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This thread went a very different direction than I intended. But not I don't consider it a bad direction.
My decision to upgrade my saw was driven by a trip to the ER after an incident with a direct drive big box store $50 used saw.
Luckily I set it up as well as possible and it left my thumb basically in tact. But it could have been so much different.

And as the shop teacher at the school where I work says, "it's ALWAYS the left hand" So far he's been 100% correct.
Band saw, table saw, hand saw. doesn't matter. I shouldn't be near any of them.
And if I had the cash for a Saw Stop... I'd still probably get my kid a car so I could quit driving him to every practice, game, gig, event, and date he needs a ride for.

As I wrote this, I went and took another table saw cutting lesson from our shop teacher. Hesh inspired me. And the lesson, in this school was done on a Saw Stop. Dang they're nice machines.

When I bought my SawStop, I looked at the portable models they had at the time and decided that they didn’t meet my needs for repeatable precision. So, I bought the least expensive cabinet saw. It is a way better saw than I expected. As I said above, I was able to get way more precision in my cuts than I had ever had before. When I first put it together, I got out my gauges intending to align the trunnion. I didn’t have to change a thing. It came aligned from the factory.

I had intended to hot wire it to use the fretting saw blades. If you want to know how, I decided it would be best not to tell you. Then I discovered that the 6.5” blades aren’t the only game in town. I had the Blade MFG Company make be a 10” fret slotting blade. I told them what I wanted and that it needed to cut a .023” kerf. At the time, it cost me around $130. They cut down a .070” blank on the perimeter to make it, so the blade needed no stiffeners. When I received the blade, it cut a .021” kerf. Rather than send it back, I put a .001” set, alternating, on each tooth. It works wonderfully, better than the 6.5” blades in that the larger blade heats more slowly and dissipates heat more rapidly, so the edge doesn’t get wiggly like in the smaller blades.

Both that blade and the 40 tooth Freud blade that I use on the saw cut a thinner kerf than is recommended by SawStop, their worry being that the thinner blade is more likely to deform hitting the aluminum stop block and thus not stop as fast. I haven’t tested (maybe when I wear out the Freud blade and feel rich enough to replace the stop mechanism I’ll try it—I’d be happy to hear if someone else has run the experiment) their recommendation. My examination of the the mechanism and the blade made me feel that the Freud blade, at least, would brake pretty well. The slotting blade has so little blade exposed above my sled (and I’m so scared of touching it) that I don’t worry about the effectiveness of the brake.

In my opinion, the saw is worth the extra expense.

For those who have the money the saw stop is not a bad investment.
I have more table saws than I need, but the most used are an old Unisaw I could carry up the hill (in pieces) to my shop and a jet contractor saw (on wheels) that is in a shed that I roll out when working al fresco. I have since been given another Unisaw and may use it in place of the jet.
The Unisaw, being a cabinet saw, has a small footprint - the top without extensions is about 20X27 inches and the motor is mounted below. It's on a mobile base and can be pushed into a corner when necessary. Like most power tools care is needed then using it. The "accidents " I have had with tablesaws would not have been prevented by using a saw stop. Many years ago I was cutting a short block of wood using poor technique and the rear of the blade caught the block and crushed my thumb between the block and fence. Painful and a little bloody, but no permanent injury. Another near miss was when a long thin offcut trapped between the blade and fence was launched like an arrow through the wall behind me. Luckily I was not standing in its path (and it taught me to stand off to one side of the blade and fence). The worst injury I've had was from a portable beltsander which ground off the end of my finger (and finger bone) before it could be unplugged. All tools can be dangerous - even hand tools. The saw stop can only save you from certain types of injuries, but they are often the most debilitating.
As I've gotten older I use more featherboards and push sticks when possible. One thing I like about tablesaws is the blade is stationary, unlike radial arm saws, circular saws, and chop saws. I move the work into the blade, rather than the blade moving into the work. For many cuts the blade only needs to be raised slightly above the material being cut which can mitigate an injury somewhat if your hand is in the path of the blade.
There have been books written on how to properly use the tablesaw, often with suggestions for making jigs and fixtures for doing the work more safely that even "old dogs" can learn things from.
The table saw is a very versatile tool and one I would hate to do without.

I use a small Bosch table saw with a sled for Fretboard slots because I already had it. I use the Saw Stop for everything else. it would be nice to be able to use the SM fret slot blade.

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Don, you can “hack” a Sawstop to run any smaller diameter blade by running a small conductive wire from brake to the proximity of the arbor to fool the proximity sensor. There’s a bunch of threads about this on all the usual woodworking forums as there were guys trying to work out how to run shaper heads or weird size dado stacks. Obviously this is a kludgy work-around and one that compromises the safety system and therefore comes with some risk. I successfully ran a 180mm fret blade in this way. However I went back to slotting by hand as these days I repair full-time and need to slot fewer than 6 boards a year - I can saw the slots in about 10 minutes with a miter box and Japanese handsaw. Meanwhile I’m on the SS daily dimensioning stock for parts and jigs so the real time saving for me is leaving it setup ready to cut at a moments with a good 10” combo blade.

