Sawstop PCS 36" with industrial mobile base

[jeh]

As regards safety, I have not changed how I feel about the spinning blade or how I work in the shop since owning a SS. In my case, it could be a $250 loss anytime a sawstop is triggered (unlike the Bosch version that gives you a second chance or more). The only thing that has changed is the quality of cuts.

You can't compare the "not sold in the US" Bosch Contractor Saw with safety feature to the SawStop PCS. Completely different class of tool. I have nothing against the Bosch especially since it is better built than the equivalent SawStop Jobsite saw even though the prices are close to each other. As for the $250 it does not matter. If you have health insurance there is a good chance the emergency room deductible is that much or higher.

North of the border, our medicare provides for free medical services at the Emergency Room (but not the ambulance , if needed). I would feel more pain with a physical cut than any pain associated with loss of money in an accident. Like many SawStop owners, I have one of those Forrest blades and the thought of ruining a fine blade with a trigger of the SawStop feature is an added incentive for me to be extremely careful whenever the saw is powered up.

For the record, if you trigger the sawstop with the contact of a finger or body part, SawStop will replace the cartridge free if you send the used cartridge back to them for analysis and verification. Of course, you will lose the shop time unless you have a spare cartridge. You have no luck if you cut a wet wood and trigger the stop, forgetting to turn the safety feature off. In my former workplace, one fellow employee nicked the corner of an aluminum fence attached to the mitre gauge (or was it a cutting sled?) and triggered the stop while he was holding the mitre gauge. $200 down the drain in a split second (but we had spare cartridges around).

Agree, but whatever the case the cost does not matter so long as you are not required to go to the hospital, keep all of your fingers and can get right back to work. Accidents happen, but the loss of a blade is a non-issue when compared to the latter. Also, while your emergency room service may be "free", they really are not. They cost everyone and the more services are used the more they cost, which adversely affects everyone's taxes (I assume that is where the money for "free" comes from).

 

[ben_r_]

Always goes this way with SawStop. For some reason people cant just accept that its an amazingly high quality saw with an added feature that costs a bit more than the competition. You'd think Festool fans of all people would understand that concept more than anyone else!

 

[semenza]

It would be good if this review topic stayed on track as a review of the tool and not a discussion of health care systems.

Seth

 

[TomGadwa1]

The US has a healthcare system? Ha ha ha ha, ho ho ho ho!

 

[Rudymejia12]

Question guys. I know I want the 3hp PCS. but do I want the 52 or 36. I have a standard two car garage. I have noticed the popular choice is 36. I am leaning toward 36 as well. I have read owners downgrading from 52 to 36.  Thoughts guys?

 

[justaguy]

Ask yourself two questions. What else is going to be in that two car garage shop? How often will I need to cut something greater than 36 inches.

For me I have 36 inch fence. I have track saw and a sliding compound miter to take care of the long stuff.

 

[ChuckM]

Mine is a PCS 36". 36" because of space constraint, otherwise the 52" would have been my choice. Its mobile base is the best of any I have ever used or seen, and so maneuverability is not an issue there.

If I have a 52" table, I can cut most sheet goods right there. without resorting to my TS75. I would probably see the track saw, too.  The extra surface would also provide space for dry-fitting, glue-ups to cure, etc.

 

[Runhard]

I went with the 52” just to have the extra surface area and cutting capacity. I haven’t decided if I’ll add a router table in mine yet. I’ll have to wait until I get it setup and use it for a little while. 

 

[Rudymejia12]

I was thinking the 52 would be useful for the glue up and dry fitting. Or just surface space.  Thanks for the input. Would love to hear from more 52 in owners.

 

[cpw]

I have the 52" version.  It is sometimes useful to be able to cut things to that length.  I salvage some of the space by having my router table built into the wing.

 

[Stoli]

I have a 52”.  Don’t use that full capacity very much. Placed a router table in the extension wing, which is used a lot. There are times that I wished I had gotten the smaller size, and just made a portable router table  either way, this is a great saw.

 

[GPowers]

Had my SawStop Fire off when it nicked a jig fixture. What a surprise did not know what happened at first. Then I saw dollar signs  the cost is a me  cartridge and high end blade about $160. Cheep if it is your finger. But this barely nicked the jig.

Never heard about resharpining the blade. I always thought the abrupt stop potential cause it go out of round

 

[rumble-chicken]

Congrats on your saw.  With regards to Festool's Parent Company buying SawStop,  I truly hope they can come up to the same level of documentation. The manuals (books) you received are some of the best I have read in any industry.  Adversely, I have been mostly disappointed with all the Festool tools I have purchased. Really excited to see what these two companies can do together.

 

[TomGadwa1]

Tools or the manuals?

 

[travisj]

I went from a 52” Powermatic contractor’s saw to a 52” PCS 1.75.  I had looked at various saws when I decided to upgrade and the quality of the PCS saw itself is amazing.  The safety feature was secondary to me.  My wife does/did appreciate that portion since my daughters liked to work in the shop with me (they were 6 when I got the saw).

At our old house I had the space and had the saw perpendicular to the wall with the extension table right up to the wall.  We have moved and the saw is in the same position, but my shop is now 15’ by 15’.  I have it positioned so the infeed of longer items would require me to open the French doors into my garage. 

I have thought about converting it down to the 36” rails, however I would miss the table space.  The extra length is nice to line up your pieces to be cut.  I also like the fact that there is plenty of room to slide the fence out of the way instead of removing it when I am using a sled or longer crosscuts with a miter.  To some extant the table is similar to a radial arm saw or a treadmill (a place that junk gravitates to as storage), but if you have the space, go big.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Mario Turcot]

Question guys. I know I want the 3hp PCS. but do I want the 52 or 36. I have a standard two car garage. I have noticed the popular choice is 36. I am leaning toward 36 as well. I have read owners downgrading from 52 to 36.  Thoughts guys?

If you plan to add router capability to your saw go for the 36" or make sure that the extension of the 52" you are looking at can fit a router. Usually with the 36" saws, you can buy an extension specifically for the router. You can also add another extension to a 52" but it will be called a monster of a table saw  [eek] This setup is useful if you don't want to use the saw fence with the router. My 52" saw comes with a torsion box like extension, so I cannot setup a router unless I modify the extension. The good thing is that I have a pretty flat surface for small assembly

Mario

 

[cpw]

Question guys. I know I want the 3hp PCS. but do I want the 52 or 36. I have a standard two car garage. I have noticed the popular choice is 36. I am leaning toward 36 as well. I have read owners downgrading from 52 to 36.  Thoughts guys?

If you plan to add router capability to your saw go for the 36" or make sure that the extension of the 52" you are looking at can fit a router. Usually with the 36" saws, you can buy an extension specifically for the router. You can also add another extension to a 52" but it will be called a monster of a table saw  [eek] This setup is useful if you don't want to use the saw fence with the router. My 52" saw comes with a torsion box like extension, so I cannot setup a router unless I modify the extension. The good thing is that I have a pretty flat surface for small assembly

Mario

It's not very hard to modify the torsion box extension.  For my router setup, I cut the hole for the lift, then routed it out using a template.  I used the sawstop itself to dado for the featherboard slot, and a router for the t-track to attach fences.  The one mistake I made was having it too close to the edge; so the fence can be a pain to adjust out of the way.