For shed builders, the components that contribute to the finished product can also impact the people who utilize them each day. That happens to be the case for the table saws that are needed to complete these outdoor structures.
In this article, Shed Business Journal spoke with two sources to share some thoughts on the reasons behind their selections.
SAFETY, OTHER FEATURES
When it comes to table saws, J & S Better Built Barns in Zwingle, Iowa, which offers customizable portable buildings, sticks to SawStop.
“It’s a fairly popular brand,” says owner Joas Troyer. “Table saws are one of the most dangerous components for a shop. When you push the wood through, they have this really cool feature. If your hand hits the saw blade it activates an emergency system. At the same time, the saw blade falls away within milliseconds.”
Troyer recommends a YouTube video that demonstrates the safety feature using a hot dog to simulate a finger.
“It’s very user-friendly and safe,” he says about the saw. “I don’t want any guys losing a finger. It has activated on two different occasions due to hardwood warping, which will also activate it. If it happens once a year and a guy doesn’t cut his finger off, that’s a no-brainer. These are the only saws we have in the shop.”
Other features he appreciates include the slide that lets you adjust the width of the wood.
“All those parts wear well, like the tape measure in the front and the replaceable parts,” says Troyer. “They are very parts-oriented. The parts are reasonably priced and there is the safety side of it. The saw has a very good configuration for the motor power and the saw speed. It’s very well-designed that way.”
Their shop has had these saws for about three years now.
“We went with them from the get-go. We bought them thinking about safety,” he says.
In addition to the YouTube video, Troyer also mentions a video from an individual that shows the safety feature in action: “You can watch it in slow motion. It’s pretty impressive.”
That safety feature makes this table saw the right pick for their needs.
“It would be really hard for companies to compete against that,” says Troyer. “You can’t put a value on people’s limbs, especially the people working for you every day.”
IN SHOP, ON-SITE
In Singer, California, Golden State Buildings, which provides sheds and garages among other structures, also uses SawStop in addition to DEWALT table saws for different situations.
“The battery-powered table saws from DEWALT work well for onsite work because the hand saws are portable,” says Robert Ulrich, general manager. “For the shop, we use the electric SawStop whenever we can. The ones with no safety shutoff are dangerous, but SawStop does not make a small portable saw, so we use DEWALT for job sites.”
As Ulrich explains, the battery-powered saws work well for small onsite projects.
“You can take a battery with you and you’re not dragging cords or looking for a power source. They’re good for small trim work. You can make quite a few cuts with the battery that will last maybe five minutes with constant cutting,” he says.
SawStop has more to offer for them in the shop.
“It has a really good fence system with a clamp where you would place the bar that goes across the table to guide you and run the material through. I like their measuring system and the stability of that guide,” says Ulrich. “The saw saved us with two incidences where we had two different employees get too close to it and snap off. It’s paid off.”
They keep some replacement cartridges on hand for the saws that also stop when they sense materials like pressure-treated wood that gets wet.
“It’s expensive to replace a saw, but it damages only three teeth in the blade,” he explains.
“When we purchased it, we were a smaller company and there was a lot of expense to justify having it here, but it’s totally worth the expense. Saws are known as a dangerous tool, so it’s worth it to upgrade, whether you’re a small shop or a big shop.”
