Why SawStop? My Table Saw Accident + SawStop PCS Setup

what's up guys I'm Zack and welcome back to workshop edits now today's project is gonna be a little bit different it's in fact not going to be a project instead what I want to do is tell you a little bit about my sauce top now that that sounds like something that you won't be interested in no big deal I'll go ahead and leave a link up here to a build video that you can check out if you at all are interested in sauce top or you're interested in learning about my experience with it then I invite you to stick around hopefully it inspires you to get out and make something learn more about the technology and potentially invest in your own safety in the future now I just want to start out this video by saying that this video is in no way intended to be a video bragging about the saw that I have I see this as a video that is purely information based is anecdotal based on the experience of me having a saw stop for the past couple of years in this shop and I just hope that in watching this video it not only increases your knowledge of the saw but it also increases your knowledge about table saws about table saw safety and hopefully down the road maybe inspires you to save up and invest in something like this because for me this is not only the heart of my shop but I also consider it to be a really big staple in my commitment to woodworking in my commitment to a side hobby on YouTube and having the right set of tools to help make the best videos so without further ado let's go ahead and get started with the video all right so first and foremost I have owned a saw stop for a little over two years since I basically moved into this space about 4 years ago when I first got into woodworking I experienced my first and only table-cell accident now it was minor compared to some of the bigger ones that you see out there but it was also scary as hell and a huge wake-up call to me and just helping to understand how to go about woodworking and being safe with it now I'm not gonna show a picture but in essence I cut off about two millimeters of this thumb luckily it's mostly grown back but I still have a scar it still hurts to this day and it is a constant reminder that safety in the shop should be the utmost priority after that accident I dove deep down the rabbit hole of safety in woodworking especially with the table saw these things are scary as hell to use they're fast moving they're heavy they really can turn on you in an instance and so that's ultimately where I came across saw stop now after that injury I really didn't use a table saw again it scared the heck out of me I didn't want to experience that injury before and at the time I didn't have the financial means or the space to purchase a saw stop so when I moved into this space a little over two years ago this was the first purchase that I made so the saw that I first purchased when I moved into this space was the 30 inch contractor so for me that was what made sense financially it also fit this space perfectly having never actually been in this shop before and really kind of understanding my needs for it I love that saw I used it constantly in every single video since I moved in here I would swear by it and I would buy it again if I didn't have the means to fit something bigger in my shop so I haven't used that saw for over two years constantly what I noticed were a bunch of features about it that I wished I could upgrade so what I want to do is use this video as a way to tell you why I upgrade it and a little bit about this saw and why I'm so excited to have it in my shop so this is the 36 inch saw stop professional cabinet saw it has a full cast iron top it has the t glide fence system for it it has the industrial mobile base it runs on 240 volt and it has three horsepower and I love everything about this saw to start off let's talk about safety saw stop is the pinnacle when it comes to table saw safety their patented technology for skin contact or electrical signal when touching the blade automatically triggers a brake system that stops in under five milliseconds preventing what could ultimately be a life-changing table saw accident and injury to your hand or other parts of your body so for me when purchasing a saw stop whether it was the first one I bought or the upgrade that I had it really just came down to safety this saw is pretty much the heart of my shop I use it on every project a table saw is such a versatile tool when it comes to making all different types of cuts I find myself using pretty much all of the other tools less because of how many things you can do on this but with increased usage comes the increased risk of an injury so having that safety feature built into this system is just it's irreplaceable in my opinion and it is a huge reason to pay that added premium for this self so I love that safety feature I'm sure you've heard it a thousand times if you've seen any videos about saw stop but it's worth mentioning it again because that was the ultimate driving factor me not only purchasing my first saw but also upgrading to a bigger no cabinets all model so the first thing I want to talk about is dust collection so while SawStop does pride itself on having some of the best desk collection in the table-saw business I did find that with the contractor saw it actually wasn't the best and that's mostly due to the way that the base of that particular saw is manufactured now when it comes to the professional cabinet solve the entire base is one giant cast-iron piece it is all enclosed it has a 4 inch port that feeds directly from the inside where the blade is mounted out the back and mounts directly to my 4-inch dust port system I found that when it comes to dust collection overall and having this all in the shop in the past month it's really been nice to not have to clean up all of that excess dust that falls out the bottom of the shop having better dust collection in your shop ultimately leads to a safer shop both because of what scattered on the ground as well as for your lungs so having that upgraded system was definitely a big driving factor in upgrading to the professional model the second thing I want to talk about is the cast iron table top of this so if you've seen any of my previous videos where I use the cabinet saw what you notice is that the basement model actually doesn't come with cast iron wings it's something that you can upgrade but if you are not somebody who is super knowledgeable about SawStop professional table stalls in general it's not something that you would really look out for until it's too late and you've already purchased the base model for it instead what it had was these metal wings that had the saw stop logo embossed on both of them and to me that always just seemed like a design flaw for me I want not only this saw to be as heavy as possible because the more weight and robustness it has the more you just feel like it's this big secure tool in your shop that you can really put to the test while doing it safely and having something that wasn't heavy wasn't flat felt like it could bend to me just seemed like a design flaw now you can upgrade it but it cost about three hundred dollars so to me it just wasn't something that I ultimately wanted to spend money on when I knew ultimately down the road I would upgrade so now having had this cast iron top for my table saw for the past month I could say that my instincts were right and it's been really nice not only having just something that feels more robust feels more sturdy and long-lasting but also just having this big flat reference surface that I could use when trying to measure if something is completely flat or straight or if I've jointed it properly so upgrading from that metal wing system to having this big cast-iron surface has been a really nice thing and was a big factor in me upgrading from that saw to this professional model the next thing I want to talk about is mobility so when I first purchased the 30 inch contractor model it didn't have a mobile base for it and that saw weighs about 280 pounds which isn't something that is overly heavy but it made it difficult to move and what I found in having a shop of my size is that the more you can have your tools be on wheels and be really mobile the more it's just helpful for you to be able to increase the space in certain areas when you need it in case you want to do something like a big welding project and you just ultimately don't have that space otherwise so what I did about a year ago was add the contractor mobility base to it now that base was pretty good what it has is two fixed wheels on one side and two wheels that can spin 360 degrees freely so that you can with one foot step on it and move that saw to where you want in the shop now the limitations of a base like that mean that you are ultimately constantly steering from one direction and it's not the best type of base that you want so when I upgraded to this saw I opted for what is called the industrial mobile base so that base is actually meant for the saw stop industrial cabinet saw so it's a little bit bigger than this base which means it sticks a little bit further out but they have an adapter kit for this saw and what that has is a hydraulic system built into it so with just a couple of pumps of the feet you can raise the saw up about half an inch and it has for 360 degree wheels so the second you lift that thing up you can move it in any direction you want and I find myself constantly using that feature now that I have it especially when it comes to having an outfeed table that backs up directly to your table saw to be able to just with literally one foot pump that up use two fingers and pull a 500-pound saw three feet back from that and suddenly have 360-degree access to an outfeed table if you're working on a big project or you just want to have access to this side of the table has been a really big game-changer in my shop and something that I didn't really think about having until I have it and now I would never go back so really really grateful for the additional mobility that comes with that base so the one downside and it's not really a downside but it's something that's worth talking about because I am talking about this saw and this base in particular is that I did have to modify my outfeed table on this side in particular to help accept a base that extended out further than both the saw and the fence and all it did was just adjust how I had my cabinets arranged under it and it's in a way it's not a down sight but it's something you have to take into account if you do currently have an outfeed table that has four even sides but again having that added mobility has really been a blessing in terms of being able to put a large project on my outfeed table or assembly table and be able to just walk around it and get to it from all sides and have this saw pushed all the way up to the wall if I want to out of the way I can cover it if I'm painting just a very helpful feature and something I highly recommend if you are looking to upgrade to this saw in particular so next thing I want to talk about is the fence system so on the 30 inch cabinet model that I had I had what was considered to be the base fence for saw stop not a bad fence at all it's small its lightweight it's something that you can take quickly on and off the way that it works is that it actually attaches to a railing on the front and back side and it clamps down to your work surface that way it can stay nice and straight and make sure that you're using the table saw safely something I immediately regretted after having that fence was not spending a couple of extra hundred dollars on purchasing this fence system so this is the saw stop T glide