Shopsmith Forums

http://www.npr.org/2012/04/02/149843351/fixing-the-cutting-edge-innovation-meets-table-saw

Take the 'a series of stories' link to see the time line history of opinionated 'reporting'..

Now this is innovation that I can see as a valuable safety feature. Plus, it leaves the choice of use versus non-use up to the individual user. Not mandated by the Consumer Safety Commission like this Mr. Gass is trying to push on everybody.

Quote; "Whirlwind is designed to be retrofitted onto any existing saw. Butler says even the 40-year-old table saw in your grandfather's basement could be made much safer by outfitting it with a Whirlwind safety brake."

[quote="dforeman"]Now this is innovation that I can see as a valuable safety feature. Plus, it leaves the choice of use versus non-use up to the individual user. Not mandated by the Consumer Safety Commission like this Mr. Gass is trying to push on everybody.

Quote]
I consider it a better alternative to you know who's air bag thinking, but the slowness of response will be an issue(I am not saying it is a valid issue).

As far as its being 'removable', so is you know who's device able to be 'disarmed'.

I do hope PTI can come up with a better alternative and send you know who back to his spider hole.

I consider the whirlwinds immediate resettable capability a huge positive factor! That and it's non-destructive and non-consumables attributes.

On the This Old House Hour recently Tommy was installing a prefinished hardwood floor. He was cutting the flooring with a power handsaw using the saw in his right hand and holding the little strips in his left. No saw-horses etc. involved... I'm really surprised that they showed that. Its going to be hard to make a Sawstop power hand saw.
Next thing you know they will be requiring that all power handsaws be made so that you have to have both hands on the saw to power it on. Tough if you only have one usable hand. Also dangerous if you need to be hanging onto a roof or keeping the piece from shifting on the sawhorse.
They already have some chainsaw controls so awkward that a lot of tree trimmers tape the so called safety down to make the saw safer to use while hanging onto the tree.
Some of the people making some of these safety controls must have really strange shaped hands.


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Has anyone seen the remake Hollywood movie of Arthur? Russel Brand plays Arthur and Nick Nolte plays his father-in-law.

After the scene where Arthur is shooting blindly a 16 ga. nail gun and pricks his 'tough as nails' father-in-law, leads to Nolte holding Arthur's head to a SawStop and encouraging (more like forcing) him to stop it with his tongue.

I would think next time Arthur suggest his mad father-in-law get a whirliwind saw.

(Ps. I wonder what Mr. Gass thinks of that movie scene? Perhaps an idea for the next Jack@ss episode.)

It's great competition to the Saw Stop, which is an incredible invention but its creator has really outworn his welcome. Can the State really mandate saw stop technology now that there's a completely different alternative also on the market? The one thing I wonder about though is will this work with angled cuts, especially 45 degree cuts? Will the blade cover turn with the blade (or in the case of a SS, the table)? Further, could you cut a very narrow strip with the blade cover in the way? I love to cut narrow strips (even 1/8 inch sometimes) for trim and/or splines with my table saw, and I was constantly removing my riving knife/blade cover for these cuts, and I finally got tired of it and stopped using it altogether.

brad_nalor wrote:Has anyone seen the remake Hollywood movie of Arthur? Russel Brand plays Arthur and Nick Nolte plays his father-in-law.

After the scene where Arthur is shooting blindly a 16 ga. nail gun and pricks his 'tough as nails' father-in-law, leads to Nolte holding Arthur's head to a SawStop and encouraging (more like forcing) him to stop it with his tongue.

I would think next time Arthur suggest his mad father-in-law get a whirliwind saw.

(Ps. I wonder what Mr. Gass thinks of that movie scene? Perhaps an idea for the next Jack@ss episode.)

I just saw that last weekend. After seeing the photo of the hot dog used in the sawstop, I knew that scene was faked. The hot dog still had a pretty good cut in it. Nothing that would require surgery but it definitely would have drawn blood on a finger I can only imagine how a tongue would fare.

speaking of the hot dog demo and safety demos in general the subject always seems to move into the cutting area slowly. I don't think that is realistic. My guess is that most damaging accidents with sharp spinning things happen very quickly. I have had few injuries and close calls personally and they always happened "in the blink of an eye" never creeping up on it as they do in the demos. Just Sayin'.

terrydowning wrote:speaking of the hot dog demo and safety demos in general the subject always seems to move into the cutting area slowly. I don't think that is realistic. My guess is that most damaging accidents with sharp spinning things happen very quickly. I have had few injuries and close calls personally and they always happened "in the blink of an eye" never creeping up on it as they do in the demos. Just Sayin'.

A couple years ago I saw a sawstop demo at woodcraft. We told the guy to feed it as fast as he could. Don't remember exactly the damage to the hot dog, but it wasn't much to speak of.

beeg wrote:A couple years ago I saw a sawstop demo at woodcraft. We told the guy to feed it as fast as he could. Don't remember exactly the damage to the hot dog, but it wasn't much to speak of.

Forget cutting a piece of wood. Just jam that hotdog into the blade with the wiener backed up so it will not deflect as it contacts the blade. Now check for 'injury' to the hot dog.

[quote="JPG40504"]Forget cutting a piece of wood. Just jam that hotdog into the blade with the wiener backed up so it will not deflect as it contacts the blade. Now check for 'injury' to the hot dog.]

SawStop has responded to this sort of criticism and I must say - it perfromed quit well. They now do this demo with the wiener laying on a small "crosscut sled"; they feed the sled at a normal feed rate (as opposed to sneaking up on it).

Admittedly, if that wiener was replaced by Gass's finger at that feed rate, I would be more impressed when the SawStop locks up and destroys its innards but I remain impressed with the technology.