Bosch Reaxx Review – The Future of Table Saws is Here Today

Last year we had a chance to take a look at the revolutionary new Bosch Reaxx Table Saw.  Well the Reaxx saw is finally here and we had a chance to take a look at one first hand.  However before I go on, I know some people will argue that this saw is not revolutionary because there is a company called SawStop and they had this protection for a while.  This is true, but the Bosch table saw does it in a different way and personally I think a much better way.  This article is not suppose to compare the two against each other, I am here to talk about the Bosch Reaxx Review and give you our opinion and our overview of this saw.  While the Bosch Reaxx Table saw is revolutionary and protects the user, it is also important to talk about the saw.  After all, hopefully you will be using the saw a lot more than the Active Response Technology that protects the user.

For me, Bosch is one of the main leaders in the power tool world.  They make incredible tools like table saws, miter saws, test & measurement tools, concrete tools and a ton more.  So right off the bat, before we even received this saw, my expectations were extremely high of this saw.  Knowing Bosch, I was expecting this saw to be the Cadillac of table saws.  I was just hoping I didn’t over think this too hard, only to get let down.  Kind of like when you are excited to see a movie and the previews are awesome, only to spend the money and find out the movie was a disappointment.  I know I should go into the whole review before I tell you my honest opinion, but I can’t hold back.  This isn’t only the Cadillac of table saws, but it’s the ultra gold edition of Cadillac, simply awesome.  Here is why I love this saw.

Bosch Reaxx Review – Set Up

I noticed right away when I opened the box, that Bosch doesn’t only take their tools seriously, but also their packaging.  The saw is fully protected right from the factory, so no worries about getting a box that is damaged during freight and having to deal with broken parts.  Everything had a place and was protected by Styrofoam.   Because I am such an anal person, I unpackaged everything and put it in a proper place for assembly.  The nuts and bolts had two different packages.  One to put the stand together and another to attach the table saw to the stand.  The directions were just as easy to follow.  Simple steps with nice pictures (which I love, I just wish they had pop up pictures for me).  So I grabbed a beer and took my time putting this together.  It took me about 30 minutes to put together, but someone who is focused should expect to get the stand assembled in about 20 minutes.  After I built the stand, it was time to attach the saw to the stand with the four bolts.

Bosch Reaxx Review – The Stand (TS3100) Overview

We couldn’t perform a Bosch Reaxx review without talking about the stand.  If you are familiar with Bosch stands, you know they are some of the best on the market with their gravity upright feature.  For those who have never dealt with a Bosch stand, let me tell you that you will love these stands.  Once assembled, they are some of the easiest stands I have ever used in order to open the stand or close the stand.  There is a red lever (Also, if you are not familiar with Bosch, almost anything red on a Bosch tool means it’s a movable or adjustable part).  All a user has to do is pull the red lever towards them and with your foot, kick out the bottom bar and you can easily set the saw up in a position that is ready for work.  When you are done, just push down on the red lever and lift up a little and the stand will go back into it’s up right position ready for transportation.

Overall the stand is what you would expect from Bosch, it’s quality and sturdy with easy set up.  The parts they use are not junk, they are solid parts that will last years of abuse.  With that being said, I would like to see two changes in the future.  First, I would love a quick disconnect where you can disconnect the saw from the stand.  The saw and the stand weigh in at 133 lbs, which is a great thing when you are making cuts.  However to throw it up on the back of your truck if you are moving jobs will take two people in order to get it on the truck.  A quick disconnect would be ideal so this operation can be performed by one person.  Don’t get me wrong, I would much rather have a heavier saw for stability, so please don’t try to take any of the weight away in future generations.  The second thing I would love with this saw is an optional kick out stand.  It would be great to have a hideaway bar that you can kick out on the back of the saw when making bigger cuts like a sheet of plywood.  The stand is incredible sturdy, but who wouldn’t want a little more stability?  Of course I am sure some guy would trip over this and try to sue.  Bottom line, this is an awesome stand and one of the best we have tested over the years.

