The end of affordable table saws? Probably, if Congress/CPSC gets their way.

[Bugzilla]

I have stuck both thumbs in my table saw, about 20 years apart, both times was grabbing the wood after I cut it, and was using push sticks. ER and stitches for both. Right thumb pictured. Only issue is numbness on the top of my right thumb. Guess I’m a slow learner.

 

[Butch627]

Nobody has mentioned the fact that this saw stop technology completely destroys the saw when activated.

Can you elaborate on that because I am the guy that has to change out the eighty dollar module when someone trips the saw usually from running a laminate with metal through it. Takes less than 5 minutes. FWIW they have a bypass switch that allows you to cut things that might otherwise trigger the mechanism. The blade is considered to be junk after the mechanism is activated, I always get the blade loose and send it out for sharpening, 70 percent of the time it gets sharpened and goes back into service. As to the saw stop mechanism being too robust for cheaper saws I take that with a grain of salt. The saw stop cabinet saws are a much improved design over the Unisaw which was designed before WWII. Maybe they improved things but their dust collection is poorly designed on our saw. They also make a portable contractor saw but I have never used or worked on one.
In a commercial application even with its premium price buying a stop saw is a no brainer for its better design, the safety is a bonus.

 

[Bugzilla]

Can you elaborate on that because I am the guy that has to change out the eighty dollar module when someone trips the saw usually from running a laminate with metal through it. Takes less than 5 minutes. FWIW they have a bypass switch that allows you to cut things that might otherwise trigger the mechanism. The blade is considered to be junk after the mechanism is activated, I always get the blade loose and send it out for sharpening, 70 percent of the time it gets sharpened and goes back into service. As to the saw stop mechanism being too robust for cheaper saws I take that with a grain of salt. The saw stop cabinet saws are a much improved design over the Unisaw which was designed before WWII. Maybe they improved things but their dust collection is poorly designed on our saw. They also make a portable contractor saw but I have never used or worked on one.
In a commercial application even with its premium price buying a stop saw is a no brainer for its better design, the safety is a bonus.

There are videos on this online. Imagine going from 3600 rpm to 0 in a millisecond. Like sticking a rod in a fast moving bicycle wheel or better yet doing 60 and hitting a brick wall. No way to do it yet without tearing the snot out of the mechanism. Kinetic energy has to be dissipated. Think crumple zones in Indy cars and why drivers now walk away from accidents instead of being gurnied away.

 

[Hoosier Carry]

 

[Creedmoor]

All that being said if someone gets hurt for being an idiot I always ask them if they mind me taking a picture to show the floor guys. Then I write ridiculously detailed reports to show the guys too. Can't let them get hurt themselves but if we show them pictures and reports of grinder injuries ranging from paper cuts to ground off flesh they get that ouchie mistake by proxy and then grinder accidents go down.

A few years ago I was welding a gross of large parts bins together in one of HDP's local plastic injection plants. The other contractor had a young man that was grinding a few feet from me with a 4 1/2" grinder without a guard along with a 6" cutoff wheel on it.
I said hey son, either get the right wheel or the right grinder before it blows up on you.
3 min later, I'm the one going to get a handful of stitches in my left forearm.

 

[Creedmoor]

Can you elaborate on that because I am the guy that has to change out the eighty dollar module when someone trips the saw usually from running a laminate with metal through it. Takes less than 5 minutes. FWIW they have a bypass switch that allows you to cut things that might otherwise trigger the mechanism. The blade is considered to be junk after the mechanism is activated, I always get the blade loose and send it out for sharpening, 70 percent of the time it gets sharpened and goes back into service. As to the saw stop mechanism being too robust for cheaper saws I take that with a grain of salt. The saw stop cabinet saws are a much improved design over the Unisaw which was designed before WWII. Maybe they improved things but their dust collection is poorly designed on our saw. They also make a portable contractor saw but I have never used or worked on one.
In a commercial application even with its premium price buying a stop saw is a no brainer for its better design, the safety is a bonus.

When I bought my Powermatic I had a hard time deciding between the Unisaw and the 66.
I went with the Powermatic with a 52" Biesemeyer fence over me being left handed, I also ordered the motor enclosure hopefully to better vacuum saw dust out of the cabinet.
When in heavy use, it still requires a bi annual inside cleaning. I grease the rack, bearings and gears at the same time.

 

[Mgderf]

Can you elaborate on that because I am the guy that has to change out the eighty dollar module when someone trips the saw usually from running a laminate with metal through it. Takes less than 5 minutes. FWIW they have a bypass switch that allows you to cut things that might otherwise trigger the mechanism. The blade is considered to be junk after the mechanism is activated, I always get the blade loose and send it out for sharpening, 70 percent of the time it gets sharpened and goes back into service. As to the saw stop mechanism being too robust for cheaper saws I take that with a grain of salt. The saw stop cabinet saws are a much improved design over the Unisaw which was designed before WWII. Maybe they improved things but their dust collection is poorly designed on our saw. They also make a portable contractor saw but I have never used or worked on one.
In a commercial application even with its premium price buying a stop saw is a no brainer for its better design, the safety is a bonus.

My information might very well be out of date.
I know it's 25+ years old...
I attended a trade show in Chicago when this technology first started coming out in the public and it would render the saw useless afterward.

