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Skin Sensing Table Saw
killabrew writes "Check out this article from Design News about a new skin sensing table saw technology that is on the verge of becoming a mandatory piece of hardware on every table saw. For years inventor Stephen Gass persevered in the face of legal, corporate and technical foes, he is forcing society to rethink its acceptance of saw blade accidents."
Something tells me the next one will be G rated.
Where were you when the voynix came?
Here is a writeup of the saw's debut at the International Woodworking Machinery & Furniture Supply Fair (2000). I remember reading this back in 2000 thinking "great idea, but I wonder if it'll ever get adopted". Glad to see it's gaining traction - the table saw is the only piece of equipment in my shop that I'm nervous around.
Now if they can solve kick-back, I'll be a tablesaw fiend.
>> "What would the robut do? Frame someone!"
> For years inventor Stephen Gass persevered in the face of legal,
> corporate and technical foes, he is forcing society to rethink
> its acceptance of saw blade accidents."
Proof of why this technology is needed: the above sentence was horribly, tragically mangled in a comma splicing accident.
didn't RTFA, but what if your skin is not made of hotdog ?
Because safety technology sounds good, but frequently doesn't hold up to heavy use, rough handling, dirt, etc. on the job site. Then the safety device gets in the way of getting work done, and it gets bypassed. And for all of that, you get to pay more for the tool.
There are benefits and there are drawbacks to this method.
It works really well for none conductive materials (uses skin capacitance to make a circuit, then when made retracts the blade), however if your cutting up things which trigger it randomly you will disable the feature (yes its not all the time).
Each time it is triggered the blade is ruined and needs replacing, better make sure the wood you are sawing isn't damp or you will either remove the safety feature (to save money) or get pissed off because you have to spend 10 minutes to change the blade every few planks.
It would be better to concentrate whilst working than making silly mistakes every day, may be good to replace machines with this and for those silly enough to trigger it more than once disable the feature and let them learn a valuable lesson.....
liqbase
As someone who was involved in evaluating this technology for a major US manufacturer of power tools, there are a number of issues which prevented early adoption. First and foremost was the inventor's demands for unreasonable royalties (including a percentage of the gross sales of table saws from preceding years!). I heard the director of the power tools group say that if the royalty had been reduced by 50%, it would have been a no-brainer. As it was, the proposed royalty structure was just unsupportable for a saw that sold for $500.
The second issue was that the product had great difficulty distinguishing the change in capacitance due to human flesh from that due to very wet lumber. This has undoubtedly been improved over the past few years, but people would have been somewhat unhappy to have false triggers that required them to a) replace the safety cartridge and b) their saw blade, which is consumed when the system triggers. Not to mention having the bejeesus scared out them when the system fires in error.
To talk about the inventor persevering in the face of corporate pressure is silly. This isn't a David vs. Goliath story. The inventor was a patent attorney that tried to bludgeon power tool companies with a 250+ page patent, and he could have sold his concept on day one if he hadn't been quite as greedy. There was no shortage of companies looking for competitive advantage in the power tool industry, which has been pretty stagnant of late.
This guy has been trying to force his invertion on us for years..
After the saw manufactures refused to pay his unreasonable licensing free (3-8% of the saw sale price)for his patented tchnology he moved on to lobbying for a law to make it mandetory (and still pay his licensing fee)
I have to agree the idea is cool but I don't like having it forced down my throat.
He did go on to start his own saw company and makes one of the best saws on the market...
If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur. --Red Adair
Perhaps hotdogs are made of fingers?
A fine is a tax you pay for doing wrong and a tax is a fine you pay for doing all right.
That's true, but it's not nearly as malicious as you make it sound. Employers have choices: they can pay to eliminate the hazard, and then have to pay less to get workers to take the less risky job, or they can not eliminate the hazard, and have to pay more to get people to take the more risky job. Economists call this a "compensating differential". It's seen in the difference in pay between regular window washers and high-rise window washers, for example. It can also be negative in jobs that people enjoy doing (i.e., they make less than those of comparable skill and experience because the job is fun, like astronauts).
There is always going to be some level of safety below which people will say, "forget it, it's not worth it, I'd rather just take the cash than make myself 1 in a million less likely to die". For example, would you take a 20% pay cut to halve your risk of death on the job?
Apology to Ubuntu forum.
