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In 2015, 4,700 people in the US lost a finger or other body part to table-saw incidents. Most of those injuries didn't have to happen, thanks to technology invented in 1999 by entrepreneur Stephen Gass. By giving his blade a slight electric charge, his saw is able to detect contact with a human hand and stop spinning in a few milliseconds. A widely circulated video[1] shows a test on a hot dog that leaves the wiener unscathed.
Now federal regulators are considering whether to make Gass' technology mandatory in the table-saw industry. The Consumer Product Safety Commission announced plans for a new rule in May, and the rules could take effect in the coming months.
But established makers of power tools vehemently object. They say the mandate could double the cost of entry-level table saws and destroy jobs in the power-tool industry. They also point out that Gass holds dozens of patents on the technology. If the CPSC makes the technology mandatory for table saws, that could give Gass a legal monopoly over the table-saw industry until at least 2021, when his oldest patents expire.
At the same time, table-saw related injuries cost society billions every year. The CPSC predicts switching to the safer saw design will save society $1,500 to $4,000 per saw sold by reducing medical bills and lost work.
"You commissioners have the power to take one of the most dangerous products ever available to consumers and make it vastly safer," Gass said at a CPSC public hearing on Wednesday.
[1] SawStop Hot dog Video - Saw blade retracts within 5 milliseconds of accidental contact - YouTube.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 12 2017, @01:47PM
Indeed, I'm a 'numb skull' who lost the tip of one finger and damaged another on a circular saw, in my case I'd finished cutting, was removing the cut wood from the table in preparation for running another bit through, there was a massive glare/reflection in my glasses, one startle response later....fingers strayed too near the rear end of saw blade (crown guard fitted, but blade was high) saw go chomp chomp...or, more precisely slicey, dicey...
This was my first accident after 30 years in workshops, and 40 years of using power tools of all types, was there some idiocy involved? maybe, but there was a lot more 'shit happens'. Workshops are full of inherently dangerous machinery, no matter how safety aware you are, familiarity breeds, in my case, complacency. The cutting job I'd carried out on the saw which mohel'd my finger I'd done over two-three years without incident despite it being technically the wrong saw for the job (the argument is that as we've a couple of smaller table saws which would have been more suitable, but as they were in use I should have waited, but, to paraphrase the Bard of Ayrshire, a saw's a saw for a' that...) that morning, however, thanks to clear skies, a strong sun and it's reflection off the side of a passing white van and two sets of open doors..shit indeed happened.
Regarding the Sawstop, the blade dropping/retracting isn't the most impressive part of the system (and would be impractical/impossible to implement on the saw which bit me), the electrically released spring driven brake is the part of the beastie I'm more impressed with, and looking at the videos, this could be retrofitted to all the saws in my current workshop without too much hassle, and I see they have also have a Bandsaw prototype (I always assumed that it'd be one of the Bandsaws (especially the Band Resaw, never trusted the bugger) which would eventually get me..)
As to all the whingeing about monopoly from the saw manufacturers, if it stops any other 'numb skull' losing fingers, then fuck them. Mr Gass has come up with a pretty good thing IMHO, he deserves to profit.