July 22, 2009

SawGear

Remember how Luke would put R2-D2 in the X-Wing and the little robot would essentially take over all the heavy lifting? Luke would sort of pretend to fly, but we all knew it was R2 that was making all the important decisions. That's sort of what the SawGear does to you and your miter saw. The tool, which made its big debut at this year's AWFS in Vegas, looks like it wants to take over all the measuring and marking, leaving you with only the brainless task of making the cut.

The tool is essentially three parts, a little computer unit, a rail, and a small carriage with a stop that runs along the rail. The SawGear attaches to your miter saw stand, and then after what looks like a quick and easy calibration, you just punch in the measurement that you want to cut and watch the carriage zip over to that distance and create a stop for your lumber.

The SawGear is smart enough to cut miters (no word on bevels though), and it can work in fraction or decimals. It can also evade a squadron of TIE fighters and lob rockets successfully into the Death Star's thermal exhaust port.

Over at the SawGear website they're saying that the tool can cut job completion times by 25%, which is quite a claim. Can it really eliminate one day of a week long project? If this is true, or even if they're exaggerating and the number is something like 10%, it's still a huge dollar amount that you carpenters out there could be potentially saving.

It's a cool idea and we're interested to see how it does in the marketplace. The $3000 price tag is going to scare away most homeowners, so it's up to the carpenters to make or break this one. Like we said, it'll be interesting. It seems to us that the majority of carpenters are tradition-bound and are likely to be suspicious of something that will take away their ability to mark out incredibly over-sized crows feet. But we did hear that a number of units were already sold at the AWFS, which speaks to how impressive this tool must be in person. At most trade shows, we'll happily lay down a hundred bucks (mostly at the bar), but to be inspired enough to drop a few grand, that must be a pretty impressive tool.

Purchase, videos and a ton more information over at SawGear

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