: Beside the cost of the cartridge $60-80.00 and the price of a new
: blade and your time switching them out what other cost do you
: incur? I install millwork and cabinetry for a cabinet company
: that supplies us with a Stop contractors saws on the jobsite.
: It's a decent saw, and when you factor in the safety and
: liability concerns I think it's a pretty good deal. Even with
: the occasional "false" activation. The gaurds and
: kickback protection that come with most other contractor saws
: are a joke and don't really work. Fortunately I still have all
: my digits, but I know more than a few good experienced
: carpenters with missing fingers to think it couldn't happen to
: me.
When I looked into them, the cartridge price was a lot higher than $60-80. I can see the reasoning for an employer that's providing saws for employees to use to go with Sawstop, as there's a significant liability issue involved. However, new saws are now required to have "riving knife"-type splitters on them (like European saws have had for years), which are far superior to the junk found on domestic saws in the past when it comes to preventing blade binding and kickback. It's not hard to learn to keep one's fingers well clear of the blade, but I suspect that the Sawstop system will tend to breed a certain level of complacency. As with any safety device, one should NEVER rely on it and it should be considered only a backup system that can fail. It will be very interesting to see what happens when one fails to protect someone (it's bound to happen) and Sawstop gets sued because of it.