SawStop had sent over a JSS-MCA jobsite table saw with mobile cart, and I spent some time last night unboxing it and getting it setup. The point of this post is to get things down on paper while my first impressions is fresh.
Actually using the saw – that part starts later this afternoon.
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The whole process took maybe 10 minutes, including some time hunting for a hex driver.
The box is huge, which is okay since it arrived via freight truck. The saw is pre-attached to the stand. All you have to attach are the wheels and cart handles, requiring a total of 6 bolts. 6 bolts, 6 nylon insert nuts, 2 washers (for the wheels).
It’s CRAZY how different the unboxing experience was, compared to just about every other portable table saw I’ve ever set up. I quickly learned that this was the least of the differences.
Everything about this saw is just different.
Setup
Open the top box flaps, and there’s a folded poster that has very clear unboxing steps. Cut out the side panel on the “wheels side” of the saw. Lift the saw and pull it forward a little bit. Attach the wheels. Stand it up. Attach the handles. Pivot the saw to 45°. Look at the back, remove a piece of red tape and a shipping pin. That’s it.
All of the accessories are already stored where they’re supposed to be. When opening a new saw, I like to find where the guards and accessories are supposed to go. This always takes a bit of time.
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Hmm… where’s the riving knife and guard assembly? Oh, it’s in the accessory storage compartment, revealed when you slide the extension over.
The setup process was simply amazing. Well, amazingly simple. Simply amazing that it was so amazingly simple?
Fence
Then I familiarized myself with the fence.
I was actually warned about the fence. Maybe not warned, but when I spoke to a SawStop VP, I was told that the fence design was unique and that not everyone was a fan. It only locks in at one side, and can deflect at the opposite and unsecured side.
I could get the fence to flex a little, but not where it matters. From the user-end of the fence to well past the blade area, it doesn’t budge. There’s no reasonable way to apply pressure to the unsecured end of the fence, so the minor end deflection is something I’m just not going to worry about.
The sides are smooth, and you can deploy a small overhang to help support workpieces when the table extension is used.
Most table extensions lock in anywhere. This one can only lock when fully retracted or fully extended. I tried to lock it in the middle, and you just can’t. I’ll have to read the manual on this. I don’t see this really affecting anything. When I need a table saw fence extended, I often need it extended quite a bit.
The jobsite saw has a 25-1/2″ rip capacity. That’s enough for me. If I need more than 24″ or 25″, it’s time to break out my track saw. I do like that the tabletop is nice and large.
Blade Lift
A short crank of the blade lift wheel, and it’s up. Turn it back, and it’s down. There’s no slow crank crank crank crank process. This makes riving knife and guard attachment a snap, and presumably allows for quick blade changes too.
Speaking of blade changes, the wrenches are attached to the side of the saw via a half-turn unlocking knob. I’ll take a photo when it’s time for the full review. So there’s no wingnut to spin spin spin, or to drop and lose.
Will the very quick and coarse blade lift affect cutting depth accuracy and repeatability, such as when cutting grooves with a regular blade or dado stack? I’ll have to see.
Blade Angle Adjustment
Squeeze the lift wheel and a rear wheel together, and the blade angle is adjusted quickly and smoothly. I’ll have to look, but it looks well balanced. Sometimes I have to fight with a table saw angle adjustment to get it right where I want it.
That was a problem with the Bosch Reaxx. The 0° stop wasn’t set properly out of the box, and it required a lot of finagling to get it calibrated just right. Every time I tried to get it held at 0°, it would shift a few degrees due to the unsymmetrical weight of everything.
With the SawStop jobsite saw, it locked in where I wanted it, and I was stunned at how well it did this.
More First Impressions
The anti-kickback pawl has fewer “teeth” than on other saws, but it looks to provide enough coverage. I like that the saw comes with a riving knife, and a riving knife and guard assembly that has attached anti-kickback pawls. It should allow for quicker setup and takedown.
The blade guard has multiple sections that fold down to accommodate for different heights. At one point I jammed one of the plastic sections, or maybe the anti-kickback pawl. I had lowered the blade, went to check something, and went to lower it again and it was stuck. I raised the blade and it lowered properly after that. Maybe I stopped it at the exact blade height for this to happen?
But I do like the guard design, With the blade lowered, the guard keeps a very low profile. SawStop also sent over a dust collection guard, which I haven’t unboxed yet.
