Tablesaw Safety Goes Under the Microscope--Again

[gilamonster]

If you can't make enough money for yourself chasing ambulances and you are this money hungry bum you will create a way to get rich and force it into being through litigation.

If I was a saw manufacture I would go out of business before I paid this guy a dime. And I will stop wood working before I pay this guy a dime. To me he is that despicable.

If there is any justice in this world, someone will invent a way to do the same thing for so cheap he will give it to saw manufactures who can add it to their product at no cost. And drive this money grubbing guy back under the rock he crawled out from.

+100% what ^^ he said!

[beeg]

IF ya look at his safety demo, doesn't his finger tip sneak up on the SIDE of the blade?

[JPG]

IF ya look at his safety demo, doesn't his finger tip sneak up on the SIDE of the blade?

Actually I do not think his FINGER touched it at all. I think a drop of water on his finger was the only thing to touch the blade.

So much for the 'I got faith in my gadget' scenario.

I would like to see him cut that plywood with his fingers positioned on the plywood in the same position as the hotdog and proceed to cut that plywood at the same feed rate as he did with the hotdog. THAT would then give us a meaningful demonstration of his 'faith' and the effectiveness of his tool. I would also like him to have his other hand in his rear pocket, not touching any part of the saw(or on top of the cutoff so as to control it against inadvertant contact with the blade and becoming a missile).

Better yet, just jab(rapidly) his finger into the downward moving portion of the blade. Even better yet a different extremity!

Doubt he could move very far into the blade in that 0.001 second he claims it retracts.

There were so many mis-statements of fact and flawed analogies that it was almost comical to watch if the subject had not been so serious.

[michaeltoc]

Here we go again.Tablesaw Safety Goes Under the Microscope--Again

Interesting article - especially the part about UL requirements that all saws have a riving knife. The Mark V is the only table saw I've owned, so I just assumed that all saws had a riving knife and anti-kickback pawls. The first time I cut without the guard and almost got impaled from the kickback really opened my eyes. How do you use a table saw without this necessary piece???

[robinson46176]

Interesting article - especially the part about UL requirements that all saws have a riving knife. The Mark V is the only table saw I've owned, so I just assumed that all saws had a riving knife and anti-kickback pawls. The first time I cut without the guard and almost got impaled from the kickback really opened my eyes. How do you use a table saw without this necessary piece???

Quite safely if you function with the mind set of being 100% aware of every personal motion and exactly what the tool is doing and going to do.
It is far safer than saying OK, I'm safe now, the guard is in place and I am protected... Then proceeding to saw through a miter gauge or finger because of not being aware of exactly where the blade is or the exact travel path of 100% of everything involved.
I am not really anti guard, I am using my guard this week ripping a batch of French cleat material I am mounting on a wall.
I am anti guard in the case of a lot of older crappy guards that I consider more dangerous than an open blade.
I am also very much against the notion that a guard automatically makes you safer. If you think it does then it doesn't...
My father always preached to me that there is no such thing as an unloaded gun. I contend that there is no such thing as a safely guarded table saw blade.
I also contend that if your fingers are close enough to the blade to be protected by the guard then you do not work safely.
As far as kick back goes, I'm sorry I just don't understand... I used a table saw the first time as a freshman in high school (my father didn't own one until about 1969), That was over 50 years ago and I have been using them and owning them ever since. My only table saw injury has been driving a big plywood splinter into my hand while hand sanding the edge of an extension table I built for the saw.
As I watch woodworking "experts" on TV I am often surprised at how sloppy their handling of the wood is, as in allowing the piece being cut to lift up from the table or veer away from the fence. As I watch their hands I get the impression that they just don't have a good positive grip on the board.
I have a long time friend who is now an excellent woodworker but when he was doing some carpentry work here years ago he used our table saw. He couldn't hardly make a cut without burning it like mad or totally stopping the saw. It was the saws fault... Funny we never had any problems with it. He also blamed our miter box for bad miters but it worked for us fine. He has since developed the necessary finesse to work very well but he was an accident waiting to happen before he got it down.

[derekdarling]

If there is any justice in this world, someone will invent a way to do the same thing for so cheap he will give it to saw manufactures who can add it to their product at no cost. stop in front of it.

It's called 'Education', and it's companion 'Paying Attention'. No charge, courtesy of your local Department of Education (in wherever it is you live).

[JPG]

It's called 'Education', and it's companion 'Paying Attention'. No charge, courtesy of your local Department of Education (in wherever it is you live).

Come on down and 'educate' the federal consumer safety gurus(or whatever they refer to themselves as). They think THEY can create safety! Sadly only the end user has control of that. They make regulations so the most stupid, ignorant person can proceed willy nilly with a dangerous tool. Actually they may help most, but not those who need it most.

[fiatben]

Regarding the SawStop; why does it have to drop the blade below the table when it activates? If it immediately stops the blade from spinning, why wouldn't that be sufficient?

[ss50th]

What we have here is two entities attempting to justify themselves:
1) an inventor who has attempted to bring a perceived value to the consumer who doesn't see enough benefit to pay extra for the feature thereby not participating in the foreseen demand, and 2) another government agency trying to justify its existance.

There are more mishaps with bandsaws during meat cutting than woodworkers with table saws. The big problem? Hands getting somewhat numb when cutting frozen product and the digits cut off when the butcher doesn't feel the blade initially cutting into him until it's way too late. Wonder how great the saw stop idea would work on a bandsaw.

[michaeltoc]

Wonder how great the saw stop idea would work on a bandsaw.

Probably not very well - the butcher's bandsaw is designed to cut meat, and the sawstop is not