The Safest Table Saw Tech Comes to Home Workshops

Big Important Product

- ROY BERENDSOHN

TABLE SAW HORROR STORIES ABOUND. IF YOU'VE never had a mishap with one of these machines, count yourself among the blessed few. I've worked with countless men with scars and missing fingers, and I've had my share of close calls. Decades ago, I worked at a lumberyard where the foreman told me to be careful using the table saw that was about to become my main work station. "The last guy," he said, "lost four fingers." It was a shame, he said, the guy was so young.

You might expect this tale from a lumberyard, most of which are pretty rough places. But the need for safety in the home workshop is no less urgent. People who spend all week behind a desk may be ill-prepared to step behind a table saw on the weekend. That's why we named the SawStop Compact Table Saw ($899) a Tool Award winner this year. With a tabletop measuring 23 inches wide by 22% inches deep and weighing only 68 pounds, it's perfect for the home workshop or contractors who need a lightweight mobile table saw.

Most important, it's equipped with an industrial-duty safety feature: Its blade will stop in a fraction of a second and retract below the table if it contacts human flesh.

Introduced in the early 2000s, SawStop set out to put an end to table saw horror stories. When I saw it demonstrated in 2000 at the International Woodworking Fair in Atlanta, Georgia, I was flabbergasted. By then, I had already used saws of every size, shape, and description, from large and well-maintained machines in cabinet shops to wobbly little monsters propped up on sawhorses. There was even a big four-blade behemoth powered by a leather belt and a gigantic floor-mounted motor.