Safe table saw

[Woodstramp]

Years ago, a buddy of mine (a professional cabinet maker) had a table saw accident. He got in a hurry, was drinking beer at the time, momentarily lost concentration and lost the tips of his pinky and ring finger on his ancient table saw.

When I asked him what happened he replied: "Darwin has those fingertips, now."

[atahoekid]

From the point of view of a safety guy. I don't have any complaints about the SawStop or any other brand of equipment, as long as the machine has been designed with safety in mind and no operator revisions have been made, the operator is THOROUGHLY educated about the safe and proper methods in the use of the equipment and can demonstrate safe use of the equipment. In addition, the operator absolutely must pay attention at all times and at no time is the drinking of alcoholic beverages or the use of medication (over-the-counter, prescription or illegal) that reduces the level of alertness allowed.

You are simply delaying the inevitable should you ever take safety too lightly. These machines can and will seriously injure you.

It takes well designed machinery and an unwavering attention to the task at hand to stay safe.

Don't mean to preach but for those of you who are using power equipment (or hand tools) without proper safety guards or precautions, I urge you to think twice about the high price of injury. Not just the $$$ but the lifelong impact of not having all 10 fingers, both eyes, or worse

[Wolffarmer]

There is no such a thing and a "Safe" anything. There is only degrees of less dangerous. Saw Stop is probably the lest dangerous saw out there for the occasional to moderate user. A major problem I see with it is putting it on lower level saws. That are even more used by inexperienced people. I just can't see it on a saw costing less that $750-$1000. Looks like it needs a substantial frame/table top. I have a pretty decent cabinet saw, took the guard off it within days. I guess I should put a riving knife on it. I have checked the alignment on it and all. I use push sticks, fence sliders, feather boards, sleds and a good dose of common sense. ( I hope ) In 2007 I did get a finger into my older saw. just cut the tip of it a bit, didn't need to go to the Doc. But I sure did fear what I was going to find when i opened my hand I had wrapped around it.

Is the inventor of it pushing for his technology to be mandatory? I am not sure, but does look like it. I have seen a web page for another technology that can even be retrofitted to older saws. It can't stop the blade as quick, but it senses a finger before it touches the blade. It looks like to me that if it does work it can be used on things like band saws. Jointers also scare the crap out of me.

Randy

[smatthew]

I always thought the saw-stop was neat, but totally overpriced until March 20th, around 11:30am. I was trimming a board with my table saw, and the waste piece kicked back, and knocked my left had into the blade. Heres what the doctor said:

Essentially the index finger was filleted open. The blade had just filleted it in a coronal plane. The nail was going dorsally and the other fractures went palmarly. Also had another filleted fracture along the hyponychium separating dorsal and palmar pieces

I'd post the pictures in-line here, but I suspect people might object. You can see them here.

This happened on a sunday. On Monday, I went and bought a sawstop contractor saw. It's an incredibly well engineered piece of equipment, even before you get to the technological wonderful-ness that watches out for my fingers now.

And on top of that, It's got a "quick-change" thing with the blade guard. Cutting something <1" wide, so you need to remove the blade guard? Just twist a lever, and it pops out, and you can pop a riving knife in it's place. Done with your narrow cuts? Blade guard is re-installed in 10 seconds, no tools needed.

My dad lost the pieces to hook up the blade guard on my old saw (and no, i'm don't blame him at all. I hated that blade guard). There isn't anything to lose on the sawstop.[/url]

[Sawyer]

This happened on a sunday. On Monday, I went and bought a sawstop contractor saw. It's an incredibly well engineered piece of equipment, even before you get to the technological wonderful-ness that watches out for my fingers now.[/url]

Gnarly! I had a very similar accident years ago, except it was my ring finger that took the brunt of the damage (and not quite as much damage as your finger got) and it was a 3/4" dado blade that was only raised above the table by 3/8". The doctor wanted skin grafts etc, but I had no health insurance and just said stitch it all back together, and it's amazing how well it healed. I got all 3 fingernails back completely and some cool scars, but I don't have much feeling left in my ring or middle finger. All in all, it appears we were both lucky to have not lost entire fingers. Glad you invested in the sawstop, I'm sure you won't be sorry you did (although maybe a little sorry you didn't earlier, at least that's how I felt)...

Heal well!

[smatthew]

Received the bill from the hospital today: $4,778.14. Plus $1,338.18 for the ambulance ride. Total: 6,116.32

Sawstop was only $1599+tax.

The sawstop mechanism is like insurance. You hope you never have to use it, but when the **** hits the fan (or blade), you're glad you've got it.

And since the saw is rated as being one of the best (Fine Woodworking said it tied with the Powermatic PM2000 as the best table saw), I think it's a win-win.