We Tested SawStop 9 Times in Slow-Mo – Here's What Happened

Nine activations left minor damage

A SawStop five-horsepower ICS stopped a hot dog thrown as hard as a person can punch, and the cut reached only an eighth of an inch [04:31]. The creator's claim that a PCS or jobsite model would do better was not tested, and the dado results come from a single saw [04:03].

The test results and the brake mechanism

SawStop brake system. The blade carries a three-volt signal that the saw's computer monitors. Touching the blade lowers that signal's amplitude, which fires a spring-loaded aluminum crumple zone into the blade within a fraction of a second [02:43]. The brake stops a standard two-pound blade at about 1,000 g's of force [03:11]. Nine activations on this model produced minor damage or none [07:42]. The brake cartridge still takes damage on each firing, which is why replacement is part of ownership [02:07].

Dado stack activation. A dado stack weighs five to eight pounds, which means roughly 2.8 to 4 times the force of a standard blade [05:23]. The cartridge is taller and wider to absorb that load. The creator also reports a frame captured on camera during one dado stop, though the transcript describes it without detail [05:52].