and look at the Sawstop as a saw. Lets compare it head to head with the Powermatic 66. I've owned both the Powermatic 66 and the Industrial Sawstop and so I actually know what I’m talking about (well maybe about this anyway). The Powermatic 66 is often held up as the gold standard. Well then the Sawstop is the platinum standard. I purchased PM 66 back in 2002. The table flatness was on the 66 was not as good as the Sawstop. I went over the 66 with a Lee valley straight edge and its was off by a 1/32" corner to corner! Not only is the Sawstop table far more accurately machined it is also thirty inches wide. The 66 table is attached to the cabinet with three inboard bolts. You adjust it by loosening the bolts and shifting the table as best you can. Tighten it up, and of course it shifts. You get to loosen the bolts and try again and again. All table saws have this defect except the Sawstop. The Sawstop table is held in place by eight (yes 8!) outboard bolts and moves on a centered boss. The table has two set screws that allow you to dial it in to absolute zero. No more banging the table back and forth because the set screws hold the table in place while you tighten up the bolts. The wings on my 66 drooped and had to be laboriously shimmed. Again this is a defect common to many saws. The wings on the Sawstop were true and needed no shimming. The miter slots of the 66 were not truly parallel to each other. This is also a common defect on many saws. It causes any truly tight and accurately made crosscut sled to bind. The miter slots on the Sawstop are dead true to each other. The fence on the 66 moves under pressure on the end (see Fine Woodworking review) The Sawstop fence has been rated the most rigid. Poor quality was evident in the tilt mechanism on my 66. The rack with the gear teeth was very crudely cast varying wildly between 5/8" to 3/4" and was not machined except for the teeth. It had concave milling but it was out of line with the worm by almost 1/4". This meant that instead of the worm getting a full swipe contact with the gears it only caught the edge. All the wear was on one small point of the teeth, thus defeating the whole purpose of the concave machining. There was no fix. The rod that holds the gear runs through an iron block that has no adjustments. The tilt mechanism on the Sawstop is vastly superior to the 66. The rack is much, much, heavier than the 66 and its faithfully cast. Its precisely machined to a full 1 1/8" wide and wraps the larger worm dead center. As a result of the size and precision lavished on it, the tilt mechanism is as smooth as silk. The raising mechanism is unique and works with a power assist gas piston and a massive steel post. It is also very smooth. Most importantly, though I was never satisfied with the run out and crude cuts the 66 produced. Before I sold it I ripped a piece of white oak with a Freud glue line rip blade and saved it. I took the same piece and the same blade and ripped the other side of the piece with a Sawstop industrial. The finish of the cut produced by the Sawstop was far, far smoother than the 66. The 66 has no riving knife. The Sawstop has a beautiful riving knife. Its heavily chromed. Even the cam faces on the handle that locks the riving knife are heavily chromed. The hand cranks are heavily chromed. The 66, along with other saws, access the interior with plastic cowlings (the 66 ‘s cowling is unbelievable flimsy and crude) The Sawstop has a hinged steel cowling with quality latch, as well as a quality steel door on the right also with a quality latch. And of course there is the matter of manuals. The spiral binding, color photos, and logical grammatical English of the Sawstop manual has no peer. And lets not forget about customer service. Sawstop people (real people!) answer their phones starting at 6:00 am PST. This way they can answers calls from the east coast at 9:00 am EST. They have always answered for me by the third ring. Ask anyone about reaching Powermatic customer service! A half an hour on hold is standard. Overall the Sawstop is a superior saw because of its features as a saw. It is the most well and truly made saw I've seen. Oh! the Sawstop also a fantastic safety feature too.
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