Bosch Reaxx Review – First Impressions

Now this may sound weird, but I always like taking a look at a tool before I use it.  Which means I turn it on, look at the options and features of a tool and more.  My first impression brought a smile to my face because you can tell this was well thought out and made with premium materials.  Bosch didn’t seem to cut any corners when they designed this saw.  Everything has a place for storage such as the power cord, the push stick and kick back accessories.  When you turn on the saw, it has a nice soft start, but you can tell right away this thing has plenty of power to get any job done.  As a note, the saw does have a little different sound to it compared to other saws, but don’t worry, it has nothing to do with the performance.  It has to do with the Active Response technology.  The fence is amazing.  While it’s easy to read the numbers, Bosch hit it on the head with the most important aspect, the locking feature.  The fence glides nice from point A to point B, but once you lock it down, it stays in place, no matter what.  I tried to push the back side of the fence to see if I could get it to move, but it doesn’t.  I would pretty much have to take a sledge hammer to move it once it’s locked down.  Speaking of the fence, this isn’t one of the cheap lightweight fences, this thing is solid.  Even the rear outfeed is solid.  Bosch uses two solid pieces of metal rods, not the hollow junk we have seen on other saws.  This is huge because you know this will take a lot of the weight at the end of your cuts.  Even the miter gauge is top quality.  I have seen plenty of miter gauges that are just flimsy pieces of plastic.  The Bosch is plastic, but a quality, thick plastic.

Bosch Reaxx Review – Stats of the Saw

As you would expect, this bad boy is run on 120V and harnesses a 4 amp motor, which is a work horse.  The no load speed is 3,650.  As far as the amps, it has 15 amps.  Bosch designed this saw with a 10″ blade, which is industry standard with these table saws.  As far as Dado, you can put up to a 13/16″ with 8″ or less.  As with other saws, this has a 5/8″ arbor, so your other blades you already own will fit this saw.  The table top will extend a width of 41-1/2″ with a rip fence to the right of 25″.  The overall table dimensions are 29-3/4″ x 22-3/8.  Okay all cool, so how about the rip capacity?  At a 90° you can cut up to 3-1/8″ and at 45° it’s 2-1/4″.  As far as the bevel range, you can make a bevel cut from 2° to 47°.  As I said earlier, this saw has some weight to it.  The saw weighs 78 lbs, the stand is 45 lbs and the outfeed is 10 lbs.  So what comes with this saw?

• Reaxx Jobsite Table Saw
• TS3100 Gravity Rise Stand
• TS1016 Rear Outfeed
• 40 Tooth Blade
• Dual Activation Cartridge
• Miter Gauge
• Rip Fence
• Smart Guard System
• Push Stick
• Dual Actuation Cartridge Wrench
• Multifunction Blade Wrench
• Adjustment Wrench

Bosch Reaxx Review – Active Response Technology

Now we couldn’t do a Bosch Reaxx review without covering one of the center pieces to this table saw and that is the Active Response Technology that keeps a user safe.  Now with that said, you still have to understand this is a table saw and a table saw can do serious damage to a human.  While this helps protect fingers, you still have to be smart when using a saw and also worry about kick backs and other things that can hurt you.  When using a table saw, you have to exercise caution such as not wearing jewelry or baggy clothing that can get caught in the saw.  Okay, now that I have the lawyer stuff out of the way, let’s really talk about the new safety feature.  I call it the five digit safety feature.

So what is the Active Response Technology?  This is a technology that is integrated with the table saw.  Basically if your finger(s) or flesh comes in contact with the blade, the whole arm will instantly drop, protecting you and the saw. How cool is that?  I know you are probably wondering what happens if you cut wet wood?  Well I will get into that later as Bosch has you protected against that also.  Let’s say you are cutting a piece of wood and by accident your finger touches the blade.  Under normal conditions you would be calling 911. With the Bosch a whole chain reaction happens to keep you safe.  Once your finger touches the blade, a signal is sent to an activation cartridge which slams a pin onto the arm of the saw (much like an air bag in your car).  When the pin hits the arm, it drops the blade arm, which drops the blade into the saw protecting your flesh and your blade.  The competitor is a little different.  With the competitor, a brake kicks into the blade preventing damage to your finger.  While the flesh is the most important thing to save, you will need to replace your blade and the whole set up takes a bunch of time.  With the Bosch you get to keep your blade and set up is about 60 seconds.  Personally, I will take the Bosch any day over the SawStop.

The Bosch offers so much more than the SawStop.  Besides a time saver, the Bosch is much cheaper to own in the long run.  Here are the numbers.

Bosch Saw Cost (Amazon)– $1,499

SawStop Cost (Amazon)– $1,399

You save $100 with the SawStop

Cost of one Activation

Bosch – Cartridge comes in a 2 pack for $109 on Amazon – Cost $54 per activation

SawStop – Brake Cartridge (Amazon) – $69, Cost of new Blade (Amazon) – Average $65  – Total Cost = $134

You save $80 with the Bosch

So as you can see with one activation, they are both about the same price, but again the Bosch offers so much more than the SawStop.  First, you can easily get back to work and save time with the Bosch.  Second, the Bosch stand is about 100 times better than the SawStop stand.  The Bosch has a more powerful motor, 4 hp vs 3 hp.  The fence on the Bosch is awesome.  Another plus to the Bosch saw is Dado cuts.  With the Bosch, you don’t need anything special. With the SawStop you have to spend an extra $89 for the Dado brake to protect you.  So again, not only do you have to spend more money, but you have to spend more time changing the brake each time when you want to use a Dado blade.  I could go on and on, but I think you get the point why I would take the Bosch any day over the SawStop.