Its been around for years, and has been shopped to the major power tool manufacturs [one of the largest, I used to work for, so i'm not talking out of my butt here.]
.. the guy whipped a raw hot dog at the blade as fast as he could, and there was only maybe 1-2mm of damage to the hotdog before the blade dropped down into the brakes.
.. at $50+ a pop .. kinda hurts.
..
All of them turned it down due to legal implications, as well as adding to the cost per unit price.
Leagally, if a power tool manufacturer added this to their existing line of table saws, it *COULD* be taken as an admission of guilt that their previous models were not safe, any accident cases (no matter how stupid) would then have another chance at a successful suit.
Also, the inventor has been lobbying for *YEARS* to get his invention as a required component of table saws. He hasn't even had success in California - the most liberal state for passing stuff like this - let alone elsewhere.
I'm not knocking his invention, I've seen it pitched first hand
Destroying the blade of course. which
Another reason this hasn't been adopted yet is that pressure treated wood also tends to cause the brakes to fire off
--Ne auderis delere orbem rigidum meum, non erravi pernicose!
I saw this demonstrated once, on the Tonight show, with Johnny Carson (yes, I'm that old and yes, this thing's been around that long!)
So, when I finally had a reason to go buy a tablesaw for my business, and I saw the horrible cost of insurance, I tried to buy the auto-shut-off table saw. Of course, I searched the web. Then I called the big saw distribution importers and distributors. It took some effort, but I finally got an answer why they were not, and probably would never be available.
It's not a perfect product. It is still possible to get your fingers cut off, and it is possible to have it "jam" on plain old wood too. When it jams, you have to replace the blade and the whole blade jamming mechanism- it can take most of a day to do that, if you have the parts, and it's expensive. It can cost as much as a whole new table saw each time it goes off.
All those things are solveable, but I was also told that the insurance companies hate the thing. It sounds counter-intuitive, but you know that a table saw is dangerous. If you believe that it's less dangerous, then you might be more careless too. The car companies had a similar argument against seat belts back in the 1960s.
There are better solutions in industry. CNC automated machines are used where lots of similar parts need to be made. There are very few, if any, one-off parts in manufacturing environments. So the only real market for this machine is the hobbyist or general contractor and cabinet maker, and the professionals have really good stafety rules anyway (at least the ones where I worked did).
But, as it stands, nobody has a case if he tries to sue the manufacturer because he cut off his finger. But put an auto-brake on the saw, and every time it fails the manufacturer and insurance company have a dismemberment case to settle.
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Use your table saw today! Get catapult and trebuchet kit plans at http://www.trebuchetplans.com/
A mate told me about such a machine - ie must be pressing two buttons before the machine will operate so you MUST have your hands clear - but some bozo figured out you could save a bunch of time by wedging in one of the buttons with cardboard so you only have to press one button.
However much we try to make things idiot proof, nature can always counter with a better idiot!
Eclectic beats from Leeds, UK
handmadehands.co.uk
Sigh. That reminds me of the time that my dad and uncle came up with the brilliant idea of cutting frozen salmon on our table saw.
In the basement.
The finished basement.
After all was said and done, walls and ceiling were covered in fine salmon shavings. Gross. Mom was less than thrilled.
You can accomplish anything you set your mind to. The impossible just takes a little longer.
You're damn right... who says I have to use the saw to cut wood.. what if I'm cutting up say.. dead bodies? I think they'll be cutting off a whole demographic of people who might otherwise buy their products. Maybe they'll have a switch to go between "wood" mode and "dead body" mode or something. I guess they just don't make 'em like they use to.
Collector's Edition
If you care about safety, you absolutely have to see this great lift truck safety video. Unfortunately it is in German, but you will definitely get an idea why safety regulations are so important :-)
Open Source Alternatives
Outside of those items, the SawStop is also very well balanced, it has almost no vibration, even less that most other Cabinet Saws. The trunions are solid and move the blade into position with little effort from the user. It also has a magnetic cutoff switch positioned right above the users knee for quick shutdown. It also includes a Biesemeyer style fence. Its only real drawback is that it is very expensive at $2800 for the basic saw. Options can run well over $5000. While I still like it, that money could be better spent on a European Combination Machine such as the Laguna or a Delta Unisaw with alot of money left over for other tools.
There is nothing inherently safe about liberty. That's why so many people died protecting it.