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posted by martyb on Saturday August 12 2017, @03:05AM   Printer-friendly
from the safety-is-no-accident dept.

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.

Source: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/08/patent-disputes-stand-in-the-way-of-radically-safer-table-saws/

[1] SawStop Hot dog Video - Saw blade retracts within 5 milliseconds of accidental contact - YouTube.


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  • (Score: 2) by VLM on Sunday August 13 2017, @02:09PM (1 child)

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Sunday August 13 2017, @02:09PM (#553259)

    Although your post is nearly perfectly content free, I was motivated to skim a CPSC report of table saw injuries from 2007-2008 and there is a minor interpretive issue.

    The TLDR is I made fun of kickbacks because competent operators can't be hurt by kickbacks, which is in fact true and proven in the CPSC study, but 90% to 95% of all table saw accidents come from incompetent operators not using any safety gear while doing dangerous rip cuts that kickback resulting in the vast majority of table saw accidents. So depending on if you look at saw ops as competent by default or incompetent by default colors how you look at the risks of kickback.

    IF the operator is totally incompetent and intentionally refuses to use safety gear like feather boards riving knifes guards jigs shooting boards and push sticks and then rips small pieces of wood very close to the blade, that accounts for 90% to 95% of all table saw injuries. If you exclude "stupid ripping tricks" then the danger of a table saw slips down to other tools and most of the injuries are like "strained back moving heavy saw across workshop" or "lacerated hand while opening blade storage package" type of ridiculous stuff.

    It seems if you're ripping small pieces almost touching the blade while holding the work with your hands with no safety or anti-kickback gear at all, its rather likely it'll kick back and the odds are very high the kickback will involve pushing hand into blade leading to accident. But only the dumbest idiots use a saw that way. I've never experienced a kickback while ripping because I've never been dumb enough to not use the plethora of cheap and easy gear.

    I have experienced plenty of kickbacks when crosscutting and thats where the "kickbacks never hurt nobody" commentary comes from. If you're cross cutting a 3/8 dowel and the end kicks back as you cut it off, it hurts about as much as having a pencil thrown at you, actually a bit less, I've never seen a small cross cut scrap kicked further than I can throw a pencil, its not a tungsten dart 20mm rifle round. So it bounces off my normal shop safety gear, ore more likely hits the floor 5 feet away, and does nothing. Likewise something big and heavy getting crosscut like the plywood back panel of a bookcase, first of all I'm behind the center of mass of the work which puts my body parts like a yard away from the dangerous spinning parts, secondly, there's not enough inertia in the blade to accelerate the cut off piece must faster than if it fell off the table. So I've also never been hurt crosscutting anything huge because I'm really far away from ground zero and big stuff can't move fast. I've taken the occasional cut off end of a 2x4 to the chest which feels not as bad as getting hit by a baseball but but it is kinda annoying. Not being an idiot I have a study leather apron in my safety gear so I imagine getting punched in the gut while wearing only a tee shirt or shirtless might leave a bit more serious of a mark, LOL. A few things have ping'd off my face shield but nothing gets thru to the safety glassed so no worries. Also not being an idiot its very rare for me to stand in line with the blade precisely because of kickback, so I haven't been hit many times while crosscutting.

    Actually I've had wood shatter in the lathe and that is WAY more exciting that a mere table saw kickback. Wood is organic, you can never really tell whats gonna happen.

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  • (Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Tuesday August 15 2017, @01:12PM

    by Pslytely Psycho (1218) on Tuesday August 15 2017, @01:12PM (#554243)

    It seemed you were making light of issues of kickback and saw safety as well. I got a tad worked up as you sounded exactly like the guy I described whose fingers I fished out of the sawdust.

    I have seen properly operated saws catch on an odd patch of wood and spun out sideways with enough force to put a worker in the hospital with three broken ribs. As I was a sawyer safety trainer with Allpak for years so I took it a bit personal. Apologies.

    Yeah, shattered wood in a lathe is an unforgettable experience.....almost as much fun as the idiot who knocked over the Oxygen tank breaking the valve off....Went through a brick wall and firmly lodged itself in the side of a semi truck trailer full of wooden panels. Rocket power for the win!

    Too much beer before posting. I hope I am not rambling too much.
    Peace.

    --
    Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.