The controls are intuitive, but habit has me unplugging the saw after it’s turned off. I forgot that there’s a separate on/off toggle. Flip the switch to start a safety check, and then raise and lower the paddle switch to activate the saw. When done for the session you’re supposed to turn it off via the on/off toggle. That’s something I’m just going to have to remember to do. Maybe I’ll tie a ribbon around the plug as a reminder.
As with other portable table saws, it’s loud. Wear hearing protection.
The saw flickered the garage door opener light (LED panels aren’t up yet) at startup. I’m probably not going to be able to plug the saw into my Festool CT 26 dust extractor vac, I’ll likely have to plug the vac and saw into 2 outlets controlled by different breakers.
Eventually I might have to buy a fixed dust collection system and design a control system for it.
Overall, I’m very excited to test out this saw. The sawdust’s gonna fly tonight! Well, figuratively. I believe I was told this saw has exceptional dust collection efficiency.
It was playing around with a SawStop saw at a Woodworking Show that opened my mind about the brand. Just 15 minutes with this jobsite saw has me inching closer to the thought of buying a larger one for my workshop – if I can ever settle on the layout and one that’s centered around a table saw.
The features and execution suggest that the saw was designed by a user looking to address frustrations that exist with other portable table saws.
But then again, I’d expect it to be far better than other portable jobsite table saws. At $1399, it’s a full thousand dollars more than a number of decent models.
Is it worth it? I don’t know yet. But I can tell you this – I can’t wait until later this afternoon when I have a chance to put it to the test. If actually using the saw is as enjoyable as the unboxing and familiarization processes were, it’s going to be a joyfully busy week for me.
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Thank you to SawStop for providing a review sample unconditionally.
Mike Ramsey
My next saw is going to be one of their cabinet saws. They seem like well build machines.
William
I have the same Saw, have had it for a few years, I use it in my small 1 car garage for hobbyist woodworking, very happy with it.
It works fine with the Auto start on my Festool CT 48, although I recently got a wall mounted dust collector from Rockler that I use instead.
If you fold it up the blade often gets out of 90 degrees, but it’s easy to fix with a square.
Iv’e ripped loads of 8/4 hardwoods with no issue.
Wish I had the space for a cabinet saw, but this is miles ahead of the Dewalt/Bosch portable table saws.
William
Another Nice feature is that the saw is just slightly higher than the Festool MFT 3, so you can use the MFT as an outfeed table.
fred
@William
Beyond the flesh-sensing technology – might you (or Stuart) expand on why it’s miles ahead of Dewalt and Bosch? When my past compatriots are looking to change out their fleet of jobsite saws – this one might be in the hunt – but changing out 12 to 16 saws – at a $1000 premium each – they’d want to understand what they were getting for their money. Right now they have 12 Bosch 4100’s and 4 Dewalt 7491’s – so your comment is right on topic.
William
Obviously a commercial operation will have a very different calculus, especially because most Job site saws are used in much rougher work than what I use my Sawstop for.
I use my Saw for my woodworking Hobby, basically furniture making. Accuracy and Precision are paramount, not to mention the obvious safety concern.
If you have a chance to compare the Sawstop to the Bosch or Dewalt, you will immediately realize that the Saw Stop is a much more precise tool, all the adjustments are smoother, better and more accurate. Better fence and table, I really can’t really think of any area that the SawStop is not better than those other Saws.
Is it worth the $1300 vs the $550 for the Bosch/Dewalt with the stand?
It’s a better saw, that in my experience will deliver a more consistent and accurate cut, it will hold square better and I can trust the gauges on it, plus it has the safety technology.
I would say it depends on how you will use it, what your needs are, and how much you value the safety features.
I got it, and would buy it again.
Jeremy
I have owned both the higher end Dewalt 7491 and currently the Saw Stop. I returned the Dewalt for a refund after it developed a fault, but in a way I wish I took an exchange instead of returning it to then buy the Saw Stop. I have no major problem with the Saw Stop, it’s a good saw, but I don’t think it’s worth the premium price over the Dewalt.
I miss the rack and pinion fence adjustment on the Dewalt, it was super accurate and easy to adjust, although on the contrary I do not agree with all the negative comments about the Saw Stop fence flexing because it doesn’t lock at both ends. I agree with the comment from the reviewer above. I do, however, find that making very fine adjustments on the Saw Stop is actually a bit tricky.
The Saw Stop does have a slightly more true flat surface than the Dewalt. None of these aluminium tables can be expected to be perfectly flat, though (IMO).
The Saw Stop seems a little more powerful than Dewalt (marginal).
