Niki":3vvtohdk said:
"I would like to hear from the guys that bought or intend to buy the Sawstop why they want to buy it...I mean...reasons like "I like to work without the guard and my hands are 1/8" from the spinning blade" or alike...in other words, give me some cases that the Sawstop will save your hands/fingers."
nobody replied directly to my question but...
Even if the Sawstop will stop the blade in case I touch it, I would not put the fate of my fingers, in the "hands" of any computer.
I think that proper "table saw technics" are the answer to a safe work.
Regards
niki
If you have difficulty with Airbus and it's computers then I suggest that you stay out of all the latest Boeing offerings because they have similar computer flight systems in them too!:shock: But you can be comfortable knowing that the pilot can turn them off to show off at an air show, or at any other time he choses to exercise bad judgment. :twisted:
I have had a very close look at the SawStop at a local woodworking show (waited two hours to see the hot dog get nicked) and in a local dealers showroom. That saw is more than worth the money they are asking strictly on quality alone. It is a slight bit bigger than the competitors in that category of saw and the trunnions are heavier and a lot smoother operating too. The riving knife and splitter guards that have long been standard in Europe were never supplied on saws here (unless they came from your side of the world) until SawStop came along and that has got the other makers starting to put them of their saws. (That and the fact that they will be mandatory in a few years anyway.) Even though the saw isn't perfect in every way, it it is still a leap forward.
I will soon plop down some of my hard earned cash for a SawStop of my very own. I have no intention of working dangerously just because the SawStop blade stopping mechanism is going to save me from myself. I want it because in the event that the once in a lifetime moment occurs and some part of me ends up contacting the blade, there will be one more level of safety that may still allow me 10 choices to pick my nose with. :^o
It will also give me a slight bit extra piece of mind if someone else is using my saw (an rare occurrence, I assure you) and makes a mistake.
You can say that with common sense and safe practices, the need for the SawStop mechanism is unnecessary but not everyone can be trusted to have or follow them. I can illustrate with a story from work. I will also add that I know that a SawStop wouldn't have been of any use in the following case but it shows how stupid and stubborn people can get, (managers) even when told otherwise.
We machine aircraft structural components for the big jets and we had a part that is machined from a plate of 7055 aluminium. 2 parts from each 1" thick x 1' wide x 45' long plate. When they first came up with the methods of machining they decided to leave the tooling lugs on the parts and cut them off using a table saw instead of installing clamps and cutting them off on the milling machine. They felt it would save time on the machine and at over $180 an hour they weren't going to waste any machining time. The Manager in charge of the Metal Finishers convinced them that it was safe because "they cut metal with hand held saws all the time and never have any problems." So they bought a cheap Asian contractors saw and planned to cut the parts when they were ready.
I found out about their ludicrous plan and tried to get the Plant Manager to give up the idea. (Wasted my breath!) Pointing out that the cheap carbide combination blade was not suited for the job and that that alloy was nearly as hard as mild steel and almost as strong. A few days later when I came in for my afternoon shift I found out that my concerns were warranted and came true.
They were cutting the tooling lugs off on the table saw with the Finishing Manager at the saw(to show how it's done) feeding the metal past the blade sans fence and guard. He had 6 finishers holding the part and as they ran out part to hold they would run to the out feed side of the saw to hold that end up. When they were at the stage where there were 3 finishers each, front and back of the saw, someone must have moved a little bit sideways and the blade stripped off 13 teeth, 3 of them hit the Manager in the left shoulder a few inches from his neck. He was taken to the hospital to have them dug out!
Oddly enough the company stopped sawing off the tooling lugs after that and went to doing them on the milling machine. For a while after, the Plant and Finishing Managers scurried off when ever they saw me approaching. Had they gotten away with that stupidity in the beginning, the Finishers would have had to do the same until one of them had been hurt in the same way. Perhaps with deadlier results.
Any safety device that operates without being obvious to the user should welcomed.
