She tested her SawStop.

Re: She tested her SawStop.

Bruce, a MN Galoot

Good choice for her, then, not to mention darn good luck.

I have a friend who had an extension on the miter maybe 1/16” from the blade and it triggered the stop feature. Nothing touched the blade. I guess close counts in things other than hand grenades.

Re: She tested her SawStop.

William Duffield

I've used mine, but not on flesh and blood. I was sawing the binding off of a government document, and didn't know there was a layer of metalized mylar buried in the binding material.

I have seen and heard the Sawstop brake actuate many times. We used to do demos at Woodcraft with a hotdog, and gave away free hotdogs, in a bun, with ketchup, to the customers. I would not classify it as an "explosion." It sounds more like the first half of an explosion, then utter silence.

Re: She tested her SawStop.

Barry Irby

Having not seen or heard one in person, I did not know how to describe the cartridge going off.

Her reaction and explanation was interesting. She seemed to think the earbuds and whatever she was listening to distracted her and limited her awareness of the blade. I also thought (Having had an accident with my RAS and TS) she was not aware of what it had saved her. She was pretty casual about it.

Just wondering if she did not "learn her lesson"?

Thats the problem with a Sawstop

Bruce, a MN Galoot

It can lead to complacency. She needs to stop wearing those earbuds if they’re so loud she can’t hear the cartridge deploy. It is very loud, as I learned when I cut some wet wood (the surface was too wet-high moisture won’t trigger it). If she can’t hear the saw, she won’t know if it’s binding in a cut, if she’s pushing too hard or a host of other things she should be aware of. Consider it the woodworking equivalent of texting while driving.

Complacency comes in many forms

Dick Coers

Experience, boredom, stress, and exhaustion are just a few. As someone that has sawn through bone, I can't find a single thing wrong with having a Sawstop in the shop. And so the debate remains.

I have a sawstop

Bruce, a MN Galoot

And I agree there’s not a single thing wrong with having one. My point is that it still requires the operator to pay attention to what is going on. Earbuds that are playing so loudly that the operator can’t hear when the trigger deploys are the problem.

Last fall I was teaching someone how to set up dados on a Unisaw. She was accustomed to a Sawstop. As I moved five feet to answer someone else’s question, she continued to look at me as she was pushing a piece of wood through the Unisaw dado blade. That’s what I mean by complacency. I made her stop and we had a brief, unpleasant conversation.

Re: She tested her SawStop.

Johanna Johanson

A basic safety rule is that you need to protect your hearing but you also must be able to hear sounds from the equipment you are using. Sometimes a change in the sound is the first warning of something going amiss.

Re: Overconfidence in Technology

William Duffield

One of our early SawStop customers was a high school shop program in Delaware. Kids who were otherwise difficult to handle were often sent to the Manual Arts programs. The shop teacher was explaining to a new class the dangers and safety features of the power tools in the shop. He had the SawStop running while explaining its features to the kids. One of the kids wanted to see for himself how it works (and didn't have a hotdog in his lunch box ) so he put his finger into the spinning saw blade. It didn't leave a mark, but it was an expensive lesson.

I treat my SawStop and the other SawStops I've used with the same respect as all the more primitive table saws I've ever owned or operated.

I've "used" mine

Rob Sandow

The very first time I ran the saw, actually.

I have an aluminum miter gauge extension that I attached to the miter gauge that came with my old PM66, which in effect made it "zero clearance". I sold the PM and bought a used SawStop contractor saw, but held on to my modified miter gauge. Well it turns out the miter slot in the table top of the Saw Stop is one or 2 millimeters closer to the blade than the one on my PM was. I didn't even think about that possibility. Running a cross-cut on the saw, the miter gauge caught the blade by just a hair, and as the entire assembly was conductive, the cartridge did what it was designed to do and fired. Fortunately I live about a 15 minute drive from Forrest, and they took my blade, still embedded in the cartridge, replaced a couple of teeth, and returned it good as new.

Divided attention

Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)

My point is that it still requires the operator to pay attention to what is going on. Earbuds that are playing so loudly that the operator can’t hear when the trigger deploys are the problem.

I have a very healthy respect for the power of machines. My rule is that I protect my hearing with earmuffs, and use Peltors (I keep a couple of pairs handy). I have music in the background of the workshop. The Peltors block this out, but allow in a muted level of machine noise. Complacency is never going to be my issue; inattention might, if I allow it, and I am not going to let it.

The Peltors come off when using hand tools. The advantage of hand tools is that they work at a slower pace. The earmuffs come off when working with chisels and planes, but I cannot hear the music.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Saw Stop Asks For That Brake Cartridge . . .

Tom Colligan

to be returned to them as they can read vital information from it. They will also send you a free replacement cartridge - if it was triggered by bodily contact.

Re: Saw Stop Asks For That Brake Cartridge . . .

Pete in Holland MI

Have 2 co-workers with minor finger injuries from a table saw. While sawing, one was watching a football game, the other was directing his young daughter on how to do something. Years ago, my young boys got some laser pointers. While I was sawing one day, laser pointer dots were all over my work. The saw got turned off, and......they wished they had some hearing protection for a few minutes. Needless to say, they never did it again.

