Sawstop

[Robert Willing]

Well two reason to get a Saw-stop. First my index finger 2 years ago (Just the tip) and to day the left thumb tip gone right at the bone tip. I was pushing a 1" thick piece of oak 5" usable and 3" scrap. It jammed 1/2 thru and I was pushing the good piece with my right hand and the scrap with my left. The left gave way and my thumb went over the top and the tip did not make it. Yes I was not using a push stick Dumb, DUMB, Dumb, DUMB,Dumb, DUMB next time. I wonder if a Saw-stop would have triggered fast enough. Dumb, DUMB, Dumb, DUMB,Dumb, DUMB.

[Mike Henderson]

I'm very sorry to hear about your accident. I can tell you from personal experience that the SawStop would have triggered fast enough. It saved my thumb when I made a mistake.

Mike

[Jebediah Eckert]

Ouch Robert, hoping for a speedy recovery.

[Patrick Walsh]

From what i understand it will.

I have two and have yet and hope to never have a fire. Recently though i have been ripping these tiny 5/16x7/16x3-10' long rips to make face applied bead and it feels hairy even with a push stick. I cant help but thinking myself everytime the stock chatter or pulls slighlty i sure hope today is not the day i find out if this saw really works or not.

I also wear plumbers gloves almost 100% of the time in the shop as it helps me hold onto small slippery pieces. I know ther is pros and cons to gloves. I cant help but think in the case of a sawstop the blade is going to have to cut through the glove before it can fire and by then my glove and thus hand could get pulled into the saw. The other option seems to be risk a kickback from slippery stock and that chances of that happening are almost inevitable without the grip from the plumbers gloves.

I trust my sawstop will work but treat and and still respect it as if it was not a sawstop.

[Roger Feeley]

When I was considering a SS, I couldn't find the timeline in any of their promotional materials so I called SS tech support. I wanted to know how fast the system works. This is what I was told:

-- Detection requires electrical contact and peoples skin varies. For young people with nice soft sweaty hands, detection is immediate and often, no band-aid is required. For older people or people with callouses, the blade is going to have to find meat.

-- Within 3 milliseconds of detection, the blade has stopped.

-- Within 15 milliseconds, the blade has dropped below the table. There have, I was told, been cases of operators having heart attacks and doing a face plant into a spinning blade. There is a tremendous kinetic energy in stopping the blade and the inventor cleverly uses that to trip a paul to drop the blade.

-- In the SS brake, there is a chip that collects information about brake trips. One thing it records is 'tooth touches'. That is, it records contact as each tooth touches your flesh. I was told that the average number of tooth touches is two. Of course it depends on the number of teeth on the blade, the speed of your hand as it moves and the width of the fleshy surface presented. But I still thought the number was interesting.

[John Terefenko]

Oh wow I would lose the gloves. Your hands and fingers can feel things that gloves can not. Plus if those gloves do get caught in that blad as it drops who knows what will happen. Man there are so many gizmos and gadgets to help keep fingers away from the blade and just making simple jigs means everything. If you do not use them it means nothing though. The project I made and posted in this forum titled Rack Em Up was an example of small detailed work that I need all kinds of jigs for table saw and router in order to keep my fingers safe and I felt very confident doing them. No I do not have a Sawstop and probably never will. But I do respect power tools of all kinds and if it does not feel right or look right I am finding another way. I know accidents do happen but many are avoidable if you keep your mind in the game and work smartly.