What worries me the most about this is what parts of the saw will get severely cheapened in an effort to incorporate the safety features while trying to achieve a low price point.
CPSC Votes For Tougher Table Saw Safety Standardshttp://www.tool-rank.com/media/listing/videos/thumbnail/300x300s/7f/5c/69/O8EX7mt3ByE.jpgHot
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the Consumer Product Safety Commission voted on Wednesday to move toward tougher safety standards for table saws. This comes as bad news for the Power Tool Institute and its members who believe the safety standards they adopted in 2007 are adequate when used properly; many of us actual tool users would agree.
The problem is, the CPSC has been lobbied pretty heavily by inventor Stephen Gass, who wants every table saw in the US to use his safety invention which can stop a table saw blade as soon as any flesh makes contact with it. The technology Gass invented is pretty awesome, and he uses it in his SawStop brand of table saws successfully, but it is not cheap. I am sure the CPSC has our best interest at heart, but at what cost? A good jobsite table saw already cost $500 or more, so the question is, how much will the SawStop technology add to the price? The cheapest SawStop saw, their contractor model, costs around $1500. This could also be the end of the smaller Portable Jobsite Table Saws.
The CPSC has stated that their vote does not necessarily mean they will mandate the use of the SawStop tech, but it does mean that changes will be coming. My question is, what more can table saw manufacturers do to make their saws safer without using Gass' invention? It seems to me that just about all of the safety features that we know of are already on the newer table saws. If forced, PTI members will likely choose to use the WhirlWind safety method (which I wrote about here) over SawStop, because it would be easier to implement, would cost less, and would add less overall weight to the tools. Either way, we are looking at more expensive tables saws in our future.
Take a look at the videos after the break to see both the SawStop and the WhirlWind systems in action.
Via WSJ
December 02, 2012
- 01:21
145 views
SawStop Safety System
SawStop table saws exclusively feature the SawStop Safety System which stops the blade within 5 milliseconds of contact with skin. SawStop saws prevent serious injury and give operators peace of mind.
Table saw safety system emergency stop blade brake prevents injury: patent pending Whirlwindtool.com
Patent-pending Whirlwind™ table saw emergency blade brake is a simple device which can be easily and inexpensively incorporated into production or retrofitted to millions of existing saws. The Whirlwind differs from all previous table saw blade guards, with a built-in "electronic fence." A proximity detector immediately shuts down the saw motor and stop the blade, without damage, in one-eighth of a second — before the operator can contact the spinning blade. The saw can be restarted almost immediately. Patent pending table saw safety systems developed for the bench top Makita and Delta, Rigid, Powermatic models include integrated saw dust removal. Available for assignment or license from www.whirlwindtool.com.
Comments (5)
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Chris2011-10-06 05:51:54That is a very good point. We might end up with safe saws that just don't function well.
No, no no no no! I've nicked myself once on a table saw, once in 25 years. I was being careless and can see how something like this could save someone from a momentary lapse in judgement. Let that be the choice of the individual. Lobbying is an obvious attempt at profiting through fear mongering and I'm vehemently opposed. It's a clever invention and potentially a fantastic feature for those who want it but don't force it. No means no!
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Skeptic2011-10-08 23:11:20I disagree with this move by CPSC. This is just another nanny law that I vehemently oppose. More government, bureaucrats and lawyers meddling where they do not understand or belong. There are some things that the user accepts the fact that the machine is inherently dangerous and to use the machine that person accepts the risk. This is just a way of extracting more money out of the consumer’s pockets for the patent holder. I’ve been using table saws for over thirty years and have yet to ever have any type of accident with it.
This will end badly, just like when bureaucrats took a simple thing (the lowly gas can) that everyone has and they made it almost useless with ‘improvements’. This is where the table saw with a stop is headed.
Consumers already have a choice, buy that brand that has one, or buy something better, that doesn’t. This choice is market driven by consumer dollars.
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