Thread: Buying a sawstop in the US

They are available here Sawstop contractors saw - Australia & New Zealand | GABBETT MACHINERY - Woodworking Machinery Sales Australia & New Zealand

BUT, by the time you buy it you can get one of the cheaper Euro sliding saws or even an Asian one. After all the SS is when all said and done is an attempt to make a table saw as safe as a slider. Of course the biggest issue with a slider is the largish are it occupies.

From what I understand, Gabbett only have the contractor and industrial cabinet available, but I may be wrong and yes I went to see a Hammer K3 today and was very impressed. For the same amount of money, I'd rather have a European machine. No one in the US is willing to sell me a Sawstop anyway.

If you go the 60Hz US route, then run it here at 50Hz, the motor will run about 16.6% slower than the designed US speed as will the arbour and blade. This is because the motor speed is related to input frequency.

More critical is the fact that as a single phase motor, it will be using capacitor start with a centrifugal switch to engage /disengage the start winding. The switch normally switches the start windings out at about 80% of nominal motor speed, but your nominal speed here is about 83% of the US design nominal speed, the the start winding dropout point will be very close to the nominal speed of the motor. In this case, loading the motor and producing a slight speed drop may energise the start winding and leave it energised for the duration of the cut, which would overheat the winding and lead to eventual motor burnout.

The best approach (short of buying locally) would be to import the machine without motor, fit an uprated local motor and rejig the drive pulleys to recover the arbour speed lost. As an example, if the saw was supplied with 2HP 3300RPM motor in the US and the beltdrive stepped arbour speed up to 4200 RPM (27 % stepup), you would go to a a 2.5 - 3HP 2800 RPM local motor, and change the motor pulley to give a stepup ratio of 50% to get similar arbour RPM and torque to retain original cutting capabilities. But if the original motor is rated at 2.5HP or more, the local equivalent substitute motor would exceed 3HP and need a dedicated power circuit to operate from.

The biggest issue I can with a personal import SS is will all the safety factors work as they do at 60hz or are the machines for use in 50hz markets different to those in 60hz markets. There are quite a lot of electronic gadgetry in them to enable the safety aspects that they are based on.

Yes, I understand thanks. I'm not going to go to all the trouble to get the Sawstop I want, so it's Hammer time!

Originally Posted by loggerhead

Yes, I understand thanks. I'm not going to go to all the trouble to get the Sawstop I want, so it's Hammer time!

Yes Loggerhead I went down the same road as you have done. In 2011 we went down to Brisbane for the WWWS and looked at Gabbets before the show to see a SS. By the time I optioned out just the contractors saw it was near enough to $6000 or better. Brendan had a Minimax slider on the floor beside the SS do I asked how much? It was cheaper then the SS. What followed was another year of research etc. our hammer K3 comfort will be in Brisbane in a week. Optioned out and delivered for around $8000. A bit of a wait unless you buy the show model tho.
Only one problem tho, my wife and I are in the US visiting her folks for another 4 weeks darn it, cant wait to get home and set it up.