SawStop activation

[RobJameson]

I am considering buying a TKS 80 table saw, and was looking over the user manual to learn about it. On page 31, it says:

SawStop technology is triggered
► Only switch on the TKS 80 EBS if the saw blade is not in contact with the workpiece, accessories or other objects.
► Only use accessories intended for the TKS 80 EBS.

I'm confused about that. I understand that SawStop can be triggered if anything that isn't supposed to be cut (like a finger or a sausage) comes into contact with the blade.

But I am accustomed to using after-market accessory fences and building my own, from wood, aluminium, or steel. If there is some way in which SawStop can be triggered by an accessory that is not touching the blade - entailing a fairly expensive replacement cartridge and blade - then that is going to be a problem. And I assume that no table saw accessories would ever touch the blade in normal use.

Can anyone shed any light on this?

 

[Thompmd]

I have a Sawstop but no experience with a trigger. What I was “told” was that accessories like you mentioned would be fine as long as no part of them comes in contact with the blade. The other thing I heard last week is to be very careful cutting glued pieces and the glue melting could potentially trigger a stop.

To be honest I hadn’t thought about that and have done that a couple times but fortunately have t had any issues so I don’t know how much glue it would take to trigger or if it would?

 

[Crazyraceguy]

We have had them in the shop where I work for more than 5 years. They are not nearly as touchy as people think. They work by electrical conductivity , not contact with objects. It has no way to "know" what is to be cut or not. The hotdog thing that everyone has seen only works because a person is touching it. The electrical connection reaction comes from that. Your jigs, like tapering sleds, miter sleds, or any other "zero clearance" type objects will not trigger it.
Ours have been triggered, but thankfully not by human contact. It usually happens by someone forgetting to go through the over-ride sequence for that "one last cut". Sometimes we need to cut metal laminate, which is perfectly ok to do, but it require extra care in the process. It usually happens when someone cuts a few pieces, shuts the saw off for some reason, then goes back to cutting. They forget the over-ride and boom.
Someone set it off once by trying to cut something with a metallic paint on it. We had no idea that it was conductive.
"Wet" wood, like pressure treated lumber or green wood will do it too, but pretty much anything else is fine. Any kind of sheet goods, solid wood, plastics, are all fine. You can even cut the occasional staple or nail. These are not good for the blade, but they won't set off the saw unless you are touching it at the same time, which is unlikely. It's not actually the metal, it is the human contact.

 

[Birdhunter]

“ 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 blade stop.”

Anything conductive (metal, skin, hot dog, wet wood) that touches the SawStop blade will trigger the stop mechanism. It does not matter if you are or are not holding the material. I’ve seen demos where the hot dog was taped to the board. No one holding it.

When the SawStop is first turned on, there is a delay. The delay allows a charge to be applied to the blade.

I have triggered my SawStop once in many years. I let a metal jig touch the blade. Scared me! It took a magnifying glass to see where the blade. Touched the metal.

 

[GPowers]

I was using a tapering jig on the Sawstop table saw in the normal safety mode. I was very carefully cutting the second taper on the leg, when without any warning I hear this very loud BANG and the saw stops???? At a closer inspection my blade was gone? And the saw would not start.

So I realized I had a blade retraction event. My new $80 blade and the $35 cartridge were toast. I noticed that the blade just barely nicked the support tab of aluminum that held the stock in the jig. On the first cut the stock was wide enough where the aluminum stop was not an issue. But on the second cut the stock was now not as wide and bam the saw did its job.  [eek]

 

[Birdhunter]

I lost a Forrest blade, $100 and a $79 cartridge. Ouch.

 

[pettyconstruction]

“ 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 blade stop.”

Anything conductive (metal, skin, hot dog, wet wood) that touches the SawStop blade will trigger the stop mechanism. It does not matter if you are or are not holding the material. I’ve seen demos where the hot dog was taped to the board. No one holding it.

When the SawStop is first turned on, there is a delay. The delay allows a charge to be applied to the blade.

I have triggered my SawStop once in many years. I let a metal jig touch the blade. Scared me! It took a magnifying glass to see where the blade. Touched the metal.

I also triggered mine, with a dado stack.
I touched the stock fence,I was kinda shocked at how “tame” the experience was.
A very costly mistake.
Charlie

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

 

[Crazyraceguy]

Well that sucks. I have never heard/seen anyone set one off with a dado stack.
I really don't get why touching it to the fence would set it off though? What kind of fence do you have?
I have literally cut through staples without triggering it.
Yeah, other than the sound, which may not be that noticeable if you wear ear protection, the blade just suddenly disappears.
The hard part can actually be in getting the thing apart. I can imagine that getting multiple blades off of the arbor would be even worse.

 

[pettyconstruction]

Well that sucks. I have never heard/seen anyone set one off with a dado stack.
I really don't get why touching it to the fence would set it off though? What kind of fence do you have?
I have literally cut through staples without triggering it.
Yeah, other than the sound, which may not be that noticeable if you wear ear protection, the blade just suddenly disappears.
The hard part can actually be in getting the thing apart. I can imagine that getting multiple blades off of the arbor would be even worse.

It was the stock fence,very stupid of me .
All I needed was a sac. Fence,but was lazy.
I made one after that.
I was trying to cut a 1/4” dado for a shaker style cabinet door, so I destroyed the 2 blades and the cartridge.
Charlie

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro