lurker":smggoycq said:
Rather than continue the hijack on another post, maybe we could discuss the merits of this device here.
Personally I am inclined to agree with Jacob, that it's a solution looking for a problem.
I first came across SawStop when I lived and worked in Texas nearly twenty years ago. I think the statement you made above needs a qualification as follows:
"it's a solution looking for a problem" … if it's for use primarily outside North America.
It has to be remembered that North American woodworkers (and perhaps a limited number in other countries or continents) tend use table saws very differently to, for example, woodworkers in the UK and Europe in general. Essentially, North Americans tend to use their saws for not only ripping and cross-cutting solid wood and board materials, but as a substitute for other machinery, e.g., the spindle moulder and router that are designed to do various tasks usually better and more safely. They also tend to use a long rip fence for most tasks and remove the guards, i.e., the splitter and/or the riving knife and the crown guard, and rarely use the common or garden bird's mouth style pushsticks we here in the UK are familiar with. If they do use devices to keep their fingers away from the spinning blade they tend to be rather convoluted and marginally effective in set up, e.g., featherboards to hold wood down to the table and tight to the fence, and shoe style pushsticks that cause the user to pass their hand over the top of the exposed spinning blade.
What made me wince when I lived in the US was watching some (not all) North American woodworkers doing things I'd never dream of. For example, I frequently witnessed users ripping solid wood into something like 2" wide strips with the saw set up with a full length rip fence, blade at maximum height, no riving knife/ splitter or crown guard, and no push stick of any kind: for the last 6" or 8" of every rip they'd zip the wood past the blade by hooking the fingers of their right hand over the rip fence and use their thumb to push the board. Other strange activities I noted were things like cross cutting narrow panels or boards to length using the full length rip fence as a length stop (good for causing kickback which I witnessed along with injuries in three or four cases), and creating cove type mouldings by passing wood at an angle across the teeth of the sawblade. I saw no end of tenons cut by simply setting up the rip fence to the right distance and passing a piece of wood perhaps 3" wide by 7/8" thick end down over the raised blade - more safety minded woodworkers might make or buy a tenoning jig to either fit over the rip fence or run in the table's grooves. And, for the moment, let's forget dado blades as an issue, which is an operation that can be undertaken safely if set up properly.
My experience of working with North American woodworkers over roughly ten years led me to the conclusion that some of them, admittedly a very small minority, were so cavalier, gung-ho and dismissive of potential safety issues that they do really need someone to take responsibility for their safety out of their hands. However, those woodworkers who are of that mindset are probably those most likely to dismiss SawStop as a sop only fit for pussies and other weaklings unable to outmuscle a stupid machine.
I do think SawStop probably has a very useful role to play in many of the circumstances outlined above, but if you don't use a bench/ table saw that way its usefulness in reducing things like amputations are much diminished, although still likely to be able to offer an extra layer of safety. In other words, use a bench saw, table saw, sliding table saw, etc in the way we tend to use those machines here in the UK, assuming we follow generally agreed safe practices as outlined by, for example, the HSE, and this in itself reduces the chance of injuries both small and large. Slainte.
