Sawstop Cabinet Saw Closeup Photos

[John Pennisi]

Link to photos at bottom..

These are the types of closeup photos I might have liked to see before my purchase of this saw, as I wasn't able to get a first hand look at one during my research. That said I'm 100% satisfied so far and have so much appreciation for the quality and build of this saw. Customer support has also been very helpful regarding some questions I had about electrics/wiring. I basically ended up having a conversation with the guy who gave me a series of suggestions/tips in operating the saw. A couple things he pointed out:

1. Get used to using the bypass mode to test woods that might be higher in moisture or woods such as some types of cedar that have a high oil content. Also he said there were a select few synthetic laminates that have a metal content high enough to activate the brake, so whenever in doubt test the material in bypass mode. 2. Make sure a US nickel can slide EASILY between the blade tooth closest to the cartridge and the cartridge. Upon delivery I could fit the nickel in there but only with a bit of a push, so I made a slight adjustment. Also he said the diameter of a standard wooden pencil is a good way to measure how far the riving knife should be from the blade. He said better to have it a bit too far away than a bit to close. An example of why is if one is cutting a large sheet of plywood which is forcefully pushed into the blade and it moves (I can't see myself ever doing this), you want to make sure it has some room to move without getting close enough to the riving knife that the brake is activated. Hopefully that makes sense; it's kind of hard to explain without having the thing in front of me to point to.

Well here are the photos with splitter and blade guard attached. Riving knife comes installed; I just made the switch to get a feel for the guard.
I was going to insert the images but they have large file sizes so here's the link:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26883925@N07/

[JohnT Fitzgerald]

thanks for the pics and the feedback. looks like a well made piece of equipment.

[Matt Benton]

Does anyone know if there are any gloves you could wear that would minimize the possibility of accidentally tripping the brake?

[Scott Rollins]

John I love my sawstop except for one thing. The dust collector hose falls off all the time and sits inthe bottom of the cabinet. I replaced mine with a much more flexible dryer duct hose. No more falling off and the cabinet stays much cleaner down below.
I also replaced the blade gard with one from felder which has a 2" dust collector port above the blade. Works like a charm for about $60.
Here is the thread with purchasing info if you are interested:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...ghlight=felder

[John Pennisi]

Scott thanks for the tip I'll look into the changes you mentioned. I guess I'll give it a try as is but I can see what you're saying. Nice Incra setup by the way..

[Jim Becker]

John, it would be most beneficial to the SMC community if you would upload the photos directly to SMC so that they stay with this thread into the future. All too often, remotely hosted photos that are linked to "go away" for a variety of reasons, and that means content disappears for future viewers.

Jim
SMC Moderator

[Don Bullock]

Does anyone know if there are any gloves you could wear that would minimize the possibility of accidentally tripping the brake?

Matt, If your hand has to be that close to the blade doing a cut then use a different saw. The hand has to actually make contact with the blade to fire the brake just like the hot dog does in the test videos on the SawStop website. I wouldn't recommend wearing glove when working on a table saw.

[John Pennisi]

Jim, here are the uploads. I retook them in smaller sizes.

[John Pennisi]

Here are the rest:

[Nissim Avrahami]

I would like to ask...

From what I can see on the pictures, the sawstop comes with a splitter/guard combination or Riving knife.

But, it looks to me that when you use the riving knife, you cannot use the guard (unless you have an overhead guard).

It looks to me a little bit strange that the SS comes with "Euro riving knife for safety" but on the other hand "no blade guard - for no safety"...

Yes, I know that the SS itself is the "guard" but if an accidental contact with the blade (that can be prevented just by using a blade guard) will cost $150....or in case of "override" mode - that can cost much more....it looks very strange that the blade guard cannot be used when the riving knife is installed...

Oh, and by the way, the riving knife just minimizes the chance for a kickback but will not totally prevent it...even with the riving knife, we still get many kickbacks around here.

Regards
niki

[Dan Lee]

I would like to ask...

From what I can see on the pictures, the sawstop comes with a splitter/guard combination or Riving knife.

But, it looks to me that when you use the riving knife, you cannot use the guard (unless you have an overhead guard).

It looks to me a little bit strange that the SS comes with "Euro riving knife for safety" but on the other hand "no blade guard - for no safety"...

Yes, I know that the SS itself is the "guard" but if an accidental contact with the blade (that can be prevented just by using a blade guard) will cost $150....or in case of "override" mode - that can cost much more....it looks very strange that the blade guard cannot be used when the riving knife is installed...

Oh, and by the way, the riving knife just minimizes the chance for a kickback but will not totally prevent it...even with the riving knife, we still get many kickbacks around here.

Regards
niki

Niki
It comes with both a riving knife with atached blade gaurd and a riving knife only. They are interchangeable.

[Roger Jensen]

Are you talking about the dust hose coming off on the outside or inside of the saw?

[Nissim Avrahami]

Thank you so much for the clarification Dan

I asked because on one of Johns's pics on "Flicker" I looked at the picture titled "Blade/guard" and I could not see the riving knife behind the blade (or, the riving knife is positioned very low) so I thought that it's a splitter.

Regards
niki

[Matt Benton]

Thanks, Don.

For some reason, I was imagining the hand completing the circuit, instead of the workpiece.

Its been a long day...

[Mike Heidrick]

I would never use gloves with a spinning blade/cutter of any kind - Too great a risk to catch and pull you hand in.