Donald Trump’s yes-men at the Consumer Product Safety Commission are withdrawing a series of proposed safety rules, including an appendage-saving safety mandate for table saws. This will mean thousands more fingers lost per year.
Donald Trump’s yes-men at the Consumer Product Safety Commission are withdrawing a series of proposed safety rules, including an appendage-saving safety mandate for table saws. This will mean thousands more fingers lost per year.
I had always been iffy on this, as the tech has been around for 25 years but is patented, so all manufacturers would be forced to pay a single person.
The linked article mentions this, but also said the patent holder has expressly said that if it becomes mandated tech to save people from injuries, the reason he invented the system, he will give up the patent to the public.
This is great to hear. Table saws are irreplaceable in woodworking. Fingers are pretty irreplaceable as well. I don’t know if any other machine comes close to a table saw for demanding my respect and full attention. It is just so fast, powerful, and the random structure of wood adds unpredictability to every cut. Anything else I’ve acclimated to using, but every time on the table saw I treat with the caution as if it were my first time.
Not sure how much saw stop would change that, I don’t want to really even be knicked by one, but that is way better than the current potential outcome.
To add to your comment: SawStop tried to sell their technology to all major saw producers originally. They all refused. That’s when SawStop started making their own saws and did a pretty good job of it. They’re high quality. It was at this point that SawStop had to protect their patent. Bosch tried to make their own and violated it. Ultimately, their goal has always been to save people from table saw accidents. It’s pretty generous to give up their patent if implemented industry-wide and speaks to the authenticity of their mission.
The technology is not without faults. Cutting wet wood, like pressure treated, might trip the brake. I believe there’s a way to turn off the mechanism for these instances. In that case, you have to replace the blade and brake. The blade could be recovered, but won’t be ready to continue working right away. You’d need back up blades and brakes on hand. But still, erring on the side of caution is better than not.
It’s a good case to self reflect on one’s feelings on patents. Bosch and others shouldn’t be able to steal his idea if we’re a society that values them. Even those here against patents typically could find his goal noble, and would likely be against a megacorp stealing from a single amateur inventor. At the same time, him giving it away from the start could have saved many people injuries.
I just skimmed the wiki and it’s interesting to read about some of the hang ups of negotiations like his patent license fees and disagreements on share of legal liabilities should a saw stop not function as designed.
I had heard about the blade damage, and it seems more things like the wet wood you’ve mentioned have surfaced since I got out of woodworking. Even so, it’s quicker, easier, and cheaper to patch or replace a saw than one’s hand, at least in America where we get the pleasure of paying directly for our misfortunes.
I absolutely agree that the cost of replacing a blade and brake is worth it. I cut the tips off two fingers over ten years ago. I know many people in the industry that have also lost fingers. The technology is great! I only pointed out the supposed downsides for context. It does seem that this issue is nuanced, but the technology definitely helps.
I lost a fingertip working in a supermarket deli. The part I cut off thankfully grew back, but it’s a reminder to watch my fingers!
I didn’t take your previous comment as being against the system. I’m fairly neutral as now I live in a place I can’t use any tools like this. It’s kind of crazy this hasn’t already become a law or someone to have found another way to do it without violating the patent. It’s not like the issue has gone away.
Altendorf has albeit only in large production shop sized saws last I checked.
That’s a heck of a saw!
The feedback the unit gives is pretty nice. Cameras in a dust prone environment and AI detection makes me a bit nervous, and price aside, I might prefer the less tech version of the saw stop, but very cool demo!
Wow, I spoke too soon! I just saw the demo of the slide unit at the end… Amazing engineering and craftsmanship! Thank you for sharing this!
I’m fine with commercial job requirements for the stops, but against having to have one on my personal table saw. It’s not like it’s just an extra couple of dollars to have the saw stop, plus the cost of a new blade and brake if it does lockdown and stop it. The system isn’t foolproof in that it only stops skin from getting cut. I could cut a piece of moist wood and it could stop. Actually, I could see that being an issue for a lot of commercial job sites. Sometimes the wood you’re cutting is going to have some rain on it.
In highschool woodshop (back when that still existed) many kids had fingers saved by the saw stop. One of my friends would have lost a finger if it weren’t for it
Sawstops make the difference between a couple stitches versus a life long adjustment
I thankfully never heard of any injuries at our high school. We did have the anti kickback wheels and the lifting blade guard and were taught to use push sticks and not standing directly behind the work, etc.
The table saw looks so simple, but there is no room for any margin of error and there is no opportunity for warning, and I think most people that don’t use power tools can’t quite appreciate that.
My woodshop class was before the sawstop came out. We had fairly open access to everything, but we just weren’t allowed to use the table saw. All cuts were done by the teacher.
While I agree, surely the mandate can make this contingent, or override the patent in the best interests, or even establish the fee as small and fixed so that the owning companies gets some profit while not being able to block other manufacturers.
This can’t be a new situation. I’m sure there’s been government mandates where a single owner has a blocking patent. There’s probably a pattern of how to handle it
Seems like there is an override for federal/military use, not private industry, and the PTI (power tool industry lobby) seems very against being made to use the tech by fiat.
Of course the industry logic are against it. They were against airbags in cars for similar reasons. Sometimes that’s just too bad.
Anyhow, I was thinking more like
Interesting article! There are so many parties and motivating factors involved in all these things. No wonder patent law is its own field of practice!
Reminds me of all the format wars like Beta/VHS, DVD/DivX, and Blue Ray/HD-DVD. It’s not necessarily the best idea the wins, but the one the industry and/or consumers finds the most accessible or valuable.
While not used nearly as often, a lathe can take a lot more than a finger.
Yeah. Table saws and lathes are typically the two scariest machines in a shop. Table saws tend to get more injuries purely because people tend to use them for mindless tasks. With a lathe, you’re hands-on and focused the entire time. So accidents tend to be because the piece snapped free and went flying across the shop at Mach Jesus. But table saws are just the right blend of powerful and utilitarian, to be really dangerous.
Oh. I need to cut 50 identical pieces. Set up a jig on your table saw, and have at it. You get into a pattern. Set material in jig, grab sled, push sled to cut, retract sled, move cut piece, repeat… But by piece 20 or 30, you’ve started to think about what you’re going to have for dinner tonight. Maybe there’s still some leftover soup in the fridge? But the wife won’t want that, because we had it yesterday. Maybe we could get a rotisserie chicken from the grocery sto- Aaaaaaand your thumb is gone, because you pushed the piece directly instead of pushing the sled.
good for me i just stay away from the danger tools :)
Very true. That’s something that will keep pulling you in.
Most of my lathe time was threading and knurling on a metal lathe, so more hands off than a wood lathe.
Yep. I’ve definitely seen what a large industrial lathe will do to a person. It very rapidly makes them into what I refer to as “human paste”
Why don’t they just release it now, like when Volvo invented the three-point seatbelt? If it’s free and really that useful, everyone is likely to implement it regardless of mandate.
I think it’s to prevent brands that would just continue selling cheaper saws without it, as it increases the price of each unit (25% production cost plus 8% license are the numbers in the wiki). Having it mandated levels the playing field.
I’m not going to argue for or against that, and that may not be the exact reason. After 25 years, search results are full of such biased posts on both sides that I can’t find anything from the inventor.