SawStop - Industrial Cabinet Saw (ICS31230: 3 hp, 1 phase, 230 V, 13 A) (Rating: 5)

I purchased this table saw in early April 2010 and it arrived in early-mid May 2010. The delay, I found out later, was due to the fact that SawStop was making a transition to the new, upgraded industrial cabinet saw. Anyway, when the saw arrived, I was pleased to find out that SawStop had upgraded me to the new dust collection shroud, blade guard, and lock down throat plate for free.

There have been several very detailed reviews of the SawStop Industrial Cabinet Saw here at LumberJocks, so I have decided to include pictures and some brief thoughts. I don't have the breadth of knowledge in regards to table saws that I know many of you have, so I will keep it simple and try to add something about the upgraded dust collection.

Here are some general shots of the saw as it is orientated in my shop:






Easy to use hand wheels and on/off switch:


A nice place to hang the blade wrenches and blade guard/splitter/riving knife:


A nice place to store the miter gauge when not in use:


The cast iron top (with the new upgraded lock down zero clearance insert):


The rip fence:


The extension wing with Woodpecker router lift dropped in:








The fence I built for my router table:








Upgraded dust shroud (and yes, I'm showing off my Forrest Woodworker II, best blade ever!):




Upgraded dust collection blade guard:






Finally, the table saw sled I built (based on the one by John White from Fine Woodworking):








Some thoughts:

The upgraded dust collection blade guard works great. I would agree with SawStop's claim that the blade guard, in conjunction with the below the table dust shroud, captures about 99% of the dust generated. The only exception that I have found is when I am taking less that an 1/8" to clean up an edge, there is a significant amount of sawdust that escapes back out the front of the blade guard (towards the user). Still, this is nothing compared to a table saw that does not have this feature.

The lock down throat plate works very well. I don't have any experience using the old version, so I cannot compare the two.

The riving knife is one of the coolest features. I would go as far to say that no table saw should be without a true riving knife.

As they say, the fit and finish were excellent. Things were aligned very well; the blade-to-miter was within .001" and the fence-to-miter was within .005" along the entire length of the rip fence, on both sides, and with both miter slots.

The "coin" test was pretty cool. I balanced a penny (which was a very difficult penny to balance in the first place) and turned the saw on. The penny didn't budge, not even a little. This is a very smooth running saw.

In Conclusion:

This is a great table saw, the best I have ever had the opportunity to work with. My first table saw was a Jet hybrid, and this is a huge step up from that.

I hope you have found this review useful and welcome any questions/comments.

Steve