Set off a Saw Stop

@Moses Yoder, 
Does the blade also retract (drop) below the table surface when triggered, like they do on the Bosch saws?

It wasn't explicitly mentioned in your post but I am assuming that the saw was running then the trigger occurred?

I triggered mine.  Touched the blade with an aluminum tapering jig and my hand was on the jig but not near the blade.  Cost me a cartridge, the blade was OK.  I think I might make a wooden jig.  It is fast, unbelievably fast, the blade stops and drops below the table faster than an eye blink.

All your questions answered: there are dozens of youtube videos showing saw stops being triggered.

THe blade does drop under the table when the stop is triggered.

The saw has to be running for it to be triggered. I know better than to set a piece on the saw and measure it with the saw running, just get a little complacent after 40 years. I have never gotten a finger in the saw. 

I don' really know anything at all about the drive components on the saw; that would be a question for the engineers that designed it.

I don't own a SawStop but if I was 50 years younger I certainly would be considering it or equivalent. However, I have read several times that the SawStop construction is very beefy to handle the stresses of it being fired off.

Moses wrote:  The saw has to be running for it to be triggered.

Not completely true....If the blade is drifting down to a stop even with the switch off the saw will trigger.  The logic is that even a slowing blade could do serious damage.

Ralph Lipeles wrote:

... So, I now use feather boards, hold downs and wooden push rods so do not see the need for the complex Saw Stop.

IMO, the SawStop is not intended so you can do cutting without taking the usual sensible precautions such as you described. It is there to stop the accidental (dare, I say dumb) things we do from time to time. Over the years, I've read lots of posts that began with something like, "I've been doing this for 25 years without an accident but today without thinking", I reached beside the blade" or 'I only needed to make 1 quick cut", or ....
Obviously, your brain is important but I do not subscribe to the "it will always keep you safe" theory, it has a bad habit of wandering while doing things.

I covered the "don't need a Saw Stop table saw" in a thread in the hand tool forum about your favorite tools. Obviously it is not necessary to have a Saw Stop, probably about the worst that would happen is you lose some fingers and you can live just fine without fingers. It's not like you are going to lose a foot or a leg and even then millions of people live without legs.

@Moses Yoder,

Who needs Sawstop. 'Tis but a flesh wound.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UijhbHvxWrA

Moses Yoder wrote:

I covered the "don't need a Saw Stop table saw" in a thread in the hand tool forum about your favorite tools. Obviously it is not necessary to have a Saw Stop, probably about the worst that would happen is you lose some fingers and you can live just fine without fingers. It's not like you are going to lose a foot or a leg and even then millions of people live without legs.

I don't know how to take this comment. Yes, cutting off your fingers is not likely to be fatal nor is it the worst thing that can happen. However, why would you be so cavalier about losing fingers?
My wife broke her wrist in her non-dominant arm about 7 months ago and it was reset fine. It was amazing the number of things she was unable to do, even simple things like taking the cap off a bottle of water. She also experiences presumably nerve pain that has not gone away and her grip is weaker now. Her sense of touch is not 100% and I know this is a problem for people who have just seriously cut but not lost fingers in TS accidents.  The problems my wife is dealing with are not unlike what a person who has lost their finger(s) would experience. 
Her accident was a rather common-place accident. I know if I told her, If you give me the price of a premium SawStop machine, I'll make it as if your accident didn't happen, she would do it immediately.
BTW, this accident has made me much more aware of the problems faced by those who have various disabilities and I admire them for carrying-on.

@Bill Howatt,

For those of us who still have one, I think Moses may have been pulling our leg a bit by trying to be humorously controversial.  If not, then the joke is on me...and the Black Knight.

I have read the Sawstop patent will be running out in a few years. My understanding is they tried to license it to the existing major manufacturers of table saws, but none were interested, So, they created their own Brand and saws with a heavy markup to cover their development costs. 

When the patent expires, I wonder what will happen? Will all manufacturers start including that as a standard feature?  Due to economies of scale and no need to recoup R&D costs, it would not increase the manufacturing costs of their saws by much. And by not including it, would they be more liable in lawsuits by those who lost fingers for deliberately not including easily available technology that could have prevented the injury?

And what if governments mandated the technology had to be included in all saws, just like the numerous electrical safety regulations that must be sold in a country?

I have a friend who cut off the four fingers on his right hand.  His wife took him to the ER in a panic.  They failed to take the fingers with them.  Up to that moment he WAS a dentist, a very successful dentist.   His  life went into a downward spiral and his wife left.  I told him about SawStop technology.  You should have seen the look on his face.  He will be happy to tell you SawStop is cheap, very cheap.  

I am not sure if other companies will adopt the technology.  It requires some significant changes in the gut of the saw.

I too wondered if it was a "leg pulling", thus my first sentence but just in case, I thought it worthwhile to include how a minor incident can have a much more dramatic, and even lifetime effect, after the original healing.
Years ago, there was mention or speculation about a government mandate given all the TS accidents. Turned into a giant internet flame war on many sites with the often quoted, "the government isn't going to tell me what to do about anything".
I think that as more vendors adopt it and perhaps gets the price down a bit there is a chance that this or similar technology will get adopted but it will take a long time.  Unfortunately, this gets tempered with the fact that there are many users who won't even use a relatively inexpensive blade guard.

if you search the post I referenced in another thread I essentially say that if you are well trained on how to use a table saw then you don't need a saw stop. I was taught very well in tenth grade plus I grew up around shop tools like table saws and jointers at home. I have used table saws almost daily for 40 years without ever cutting myself on one. 

The Saw Stop is invaluable for new users that are just being taught how to use a saw. Imagine all the millions of fingers cut off because of table saw accidents and none of them would have happened if they all had the Saw Stop mechanism. I'm absolutely positive OSHA is going to push to make the mechanism mandatory for industry. 

I am opposed to government mandated safety measures, strongly opposed, but having them as an option if people want to spend the money for them in a free market is great.

According to the Journeyman HQ site:

Despite young people being more at risk for table saw injuries, the average age of injury was 55, with most patients aged between 27 and 80. 

This doesn't directly address experience level and covers all types of table saw injuries but it likely indicates that experienced people are not immune.

Accidents due to human error are caused by inexperience or complacency. Complacency is often the larger factor, as inexperienced people are often extra careful. Most car crashes happen within one mile of home. "I'm almost there, everything will be OK." Most troops are killed in the weeks before being sent home from a combat deployment (or the first few weeks, about 50/50). 

I think it, like most things, follows the Praedo Principle, where 20 percent of accidents are by new users and 80 percent by experienced ones--the higher number due to complacency and the odds of "your number eventually coming up."