fence it's it's pretty incredible actually is it worth the extra money to spend yes yes it is the way this one works is it glides along a really large rail system in the front with just one flick of the wrist this thing just glides very easily over everything it's incredibly heavy actually when you lift it up it really feels like it's well engineered it stays perfectly straight the second you calibrate it if you are looking to purchase a soft stop or you're looking to purchase any table saw a good fence really makes all the difference also not having the railing system on this side means that this fan can actually hang over the outfeed table and for whatever reason that whether it's a mental thing for me or it's something that actually physically manifests when I'm actually using the table saw that to me feels a lot more secure and being able to push material all the way through and keeping it flat up against that fence for as long as possible so T glide fence highly recommend doing if you are looking to purchase a saw like I said whether it's a saw stop or a Powermatic or a grizzly having a really robust heavy easy to move easy to calibrate nice gliding fence system is something that you should definitely consider sacrificing money for one other little small thing I didn't actually think I would care that much for it but the measuring guides for this saw actually have these little bubbles so you can actually see the minut measurements a little bit easier it's really minimal and again I didn't really think it was a big deal but being able to just look straight over and kind of see the bubbles version of the number helps you just get an even more accurate measurement quickly so SawStop T glide fence highly recommend it really love this thing so the last thing that I want to talk about in terms of why I upgraded from the 30 inch contractor saw to the 36 inch professional cabinet saw is kind of a two part thing one is power and one is cutting capacity so you can actually purchase the contractor saw with a larger cutting capacity than what I originally did again having done my homework but still being a little bit naive to the benefits of having a larger cutting capacity it wasn't something that I really considered in my initial research so I've added six inches of cutting capacity because this is the 36 inch model and just anecdotally what I found in all of the projects all the bigger projects that I had worked on from when I purchased that contractor saw - basically before I upgraded this was I always wanted to have that cutting capacity slightly bigger than 30 inches I don't quite know why maybe it has to do with the fact that most cabinets are in the range of 33 to 34 inches tall so suddenly having a big table saw that you can't really make the most use of to make those really precise cuts was just something that kind of annoyed me and was always on the back of my mind but again it wasn't really worth it to spend the extra money to upgrade just the fence system on that saw so you know it was something I worked with for two years and again if you can't afford to upgrade to a model like this because these are expensive table saws don't let it stop you from getting one but having that extra six inches of cutting capacity I basically just on every project since I purchased this and I love having it I also really like this melamine extension of the table again this is the 36 inch model it also comes in a 52 inch model on the 30 inch contractor model that I had there was actually a large gap here for whatever reason I always just found that kind of counterintuitive again to having a big flat table saw surface so just having this extra board here just makes this all feel more complete it makes it feel like I have a bigger work area to do to do things on and ultimately what I sometimes do is actually cover this and use it as an extension of my outfeed table and then suddenly I feel like I've kind of increased my work area by about 70% so again having that big flat surface something I really like so the other part of that is power so the original model that I had with the contractor saw was the 1 and 3/4 horsepower motor that ran on 110 now most garages or workshops or just spaces that you were gonna be able to put one of these saws is likely wired for 110 if you're in the US when I first moved into this shop and it was a blank space I had my electrician add a single 240 volt outlet knowing that eventually some of the bigger tools that I might want to add to this shop would run on 240 thankfully I did that because this saw does run on 240 it has a 3 horsepower motor and the reason that I ultimately went with the 3 horsepower motor that runs on 240 instead of upgrading to the same cabinet saw model that has the same motor as the previous one is I just wanted that extra power when it came to ripping down material one of the material that I mill the most on this table saw is just basic two by fours two by sixes from Home Depot and surprisingly whether it's because that wood is filled with lots of knots and imperfections or it's a little bit wet when you purchase from the store I found that the one in three horsepower model was constantly getting bogged down trying to cut that even with a fresh blade on it with even with the fence properly calibrated and I don't quite know why that was and it was actually enough some time - actually trip up the built-in circuit breaker to the saw that I would have to reset and then start cutting again now having to use some basic dimensional lumber in projects in the past month as well as some thicker hardwoods I can say without question that having that extra power has been a huge benefit what I noticed when it does get bogged down is suddenly this saw even though it has the safety features built into it it just feels a little bit unsafe and I don't know if that's a mental thing for me or I