I do miss the extra rip capacity of the larger 7491 Dewalt.
The fine adjustment for the blade angle (Saw Stop) is fantastic and makes it so easy to get the perfect blade angle. This is one of my favourite features.
I found it easier to make jigs and fit my Incra guides on the Saw Stop because the miter slots seem to be machined/powder coated slightly better and possibly a touch more square to the blade than the Dewalt.
I recently (after a year’s use) accidently tripped the Saw Stop blade brake by running some metal into it. My bad. However, after installing a replacement brake and blade it tripped again upon turning it on. I took it to the shop and the same thing happened to them so they confirmed the computer had become faulty & they gave me a replacement table saw under warranty. I hope this doesn’t happen again, but I don’t think it will because I’ve never heard of any other people having this same problem. I just thought I’d share this experience.
So overall, I like both saws. I would happily own the Dewalt again and have the extra money in the bank instead, but I’m also happy with the Saw Stop.
I hope this helps someone with their decision.
P.S. don’t nag me about the reason for the warranty refund on the Dewalt saw. Yours will be fine. It was really just poor knowledge of the local authorised repair person.
Bolt
Depends on the kind of work they’re doing. My brother told me the company he works for would change out their stuff for sawstop in a second but they do a lot of work with pressure treated wood which can set off the saw if you forget to disengage the safety.
fred
Thanks William and Bolt for the input. My home – main shop has a mid-1970’s vintage Unisaw with a sliding table – but in my garage shop I have a Bosch 4100DG folded up on its rising stand – for times I’m called out to one of the kids houses. The Unisaw has served me well all these 40+ years – and bought it versus a Powermatic – because it was what I was used to working on. Lots of desks, tables, chairs, beds, cabinets, bookcases etc. owe their existence to that Unisaw – but if I were doing it today a Sawstop Cabinet saw or European saw like the Hammer K3 would be on my short list to compare to a new Unisaw or Powermatic.
Chris
Just watched some videos on the K3. Very impressive features in a fairly compact package. That’s one you have to save up for but would be worth it if you use it a lot.
Drew M
I think I’ll stick with the 1972 Powermatic 66 I now have in my 1 car garage shop. 🙂
Nathan
having the dewalt and having looked over a saw stop model a month ago I don’t see any of those better things.
Ok so the blade goes up and down faster.
but accuracy – my dewalt fence is as accurate or more so. Yes all saws need setup – so take a moment to set it up or at least check it.
angle movement – same thing I’d say the dewalt is easily as good if not better because it’s 90 degree stable even after it’s been carried around.
If you get the higher model dewalts you get more table space.
I would make the same comments about the higher end Bosch or Ridgid models. As I’ve used all 3 when I searched out mine. I’m not saying the saw stop is a bad product – but I don’t see how it’s any better than the upper model Dewalt, Bosch or Ridgid products.
Joe J
I think the point that should be made is that it’s not $1000 better.
Kd
I’ve used the jobsite rigid and the fence system gone bad after a few months and I could not get it back in alignment consistently. I got rid of the rigid and got a bosch jobsite. Out of the box, the fence wouldn’t align after trying to set up. I returned that for abother thinking tne last was a lemon. Same problem with tne second bosch.
Tim
Looking forward to the review. I’ll be in the market for a table saw by the end of the year and have been looking at some of the hybrid delta’s and grizzlies but haven’t been sold on them yet.
Daniel Lawson
Having an autistic child i want one for the safety feature as much as anything. But i played with it at the show and it great. My problem is the price with a 5, 4 and 1 year old its alot of money out of pocket. Sigh one day but until then ill have to stick with my little kobalt folding saw.
BikerDad
I spent the better part of a year working for one of those services that assembles things for people. You know, you buy a home gym from Sears and pay to have it assembled and delivered? Yeah, those guys. Dozens of pieces of knock-down furniture (RTA), home gyms, treadmills, swingsets, etc.
I can say that the assembly instructions on the SawStop PCS are the absolute best I have ever encountered. So your experience with the Jobsite Saw doesn’t surprise me in the least.
Doug
A lot of people are trying to justify the price based on quality comparisons. I think the difference here is the safety feature and that’s truly what your paying for. I still have all my fingers and replaced my bosch4100 with the sawstop to keep it that way. If you’re saying a finger or 2 isn’t worth $1000, you don’t deserve to keep them
Joe J Massena
I agree Doug, what is one trip to the emergency room gonna cost you when they try to sew your fingers back on!