Shop Talk

SawStop JSS-MCA Jobsite Table Saw Review, Meet the World’s Safest Portable Table Saw

Posted by Mallory Kramer on January 30, 2015

Ultimate Safety. Maximum Performance. Total Portability.

SawStop Now Offers the JSS-MCA Jobsite Table Saw, the Most Advanced Portable Table Saw Yet

SawStop has just released a new jobsite table saw combining the safety and innovation you’d expect from SawStop, with the kind of portability that hasn’t been available until the release of this unit. Offering an unparalleled safety system, superior performance and total portability, the new JSS-MCA jobsite table saw is, quite literally, the most advanced jobsite table saw ever built.

SawStop’s JSS-MCA jobsite table saw is sleek, powerful, accurate and easy-to-use. Couple those perks with the fact that this saw weighs just 79-lbs (108-lbs with the cart), and offers the industry’s most trusted (and coveted) safety system, and you’re looking at a truly miraculous piece of machinery. Though the saw is a few pounds heavier than the lightest jobsite saws, the soundness and elegance of it’s construction speak for themselves. The saw is built to work better, and those few pounds allow it to do so.

If you’re new to SawStop, please allow me just one moment to explain the safety system: in a nutshell, the blade’s safety brake carries a small electrical signal. When something conductive makes contact with the blade, your finger, for example, the current your own body carries will trigger the brake within milliseconds of that contact. The blade stops instantly, and drops below the saw table ensuring an accident that may have otherwise resulted in the loss of your finger, will now result in a minor scratch. In fact, the saw blade will stop so quickly, it may not even draw blood. After more than a decade in the industry, this brake system boasts a zero-percent failure rate. Meaning, it doesn’t mess around. Offering dependable safety to users all over the country, SawStop’s brake system has revolutionized the way we can work with a table saw.

But don’t let all that talk of conductivity trick you into thinking the saw can’t be a multi-material cutting machine; it can. The saw includes a bypass switch allowing you to effectively disengage the brake system. This allows you to cut materials that would otherwise trigger the cartridge. The saw’s up-front control box includes this bypass switch, the largest start/stop switch on saws of this category, and a light system designed to reflect the saw’s status. So- when you need to cut metal or other conductive materials, simply switch off the electric brake.

In addition to a fool-proof safety system, SawStop also delivers a superior performance machine and, often manages to sneak a handful of slick innovations into it’s design. For instance, while other table saws require as many as 25 turns to raise or lower the saw blade, the JSS-MCA allows you to very precisely set the blade, and to fully raise or lower it with only one rotation. Yes; just one turn. Attached to the same knob, is the saw’s quick tilt feature which allows you to adjust the blade angle in one degree increments. The JSS-MCA also offers infinite micro-adjustability for fine-tuning each cut angle.

SawStop has additionally outfitted this thing with a super smooth fence – and when I say super smooth, I mean, really, the thing glides. The T-style fence reduces deflection ensuring the kind of accuracy you could only hope to find on a larger cabinet saw. It locks and unlocks easily with the ErgoLock button, and with a simple turn of an integrated knob on top of the fence, you can eject an on-demand shelf to add extra material support when you need it. The saw table also offers an extension allowing you a full 25-1/2-inch rip capacity. The extension moves smoothly, and the clamp locks and unlocks easily.

The SawStop JSS-MCA jobsite table saw also boasts a sleek, low profile micro blade guard which offers a clear line of sight to the blade as well as kickback prevention. Users can alternate between the riving knife and the micro guard with just the flip of a lever, and, because the guard is not generally intrusive, you’ll be more likely to keep it attached to the saw – you know, as you should. If you don’t, though, SawStop has also outfitted this machine with an on-board (and very convenient) storage drawer to keep all your accessories close-at-hand and safely stowed. There’s also a holster for the fence and for cord storage.

Oh, yeah. And remember how it’s portable? The JSS-MCA comes with a pedal-activated folding cart with large 8-inch multi-terrain wheels. The thing is built to maneuver the many surfaces of jobsite life, and to offer you the safest, most superior cutting action of any jobsite saw in the world. That a pretty tall order, but the SawStop JSS-MCA delivers. Altogether, the machine is, yes, a miracle. Its a gorgeous machine with the chops to become your most favorite, most trusted cutting tool. See below for a long list of technical specs: