I'm sorry but also very relieved to say that the brake on the Sawstop worked for me. I've run tens of thousands of board feet of wood through table saws and am fortunate to have never been injured. Recently I was resawing a board and was doing an initial pass with the blade set half way through the board. Whenever I make such an initial cut, I'm not too worried about the blade since it is set inside the wood. This time, however, I neglected to lock the fence in place. As I moved the wood through the cut, the fence slowly drifted to the point where it began to feather out the side, right where one of my fingers was draped over the wood. My sense of what happened next was of the saw stopping dead as a doornail, with no physical sensation whatsoever. It took me several seconds to realize what had happened: the blade was seized by the brake and dropped into the housing of the saw. My left middle finger would have lost some serious flesh on any other saw. In this incident, there was not even a scratch.

When my husband first bought his fancy SawStop (on my birthday-how in the H*@# did that happen??) the salesman told us that if the gadget that makes the saw stop before you lose a digit engages you'll need to buy a new part. He said, "It's a couple hundred bucks." I said, "Our co-pay at the ER would be cheaper than that!!" The part wasn't nearly as expensive what the salesman said which was a happy surprise. He didn't almost cut off his finger by the way, I think the wood he was cutting was too wet.

You know how some women go on their family computer and sudden get all these pop-ups of naked women? For 2 years I kept getting pop-ups of table saws. Daily pop-ups or table saws of all makes and models. He told me about this anti-finger loss device on the SawStop saw. I thought it was a great idea but wondered if it was a good saw or just an okay saw with the finger thing. He said all the reviews said it's a great saw. His first table saw was a small, tabletop, craftsman I gave him for Valentines Day 25+ years ago. He said he didn't want to buy a SawStop without actually seeing one in person. I found a dealer in Savannah and insisted we go look. To be honest, I was tired of hearing about freaking table saws. A woman can only stand so much. We went and looked at the saw. He was hemming and hawing over the price. Granted, it was pricey, but for God's sake the last one lasted 25 years and it cost $100!!!! Splurge on a saw!!

He loves the saw!! It's precise. It's blah blah blah blah wonderful. He shows it off to other guys. Other guys are impressed. When Tybee was flooding I looked out back to the workshop bigger than all of our bedrooms combined and the water was steadily rising. I told him, "Just don't look. I'm afraid your saw may be in dire danger." He took a peek and he whimpered. The flood came within 2 inches of breaching the workshop. Forget anything else getting wet!! The saw is safe hallelujah!!!

Met expectations, would recommend

Great product saved my fingers.

The brake works ok. As one would expect from an original spare part, especially if it comes from a brand like SawStop.
Mine tripped while cutting wood from a tree that was cut two weeks ago. While I felt frustrated because I had to replace the brake and the blade, I have learned not to cut that kind of wood and grateful to see the saw protects me, although, in this case, it was not necessary. I prefer it to be overprotective.
And yes, as you just read, I had to change my original SawStop blade, because it lost three of its tooth tips.