Shopsmith Forums

Ed in Tampa wrote:I would be totally surprised!!! Since I expect see the behavior he is exhibiting only from a lawyer. For a non lawyer to do that would surprise me.

Which behavior, inventing SawStop?:D

Is there a time table that shows when all this wrangling should be over?

This is as bad as the Supreme Court hearing on Healthcare. The facts are all known, now they (the nine of them) have to debate it until June (maybe).

JPG40504 wrote:As for the negative attitude towards lawyers, in his case he is using his legal expertise(only costs him his time) to promote his system. I think he was smarter than the Ryobi lawyers in the Osario case in that he knew the legalities and what the jury(?) needed to hear. IMHO he mislead them. Sorta like Chicken Little. I have no other explanation for the finding except the 'finders' probably had little or no experience with power tools.

Again you have me at a disadvantage my not having the court record to peruse. Had I been one of those 'finders', my conclusions would probably been different(again I was not there etc.).

Feel free to again point out faulty conclusions.

JPG
I don't believe Gass was any smarter than Ryobi lawyers, I believe the jury decided the case not on merit, not on law, not considering the full ramifications of their decision. I would guess what they viewed was the this poor man that had nothing and had suffered this injury and a multi million dollar cash cow that they had a chance to milk and give it to the poor injuried man. Their thinking $1.5 won't mean a thing to Ryobi or it's insurance and it will mean every thing to this guy.

Many corporations are very much aware of this and when a person is promoted to a certain job level they are required to buy extra insurance. They have learned if a low paid person is hit by a car driven by a low paid person the judgement will be less than if a low paid person is hit by car driven by a high paid person. In lawyer talk it is called deep pockets and as they chase ambulances down the street they are on constant lookout for who has the deepest pockets.

The other interesting thing will be to see if the judgement is ever paid or if it will overturned on appeal.

The really sad part is I think we are seeing the death of a hobby most of us love. For various reasons most High School shop classes have been closed. Many junior college courses have also been withdrawn. Equipment sales if you listen to retailers are down both Lowes and Home Depot stopped stocking most stationary tools.

I haven't lately but up to a year or two ago I visited production woodworking shops (cabinet, custom moulding, stairs and such and they are making drastic changes in how they do business and cut and shape wood. CNC machines, Automated Production machines, Guided tool systems (panel saw, suspended guided saws and etc).

Also trying to find quality craftsmen, be they framers or finish carpenters is getting harder and harder. It is hard to find a young person that really wants to learn the skills needed. Many don't want to do "manual labor"

Then we have the fear factor, "why you can get hurt doing that!" Parents are steering their kids away from anything that has risks.

Now we see the lawyers and government getting involved.

In every neighborhood I lived on most any weekend you could drive down the street and see 2 or 3 guys working in the garage on tablesaws and such. Today I don't see them.
I belonged to a woodworkers club almost every member is my age or older. It is rare to see a guy in his 40's and i have never seen one in his 20"s.

Not to get to far off topic.

Reading several comments about how schools are dropping a lot of their shop classes had me to thinking. So, I asked my uncle who was an auto body/shop teacher for many years what he knows about this. He has been out of the loop for a couple of years but he did confirm that a lot of the schools were closing down their shops and auctioning off the equipment (in this area anyway). He mentioned that he felt it was just a sign of the generation. A lot of the kids are not interested and attendance in shop type classes was down to where it is just not cost effective to keep on the curriculum. They even auctioned off a lot of the fabrication equipment he had in his shop. The current teacher, his replacement, just swaps out parts and paints. He doesn't teach any kind of hands on fabrication. He just teaches the kids general skills needed for today’s basic industry repair type careers and absolutely nothing outside the box (so to speak).

Okay so Ed doesn't live in my neighborhood. I see a lot of guys my age, younger and older working with tools both power and hand varieties. Last weekend we noted a "young" neighbor who is a month away from his second child demo and install a brand new front door including frame. Hey this kid didn't even buy prehung. His garage is well tooled and used frequently. Admittedly we live in one of those areas where most people do for themselves as their incomes require they maximize every dollar. I have been surprised at the number of younger "wood workers and do it yourselfer's" who have heard ab out my shop who have visited. Yes my shop is technically part of the garage but is actually hidden behind the garage and the doors are never open to the street as I have no desire to show off my few tools or lack of expertise. I am aware of schools cutting programs. I am also aware of many families working hard at teaching what other wise could become a lost art. I for one believe that in our nation tools will continue to be sold and used. Jim