I jokingly call myself a “torts dad,” which anyone who’s taken a year long course on freaks accidents understands. My wife tells me, “let her be a kid!” all the time. I’m also pretty safety conscious in the garage, and particularly so as a board member of the local maker space. Even still (like I described earlier), I definitely have moments where I let my guard down. It isn’t intentional, it’s just natural. I definitely have no regrets with getting the SawStop, particularly bc I think it’s a really good saw. Not going to criticize anyone who doesn’t think it’s the right fit for them though, either.

yeah, they have that concept for some reason, I'm betting any difference in braking would be measured in microseconds...the brake works by blowing a charge and slamming the aluminum "block" into the blade as it also retracts the blade to under the table top...the blade is toast after a trip for various reasons, the least of which is it is now rather dull if not missing a tooth or two and being warped as well, and let's not forget a weakened tooth that might fly off during use!

maybe they're worried that as opposed to a little nick that just needs a touch of disinfectant you'd actually need a band aid, dunno. I've never tripped the charge with my body but I did once when I forgot to disengage the stop feature even though I knew the wood I was ripping felt a tad wet....ooopppsss...I still remember the blue flash of light as the charge went off (at least that's what my brain registered as happening)

Has anyone used a micro table saw for fret slotting?

https://www.byrnesmodelmachines.com/tablesaw5.html

I have the Byrnes saw. Jim has made sleds for quite a few luthiers for this purpose but making your own would be pretty easy. I would have done it by now if I wasn't all set up for using the SM blade on my full size saw. I did purchase the slitting blades from him in case I do set it up for slotting. I do use it for a lot of other luthier stuff like bindings etc. It will cut hardwoods up to 15/16" thick. It's a fantastic, accurate and very well built saw.

I was able to buy a Byrnes table saw used (a rare thing), but I have not used it for fret slotting for the same reason as Darrel. I’m already set up for using the StewMac blade on my larger table saw, and don’t want to mess with something that works this well. I have experimented with thinner slitting blades, and they have a tendency to heat up and warp, making the kerf larger than you planned for. My hesitancy to move to a SawStop is driven in large part by the fact that SawStop saws won’t take the StewMac blade (which excels at this task) and won’t take the smaller Freud Diablo 1/16” wide blades that I use for most guitar related cuts.

And if I have to do a hack around the safety features in order to use the blades that I prefer for almost everything I do with the table saw, then I don’t think paying for the safety features is a good way to spend money. Just my opinion, and subject to change as advances could be made by SawStop to address these shortcomings.

I've heard that about slitting blades Don but have never tried one. If I ever set up the Byrne's saw, I would get one of the 4" blades ground to the right width. I did think the slitting blades might come in handy sometime but they are still shiny new.

Darrel—

My experiments were with my larger saw. If you run slitting blades without blade stabilizers on both sides of the blade, they tend to warp from heat, and get pretty wavy. The LMI fret slotting blades, for instance, really need the stabilizers on both sides, and that leaves very little actual blade sticking out, which is fine for cutting fret slots, but it makes clear how necessary the stabilizers are. I have not done any extensive testing with the slitting blades on my Byrnes saw (they came with the saw when I bought it used), but the problem there is using stabilizers on both sides, when the blades need to fit on that little ledge on the arbor. I am open to working toward figuring it out (maybe by ordering a custom ground blade), but not when I have a system (StewMac blade on a normal table saw) that works great.

Dave,
I'm glad you are liking your table saw, they can be very handy for certain tasks on guitars. As I said in my post earlier, I bought a Laguna 14" SUV bandsaw which tool over the majority of tasks I do on guitars but my table saw is still a valued piece of equipment for me.

One thing I don't think I read was a suggestion to build a sled for your saw. You can find all kinds of designs on the internet so I won't go into building one, but basically it will reduce a lot of issues by supporting your work on both sides of the blade. It will also let you screw jigs and stops to help you do repetitive tasks much better. I am on my 4th or 5th one already (they do wear our if you use it to screw jigs to it. But they can be made in a couple of hours and will transform your saw. Some guys build multiple sleds for specific tasks but one good one will last a few years.

Here is a start on building a simple one with a stop but if you look there are tonnes of designs and ideas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XebIOAaPhhU


Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Bob

EDIT:
I forgot to tell you a couple of "rules" that I always keep in mind every time I use my saw.

1. Only raise the blade above the height of your work as much as you would like to cut yourself. My 9th grade shop teacher told me that and I have never forgotten it.

2. I never let my hands get closer to the blade than 8" and always use push sticks.

I have used a 3 hp unit saw with a Bissmeyer fence for 40 years…
I had a few kickbacks, but fortunately, never hurt myself.
About 15 years ago when I got my big 24 inch Laguna bandsaw .
I also got a panel saw which is the only thing I use now for ripping and cross cutting plywood. It is much safer than a table, saw
I no longer really needed the table saw so the only thing I use it for now is fret slotting with a sled .
I think would be really hard to hurt yourself on it anyway because there’s only the blade sticking up the depth of a fret slot -but I am still vigilant about using it safely.


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