 

[MRockwell]

Steve Gass first tried to sell the tech to table saw manufacturers, but none would sign up. Gass tried to get congress to mandate SawStop tech when he owned the company. They declined to mandate. So he created the SawStop. First one I saw at a trade show was in 2009; it was a nice saw. Today, a professional SawStop cabinet saw runs around $3K, and the Industrial will set you back about $5K.
SawStop also prevented Bosch from selling their saws with similar tech. From what I read, the Bosch tech would not destroy the blade. https://www.constructionjunkie.com/...stop-sales-of-reaxx-flesh-detecting-table-saw

Gass no longer owns SawStop, which is probably why they will allow their tech to be used on other saws.

The biggest thing I see here is if this is mandated, what will happen if someone gets injured on a saw without the tech? Say you let your neighbor come over to make a couple cuts on your old Delta contractor saw. Will you get sued because you had a saw without the tech? Not sure if that point was made in the OP video (I watched the video last week and have slept since then.LOL). I can see it affecting small cabinet shops also. Will insurance cover any acidents if the shop doesn't have a SawStop?

 

[shootersix]

Pretty cool technology and probably a good thing for any schools still teaching shop class.

Schools still teach shop class?

I thought all shop classes had been replaced with “how to color your hair pink and blue”, Socialist Ideology” and “how to question your gender (and get mad at people who don’t accept it)”

 

[Butch627]

There are videos on this online. Imagine going from 3600 rpm to 0 in a millisecond. Like sticking a rod in a fast moving bicycle wheel or better yet doing 60 and hitting a brick wall. No way to do it yet without tearing the snot out of the mechanism. Kinetic energy has to be dissipated. Think crumple zones in Indy cars and why drivers now walk away from accidents instead of being gurnied away.

Good thing I don't get my knowledge about these things from watching vids but by using them and changing the module when someone else has tripped them. Probably lots of vids and pics of guys cutting themselves on table saws but I have never done that myself either in 50 plus years of using table saws.

 

[Shadow01]

Sounds like a good opportunity to make a table that allows you to drop in a skill saw upside down in the same manner as a router table.

 

[schmart]

Sounds like a good opportunity to make a table that allows you to drop in a skill saw upside down in the same manner as a router table.

Either that, or hand held track saws will gain tremendous market share. Not quite as nice for ripping many similar strips, but for a typical homeowner using a saw half a dozen times per year may be the ticket for both cost and safety.

For the argument that cheap saws aren't strong to survive an event... Maybe not. But if harbor freight makes one for $200 including the sensor... People may just consider them disposable.

Rick

 

[stocknup]

I occasionally watch "This Old House". These Saw Stop mechanisms have been shown off in their show more than once ... and I don't watch it everytime it is on. They test it with a hot dog. And, the hot dog comes out looking very good.

For me personally, I think pushing a piece of wood through with a scrap piece of wood is fine.

Here is my old saw. It is from the 1950's. I made the base so that I could roll it to the shed and back to the garage when I want.

View attachment 345362 View attachment 345363

I have an old Craftsman cabinet model from 1953 and have the catalog that it was ordered out of .
293 lbs without the motor , It is a beast .

 

[Cameramonkey]

Either that, or hand held track saws will gain tremendous market share. Not quite as nice for ripping many similar strips, but for a typical homeowner using a saw half a dozen times per year may be the ticket for both cost and safety.

For the argument that cheap saws aren't strong to survive an event... Maybe not. But if harbor freight makes one for $200 including the sensor... People may just consider them disposable.

Rick

Not happening. he mentions in the video the mechanism itself adds at LEAST $200 to the saw.

 

[freekforge]

A few years ago I was welding a gross of large parts bins together in one of HDP's local plastic injection plants. The other contractor had a young man that was grinding a few feet from me with a 4 1/2" grinder without a guard along with a 6" cutoff wheel on it.
I said hey son, either get the right wheel or the right grinder before it blows up on you.
3 min later, I'm the one going to get a handful of stitches in my left forearm.

When I was the second shift bossman I had a kid try to shove a 4 1/2" 36 grit disk into a 4" channel... it was messy. Got to see what the inside of an elbow and bicep look like. But after that all the guys that seen it were really safe with the grinders. It's crazy what a 4 1/2" grinder can do, even crazier seeing what a 9" grinder can do.

 

[Creedmoor]

When I was the second shift bossman I had a kid try to shove a 4 1/2" 36 grit disk into a 4" channel... it was messy. Got to see what the inside of an elbow and bicep look like. But after that all the guys that seen it were really safe with the grinders. It's crazy what a 4 1/2" grinder can do, even crazier seeing what a 9" grinder can do.

You bet!!!

 

[MRockwell]

Sounds like a good opportunity to make a table that allows you to drop in a skill saw upside down in the same manner as a router table.

Need more power than a skilsaw, This oughtta do it:

 

[shibumiseeker]

Meh. My saw has a 26 hp engine and can rip 8’ of 16” wide oak in 45 seconds. I could thin-section a body in as many slices as ya’d like.

 

[MindfulMan]

Meh. My saw has a 26 hp engine and can rip 8’ of 16” wide oak in 45 seconds. I could thin-section a body in as many slices as ya’d like.

Is that called 'decomposition thickness' ?

 

[Nazgul]

I made an er visit several years ago for running my thumb thru the table saw. Just ground up the pad on my thumb.

My brother has a SawStop . It is neat but very $.

Don