Call this post, "Notes from A Relative Newbie."
I've owned a SawStop PCS for about a month now. It's my first "big kid's" saw, having had a Delta Contractor for nearly twenty years.
I've done a lot of coarse, basic woodwork over the years, but it's only in the last year or two that I've started to concentrate on refining my skills. The SS was a big, expensive step towards power and precision.
The only issue I've had with the SS is that the saw has shut itself off during use several times recently. I read the trouble shooting section and it said that could be due to several causes.
The first was a momentary dip in electric power. I'd had a dedicated 220V circuit installed for the saw, so that didn't seem likely.
Another was working with wet or green wood. A friend had warned me that doing that could actually trigger the brake, so I was aware not to try cutting anything with an obviously high moisture content unless I used the bypass feature. In any case, maple from Home Depot shouldn't fit that category.
The third possibility was just overloading the blade. Now, at first, that seemed the least likely of all. I mean, I'd just stepped up to 3hp! To my mind, I had all the power in the world.
But then I started to notice that the cut edge of the maple seemed awfully scorched. And I thought about how one of the first things I'd done after setting the saw up was remove the blade it comes with and install my Forrest Woodworker II in order to rip the maple.
As I said, I'm not a very experienced woodworker, but I had my suspicions. Took the Forrest out and brought it down to my "go to guy" at the local woodworker's supply store and asked him if he thought it was dull. He said yeah, and added that the maple might be harder than I thought.
I bought a Freud ripping blade to use while I sent the Forrest out for sharpening. I've also been taking it slower with the maple. Don't seem to be having any problems now.
Other than that, I gotta say, I LOVE this saw. And I bought it because the aforementioned "go to guy" told me that, all safety features aside, it's a beautiful saw. So far he's been right.
Referring back to the earlier post about SS selling out or going away for some reason and leaving the current owners high and dry, that seems awfully unlikely to me. For one thing, these guys are selling saws by the boatload. If I were them, I'd be looking to expand... not sell out.
But even if they were bought out, why would the new owners ever want to buy an enormously successful company, then stop doing the very thing that was making them so successful in the first place? I mean, the cat's out of the technological bag, now. And if they own the technology and know it sells, why wouldn't they just want to keep on selling?
Oh... one more comment and a question. I've always been pretty religious about unplugging my saw before I go anywhere near the blade to change it or check the height or angle or anything. Maybe overcautious, but what the heck. But with the SS, there's a master power switch in line before the starter. You can't start the saw if the switch is off. So that's effectively the same as unplugging the saw, right?
Thanks.
. I was using a 60t set 3/8" up w/ a zero clearance insert. No less than 8 professional woodworkers looked at what I was doing (I was looking for some answers for improvement purposes) and all said it was a freak thing that could have happened to anyone