When showing newbies how to use a table saw, one of the demonstrations I do is to drop a small block of wood (bout 2" cube) on to the running blade....and watch it smack against the back wall of the shop.....just to show them how fast things are happening.

Have to show power tools respect !

Re: Pass the Darwin Award

Off Topic- Want to Re-Mortgage Your House?

John Foster

Look at the videos on Felder's website for their PCS system.

Bordering on OT but a good story

jessecloud

I think its just human nature to want to see if things really work.

I recently about a pair of "cut resistant" gloves. Hoping that they would protect me from the little cuts I get when using my very sharp boning knife. They actually do that quite well.

But when I opened the package, I was dismayed by cautions on all the packaging that said "Do not test this on your hands." Immediately I thought that they were covering up a flaw. I went to the web page for more info and learned that some who bought the gloves tested them by adding more and more force to their attempts to stab themselves. If you keep adding force there is a point where the protection will fail and you will need a trip to the ER.

I am very satisfied with my gloves but awed by the stupidity of some people.

Re: Bordering on OT but a good story

John K Jordan

>>>"Do not test this on your hands."

I bought some kevlar gloves once for carving, or actually, just one glove, the left one, since the knife is in my right.

I never thought to test the glove.

I should have been wearing it a few months ago the day before I got 8 stitches in my left hand. I was not carving at the time, but cutting through some tough urethane to replace a windshield, using far less sense than force.

JKJ

Also OT - best set of gloves

JL

I've ever seen were at an oyster place on the Eastern Shore of VA.

They were worn by the people who shucked oysters.

They went from their hands into the dishwasher afterwards.

I believe they were a stainless steel "chain mail".

Re: Bordering on OT but a good story

William Duffield

The best defense I've found for avoiding such accidents is to always ask myself before I start pushing the sharp object, "Where is it going to go when it slips?" When I explain it to others, that's followed by, "Not IF it slips, but WHEN it slips!" because eventually it will. It's not an infallible strategy; nothing is when you are dealing with human minds and habits, but it sure helps a lot to reduce the risks.

My method too

Re: Bordering on OT but a good story

John K Jordan

>>>"Where is it going to go when it slips?"

My mantra on the bandsaw is "where will my hands go if the wood suddenly disappears?" I've seen people pushing wood with their hands in the path of the blade. If the wood splits or the cut surges with a soft area or another reason, the hands are in line for an injury, especially if using some force and perhaps standing without good footing. I don't know of a good reason to not use push sticks.

Re: Bordering on OT but a good story

Barry Irby

That's what I ask myself on almost every tool, not just the bandsaw. Where would my hands be if the wood suddenly disappeared?

I got my RAS when I was about 15. They were all the rage. (You can buy one form that era now at an estate sale or tool auction for less than $50.) I tried ripping a little stick on mine. Suddenly the stick was gone and I could smell lacquer thinner. Baffling. The stick went like an arrow through a gallon can of Lacquer thinner and shattered on the block wall beyond it. Did not even knock the can over.

In high school shop a year before I got there the teacher was trying to explain and demon straight why you don't joint short pieces. The wood disappeared and so did the tip of his pinky. I was not there but I knew the kids who were and their description was so vivid none of us ever made that mistake.

Lots of ways for wood to disappear.

Re: Bordering on OT but a good story

William Duffield

That's why I always use a "boat" to push stock through a jointer. One might argue that if the stock could "disappear" then the boat could too,and then where would your fingers be? To minimize that possibility, I make the "boat" in the shape of a wooden try plane, with a knob and a tote, and thick enough that the jointer could not eat through it. The easiest way to make it is out of a 4x4 about a foot and a half long, and make sure the handles are securely attached to the body.

I emphasized the possibility of the disappearing stock when I used to teach people how to joint a board that is up to twice as wide as the jointer while I removed the blade guard. Further I offered them the technique of using a shop made temporary blade guard that covers the blades and attaches to the fence with a couple of clamps.

Re: Bordering on OT but a good story

AZ in Colorado Springs

That exact thing is something I emphasize when I'm giving the safety/orientation class at the wood hobby shop. You don't want to be explaining to the doctor who's suturing your hand, "gosh, I've never seen a board behave that way ..."

Re: Bordering on OT but a good story

DocJim

I, too, have set off my Saw Stop a couple times...once when cutting some foil backed ceiling tile and once when my thumb was sitting in a knothole of a board I was resawing. But this is about the OT comments, especially AZ's. Back in the early seventies I tried for a few years to get into medical school but with only a B average was having no luck. One day I was cutting up a tree that had fallen in our yard and was using a branch saw. I was holding a branch below the Y and cutting toward my fingers and thought to myself just as it happened, "when it cuts through the Y its gonna cut my finger." Well when I was talking to the ER Doc who was sewing up my finger about my frustrated desire to attend medical school he gave me info about someone in NYC who had some connections with foreign medical schools. Fast forward to two years in Mexico (and study sessions with some great guys as the first two years are mostly read and memorize), then two years at Albany Medical College and almost 40 years of rewarding medical practice... Whenever I look at the scar on my finger I appreciate what I had to go through to get to where I am today!