think that because it's getting bogged down it's more likely to cause a kickback whatever it is having a powerful motor that does run on power that I understand is not readily available to most people because it really makes my projects feel safer it makes larger projects feel more attainable and yeah I just I really like having that power so if you do have 240 in your shop and you are considering purchasing any saw that has a 240 motor versus a 110 I would go for it I think it's worth the extra money so I just want to summarize quickly everything I just talked about packaged up for you so you can get my personal and anecdotal story about having a saw stop I originally purchased the 30 inch contractor saw it had the original fence on it it had the contractor saw mobility based at a 30 inch capacity it had a one and three-quarter horsepower motor and it ran on 110 I had that saw for about two years I purchased it fully with my own money and I considered to be the best purchase that I ever made in my shop I have no regrets about purchasing it and I loved it and I highly recommend that salt I'll leave a link below to the exact model that I have in this video just so you can check out exactly what I'm talking about having had that saw in my shop and having it serve as the kind of center point of all of my projects I began to notice quite a few things about that saw that I wanted to upgrade the first and obvious thing was continuing to have that safety feature built into this I love building things I love making things I see this as a hobby that I want to be doing in a month in a year in five years when I retire so to me safety is the utmost priority the second upgrade was dust collection I just wanted something that was a little bit better at it and this saw does that I also wanted to have a big cast iron table adding more weight to the saw having a really nice machine flat surface not only as a big beautiful table solvent I'm spending a good amount of money on but having it as a flat extension of my outfeed table and being able to mesh make sure the things that I am working on are nice and straight and flat and it had just has made my woodworking overall better next thing was upgraded mobility while I had a mobile base built into my contractor saw this saw in particular with the industrial mobile base and the ability to move this saw with just a few pumps of your foot in a 360-degree motion around the shop has been a huge added value thing that unless I had actually made that upgrade I probably would have noticed how valuable it was to MySpace next thing was the upgraded fence system so having that upgraded beefy table saw fence is definitely something that I would recommend spending the extra money on because it's well worth the investment especially if you see this type of saw as being you know saw that you're gonna have for the next 20 years the last one was a two-part category one was just increasing the overall cutting capacity I found that with a lot of the projects that I was doing having more than 30 inches of cutting capacity proved to be really beneficial and I missed having that with some of the larger things that I've built in my house so I recommend going with a model that offers at least 36 inches in ripping capacity and then to go along with that was having a more powerful motor as I understand before having 240 in your shop is a luxury I happen to have it because I installed it when I first moved into the garage and having that 3 horsepower motor that runs on 240 has really helped increase the safety and workflow and efficiency if it is something that you have the luxury of having in their shop then it's a thing that I would definitely consider investing that extra money in as they in this video I just want to reiterate that this video was in no way a video meant to brag about the saw that I have I feel very fortunate to have this saw in my shop I worked really hard for many years in the woodworking and YouTube community to help save up for us all like this and get SawStop to help support me in purchasing this saw this was really just meant to be an informational video for you in case you are interested in purchasing a table saw whether it's a saw stop or not having an understanding of all of the not only safety features that come with it but some of the larger features that come with having a professional saw that if you didn't have one previously that you just might not think about I see this as a 20 year saw and what ultimately convinced me to upgrade was knowing that this would be a saw that I would have in my shop for hopefully the entirety of my woodworking career so far I would give this song a 10 out of 10 I really don't have any complaints about it and I look forward to using this saw in all of my videos moving forward if you did enjoy this video if you learned anything about it if you have your own SawStop experiences that you'd like to share in the comments I invite you to do so if you want to see me using this saw in all of my future projects moving forward I invite you to subscribe to the channel I thank you for watching this video and I'll see you guys next time on whatever it is that I'm building in here hopefully with this thing bye

Channel: Workshop Edits

Views: 30,366

Rating: 4.8922558 out of 5

Keywords: woodworking, diy, do it yourself, workshop edits, sawstop, sawstop accident, table saw accident, sawstop contractors saw, sawstop professional cabinet saw, professional cabinet saw, why you should buy a sawstop, sawstop features, sawstop 101, everything to know about a sawstop, table saw video, table saw upgrades, learning about sawstop, things to consider before purchasing a sawstop, things to consider before purchasing a table saw, assembling a sawstop, why buy a sawstop

Id: qY_FWp3SijQ

Length: 20min 29sec (1229 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 06 2020