http://www.woodreview.com.au 81TOOLS & EQUIPMENTof solvents. Finally the door would
swing open and slowly a beautiful closet
would emerge from the dark cavernous
depths. This was typical of my father,
from not much came so much.
When I look at the rudimentary safety
gear he used and am reminded that
he was one of the boilermakers who,
for the first 10 years of his working
life maintained the boilers and the
smoke stacks at the BHP steelworks in
Newcastle, I am truly astounded that
when he died he was not missing any
digits or parts thereof. He maintained
excellent workshop practice, always used
fences, guards, push sticks and ‘fingers’
and that is what he practised and
preached for many a year at Newcastle
High School where he was a teacher.
confirmation that I have never suffered
from obsessive compulsive disorder.
The person who was the architect of
the Sawstop owners manuals has OCD
on a level which is unprecedented
in history. It’s a colour coded, large
fonted, fully diagramed step-by-
step extravaganza. My next door
neighbour’s parrot could not put a claw
wrong putting this together.Once the saw and all its ‘add ons’ are
together the biggest challenge is getting
used to pulling the big red button out
(instead of in) to get the thing to go.
Squaring a fence up is always the least
enjoyable chore on my list (besides
levelling a table wing that is) but this was
done with ease using the tools provided.
The sliding table could use some positive
stops but is easily my favourite feature
and that is saying something given the
floating overhead dust extraction means
never having to remove a guard to do
rebates, dados or grooves – bliss! The
blade cover is clear, meaning excellent
visibility at all times and it lifts easily out
of the way if a blade change is necessary.The only pause in the march towards
buying one is perhaps its eye-watering
price but I’m comfortable it reflects the
old adage you get what you pay for. The
quality of the equipment is reflected in
everything down to the OCD manual,
which says that Sawstop marches
to beat of its own drum...such that I
suspect that tumbleweeds are rolling
through the middle of their help desk.
But what you can’t put a price on is that
I will sleep better at night knowing the
SawStop will do as its name suggests...it
will pseudo-self-destruct if my kids or I,
for that matter, accidentally put a pinky
finger in its fangs while it’s raging.* See Safety Plus Performance, Damion
Fauser, AWR#88, also on our website,
see ‘Reviews’.SawStop information and supply from
Carbatec: http://www.carbatec.com.auI became a woodworker in the weeks
and years that have passed since his
death. I was a lawyer. Funnily, the
first people to notice this surprising
development was my credit card
provider. As a lawyer I had a penchant
for Herringbone, Mikimoto, Channel
and Louboutin. When the hits to my
credit card starting rolling in from
Carbatec, Timbecon, Timberbits
and Bunnings it triggered a call from
the credit card company asking if
everything was okay.In the space of two years I had added,
amongst other things, a Jet contractor
tablesaw to Dad’s hand and power tool
collection. I was full steam ahead in
building mode with simple pine cabinets
and kids projects being churned out at a
rate of knots. I vacuumed up beginners
woodworking books like a kid eating
fairy floss at the Easter Show.Eventually I settled down and
embarked on more challenging projects
with more dense (and more expensive)
wood varieties and realised that the
1-3⁄4 horsepowered tablesaw was
literally not going to cut it. I officially
joined the ranks of the power hungry.I concluded that I had entered a more
sensible part of my woodworking
career where I now look at the
number next to the horsepower and
try very hard to understand how that
little number will relate to my daily
activities when I, for instance, offer up
a massive lump of jarrah to its raging
fangs. Will it kill the machine? Will
it kill me? I’d rather not be querying
that. So it is with a sense of graduation
that I have quietly divorced my Jet
Contractor tablesaw. It has done its
job and is relieved of its duties.I purchased a SawStop Professional
Cabinet Saw with a 36" T-Glide rail,
overhead dust extraction and a sliding
table extension. The SawStop motor
has 3hp and eats jarrah for appetisers,
Tasmanian blackwood for mains and
gidgee for dessert.The other unexpected side effect of
owning this machine is that I haveKerryn Carter
with the new
SawStop in
the covered
area next to
her workshop.
Photo: Kerryn
CarterKerryn Carter is a student of furniture making
at Lidcombe TAFE and working as an
apprentice joiner in Sydney.
Email [email protected]