The company was founded in 2000 to manufacture table saws that feature a patented automatic braking system that stops the blade upon contact with skin or flesh.

SawStop, at the time consisting of "three guys out of a barn in Wilsonville", demonstrated a prototype in August 2000[6] at the International Woodworking Machinery and Furniture Supply Fair trade show.

[7] A series of meetings followed, in which Gass "negotiated with major players such as Ryobi, Delta, Black & Decker, Emerson, and Craftsman" in an attempt to license his invention; he followed those negotiations with a February 2001 presentation to the Defense Research Industry, a trade group for attorneys representing the power-tool industry.

Lanier expressed concern that if any manufacture licensed the safety feature, all others would be forced to do likewise, or risk litigation following injuries with their products.

[6] After hearing Lanier's presentation, Gass thought he was unlikely to succeed in convincing major power tool manufacturers to license SawStop technology.

[10] The number of finger or hand amputations in the US has more recently been estimated to be 4000 annually,[11] costing more than $2 billion a year to treat victims.

[6][12] In June 2006, the CPSC recommended that the US government begin the rulemaking process that could result in mandatory safety standards for table saws[citation needed].

[13] SawStop has provoked opposition from the Power Tool Institute (PTI),[11] which represents Black & Decker, Hilti, Hitachi Koki, Makita, Metabo, Bosch, Techtronic Industries (owner of Ryobi), and Walter Meier Holdings (WMH Tool Group, owner of JET and Powermatic[14]).

In April 2008, they told Congress that SawStop's braking system is:[15] The PTI objects to the licensing necessary due to the "more than 50 patents" related to SawStop's braking system;[15] they say such costs "would destroy the market for the cheapest, most popular saws, adding $100 or more to the price of consumer models that typically sell for less than $200.

"[11] In response, their members developed "new plastic guards to shield table saw users from the dangers of a spinning blade" and began selling models with that feature in 2007; as of May 2011, PTI says "its member companies have received no reports of injuries on [the 750,000] table saws with the new guard design.

Bosch's new REAXX contractor's table saw appeared at the World of Concrete trade show in Las Vegas in February 2015.

[25] On October 18, 2023 the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) voted to publish a Supplemental Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (SNPR)[26] to address the Active Injury Mitigation (AIM) and what patents SawStop holds that may be effected.

In February 2024, in response to proposed rulemaking regarding table saw safety by the CPSC, SawStop committed to dedicate U.S. Patent 9,724,840 to the public upon the rule's effective date.