We set off the Active Response safety system twice and let me tell you, it rocks.  While it will save your finger and prevent you from going to the ER, you will need another pair of shorts.  Obviously we set off the system on purpose and it still scares you even though you know what is happening.  I could only image it without expecting it.  We were going to do your standard hot dog test, but we had a little issue.  I had the hot dogs sitting out and I was inside the house only to come out and find out Dan ate the dogs.  So we had to improvise and we ended up using a piece of string cheese.  Personally I am glad we did because while a hot dog is still very tender like your finger, it does have a casing around it.  The cheese on the other hand doesn’t, so you can see any imperfection.  Once that cheese hits the blade, that blade drops on a dime.

Bosch Reaxx Review – Set up and Use

Safety is great, but let’s face it you can have all the safety in the world, but you need a solid saw to go along with it or else, what’s the point?  So since we are doing a Bosch Reaxx review we have to look deeper into the saw and past the serious safety feature.  So let’s image this is a normal Bosch saw without the safety feature, is this still worth the money and buying?

The main things I want in a saw, Bosch nailed it home.  First, the unit is solid.  From the first day you take this out of the box and set it up, you can feel it’s a solid saw.  Once you have it on the stand, you can pretty much feel 100% comfortable making any cuts.  The table is solid, the table doesn’t wobble and the whole unit stays in place.  Second, is the fence which I already covered.  The fence is just awesome.  Stays true and stays in place.  You will notice the fence being a little more solid and that is because while it still uses the same inside as the other Bosch fences, this one has plastic plates around it to protect it from accidentally setting off the Active Response feature.  Sliding the fence, the table or the rear feeds are all very smooth.  Once you set any of these in place, you won’t have to worry about them moving when performing a cut.  The motor is strong.  We had a chance to cut through a bunch of different materials, it handles all of them without breaking a sweat.  Yes, we lost some of the footage, but I will let Dan explain that one.  All the accessories are quality.  From the miter gauge to the kick back features, nothing is built cheap.  I love the ease of access for the push stick.  While most manufacturers put their push stick on the side which can make it hard to access when needed, Bosch has it right on the front for easy access.  By now you might be asking yourself if Bosch paid us for this review since I am praising this saw so much.  While I did have a couple things I would like to see changed, I just don’t have anything I can knock this for and to answer your question, no Bosch did not pay us.  This is just one of those products I truly believe in and truly believe it deserves high praise because it’s that high of quality.

Now the one thing we didn’t get to try out was the app.  Bosch has an Android and iPhone app.  While the Android app is out as of this posting date, the iPhone one isn’t.  From what I heard, the Android app has some more features.  I love being able to control certain aspects of tools from my phone.  Here is the big question, what happens if you cut wet wood or something with metal, will it set it off?  The answer is yes, it can be set off.  However if you know you are cutting something that could set it off, there is a by pass.  On the left hand side of the saw, you can press a button while turning on the saw.  Once the saw is on, release the button and you bypassed the safety feature.  Once you are done cutting wet wood, just turn the saw off and the saw is reset, so the next time you turn it on, the safety feature is active.

Bosch Reaxx Review – Conclusion

I have to say the Bosch Reaxx review was a little hard to write for a couple of reasons.  First, when you hear what the saw can do to protect the user and you here it’s built by Bosch, really what else do you need to know?  For me it’s a done deal, I am sold.  However I want to tell you everything about this, but I don’t want to bore you with all the little details.  So hopefully I found a happy medium for you and gave you a little background about this saw.  For me, this saw is a no-brainer.  I understand it’s built for the contractor and it’s built to take the abuse of jobsites, but for me, this is the table saw everyone should own.  Well maybe not the 80 year old who doesn’t use table saws.  For the rest of us who has a use for a table saw, this is a must have.  Besides having the top of the line safety feature above anyone else, this saw is incredible.  It’s powerful, it’s built like a tank and it’s accurate.  It’s a saw any contractor or homeowner should own.  You should buy one today.  Seriously, what are you waiting for?  Here is the link – Buy the Bosch Reaxx Table Saw today.  Don’t forget to get an extra cartridge – Bosch Reaxx Replacement Cartrdiges