A table saw accident happens once every nine minutes in North America. For those people using a SawStop saw, its revolutionary safety system reduces what could be a potentially life-changing injury into a small nick or scratch by stopping the spinning blade upon contact with skin. No other table saw sold in North America can do that.
Preventing serious table saw injuries is why SawStop exists.
More than 20 years ago, a physicist and passionate woodworker, Steve Gass, had an idea to make a safer table saw. The result was innovation that changed wood cutting forever: A patented safety system that stops the spinning blade should the user accidentally come in contact with it. And with this new technology in place, SawStop wanted to set a new standard for what a table saw should be. While other brands relied on 40-year-old designs, SawStop’s engineers seized the opportunity to bring saw design, build, and quality into a new era. A saw engineered from the ground up to deliver unmatched accuracy, durability, power, and safety. No compromises. From the heaviest, most powerful 10″ Industrial Cabinet Saw, to the portable Compact Table Saw, SawStop has a table saw to fit the needs of any woodworker, DIYer, contractor, trim carpenter, flooring installer, or professional cabinet maker or furniture maker.
Here’s how SawStop’s patented safety technology works:
- DETECT: When powered up, the blade carries a small electrical signal. When skin contacts the blade, the signal changes because the human body is conductive. The change to the signal activates the safety system.
- STOP: An aluminum brake springs into the path of the blade. The blade comes to a complete stop, and power to the motor is shut off.
- DROP: After the blade comes to a stop, the blade’s angular momentum drives it beneath the table top, removing the risk of subsequent contact. All of this happens in less than 5 milliseconds.
- RESET: Resetting the saw yourself is easy. Simply inspect the blade (and change if damaged) and replace the brake cartridge. Reset the arbor assembly according to your saw’s owner’s manual. And your saw is operational once again. The entire process takes 90 seconds, and you’re back to work.
The No. 1 reason people don’t buy a SawStop saw, according to feedback from table saw users, is the premium price at which SawStop saws sell. But compare that one-time purchase price to the cost of a hand injury on a different-branded saw, and you’ll realize the SawStop saw’s true worth. Here are some representative costs involved with three types of table saw injury:
- Average minor laceration: $5,600 w/average job loss of 24 days
- Average amputation (no reattachment): $22,500 w/average job loss of 60 days
- Reattachment/artery & nerve repair: $54,800 w/average job loss of 125 days
Injuries, no matter how serious, are always unfortunate. And many could be prevented by using the blade guard provided with the saw, but we know too few people actually use these safety devices. Although we strongly recommend that you use your blade guard as much as possibly, SawStop saws are engineered to work with or without them. And most injuries don’t happen to novice table saw users, but rather to people with 10 or more years experience using table saws. So, the question is, “Why aren’t you buying a SawStop?”
With hundreds of thousands of table saws sold over the past 2+ decades, SawStop is continually striving to find ways to improve on our unparalleled safety tech, maintain or improve the quality and performance of our saws, and get more people buying and using SawStop table saws to keep them safe from life-altering injuries.
