41–50 of 206 posts
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The saw manufacturers all blew off SawStop because they were worried that they would now be liable for any injuries which still occurred. Simply make table saw manufacturers liable for any injury from the saw and this kind of mechanism will instantly become default.
That’s terrible though. You can’t make knife manufacturers responsible for everything a knife does.
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AFAIK all sawstop catridges are one time use only and also destroys the disk. This is not really a bug.
Yeah, reliably stopping a heavy very fast spinning object in just a few degrees of rotation is necessarily violent.
They do it (basically) by predicting whether your hand will touch the blade, rather than waiting until it does touch the blade.
If you wait until someone actually touches the blade, then yes, you have to operate very very fast. That is unavoidable due to physics, as you say.
But if you can gain 100ms or 250ms by proving a 100% probability that the hand will touch the blade before the person can stop it, you now have a lot more time to stop the blade.
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That’s terrible though. You can’t make knife manufacturers responsible for everything a knife does.
I think the idea is that if someone advertizes their saw as safe, but it isn't, then there should be some liability. Like if you make a fake safety saw or imply its much more safe than it actually is you should get in trouble. But surely there must be some middle ground between a company making a fake safety saw, and a good faith effort that isn't quite perfect.
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Yeah, reliably stopping a heavy very fast spinning object in just a few degrees of rotation is necessarily violent.
Actually not. My handguard saw will do as well as the sawstop non-destructively (independently tested and verified, so you don't have to take their word for it). They do it (basically) by predicting whether your hand will touch the blade, rather than waiting until it does touch the blade. If you wait until someone actually touches the blade, then yes, you have to operate very very fast. That is unavoidable due to phy…
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The saw manufacturers all blew off SawStop because they were worried that they would now be liable for any injuries which still occurred. Simply make table saw manufacturers liable for any injury from the saw and this kind of mechanism will instantly become default.
Yes, they did. They even tried to legislate against SawStop. See "H.R. 8181: Preserving Woodworking Traditions and Blocking Government-Mandated Monopolies Act"[1] Didn't go anywhere. There is supposedly woodworker opposition.[2] "Many woodworkers argue that the implementation of SawStop technology has disrupted traditional woodworking practices. Some feel that it has altered the craft in a negative way by making it l…
Mostly unrelated, but I don't think SawStop is releasing its patent anytime soon like the article states. That SawStop press release was the CEO saying they would do so if the CPSC rule was passed, but the rule wasn't voted on. And even then they were only releasing one of their hundreds of patents.
I recall reading that the majority of their patents were expiring in the next few years and the one that they’ve offered to not enforce (rather than release) is the important one that doesn’t expire until the 2030s.
I would be glad to see better table saw safety mechanisms, though I'm skeptical that 1. This will actually happen 2. That patent is the only one that will wind up mattering. I can't help but wonder if a big part of the reason the number of incidents is so high is because we're intentionally hyperbolic about risks when it comes to warning labels, for liability reasons. As an example, many appliances will warn that you…
My grandfather is 90, he was a woodworker, he lost two fingers to a table saw. Few woodworkers of his age have 10 fingers. Workshops are much safer today and woodworkers can expect to end their career with all their fingers. That SawStop thing is one of the many things that can contribute to it. The idea that safety features cause complacency has been debunked several times. Statistically, well designed safety featur…
Disclaimer: cabinet builder.
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> I would pay thousands to avoid losing part of my hand. I cut off the distal segment of my right thumb on a table saw in 1995. The initial bill, before I disputed it and received a "professional courtesy discount", was $25k. So, you can pay a relatively small price to avoid losing part of your hand, or you can gamble that it will never happen, and then pay a high price for losing part of your hand. Pretty simple cho…
Good thing you and the doc weren’t on opposite sides of the tabs v spaces discussion. Ed: The fact that you can hit the space bar with either hand, whereas the tab would require changing your keyboard layout is not a consideration I had previously considered in this debate.
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It _may_ destroy the blade. I've had mine for about 10 years, and have had two false triggers in that time (both times, dumb mistakes on my part). Neither time has the blade been destroyed. One of them did require a resharpen though.
What did you do that caused it to false trigger?