Reading this with interest. Seems like every forum where SS comes up people jump on his original story to show he's some kind of predatory monster.
So let me weigh in with both some data and some speculation...
** I sold a PM66 to buy a SawStop PCS ** If that drives you crazy, hit PgDn now.
What Gass did is what every inventor worth her salt would have done. First you secure protection for your invention (patents). He had a jump start because as a patent atty he could avoid paying outside counsel the $$$ that patents take today. They are (more often than not) rejected by USPTO and it's though a process of "prosecution" back and forth with the examiners that you finally get your award.
Next he goes to the TS manufacturers and offers his tech. Supposedly he offered it for a royalty of 8% of the wholesale price. Since big ticket items typically have less markup from wholesale to retail, let's say the wholesale price of a TS with a $2k retail price is $1500 (depending on retailer volume discounts, rebates, special offers, etc from the mfg). So the mfg would have to modify the saw to incorporate the braking mechanism, the electronics, and the switch with bypass--that's a one time fee. Let's say the modifications would add $100 to the COGS (cost of goods sold) of the saw, and the royalty would be $120, for a total of $220. The manufacturer sees this as a competitive advantage and so decides to either pass the additional COGS on to the retailer, or perhaps decides to eat some of it, expecting to make it up in increased volume through competitive advantage. Assuming the mfg passes it on to the retailer, the retail price of the SuperCutz 5000 table saw now increases from $2000 to $2200 with flesh-sensing technology. It sits on the showroom floor (of Woodcraft) next to the Powermatic 2K for $220 less but without the flesh-sensing tech.
This is the scenario the manufacturers declined to go for, and the reason is simple: they mistakenly believed that increasing the safety factor on a table saw would not lead to competitive advantage. Imagine a meeting at Delta, or Jet:
"Should we license this SawStop thing?"
"Safety doesn't sell--we've see that over and over. We'll just have a more expensive saw than everyone else and lose share."
"So if we tell everyone in the PTI (powertool institute--their trade assn) not to license it, Gass will go away, right?"
"Yeah, or else he'll bring his saw to market and fail."
"Ok, for now we decline. If another mfg wants to get in the pool first, we can see how they do."
This is EXACTLY how these kinds of decisions are made. If even one mfg had licensed the tech all the rest would have fallen into line (slow to adopt; fast to follow). ALso they were worried about potential liability--either for the new tech or for existing tech.
So here's Steve Gass with hand-saving tech no one will buy. He goes to the CPSC (after all it's a SAFETY COMMISSION) and shows them the tech and urges them to consider adopting it as a standard.
What do you think he would do? Just go home and quit?
Nonsense.
And anyone here who says they wouldn't have gone to CPSC in the same situation is probably in denial--having spent a small fortune developing a technology that can prevent great and common harm, but has no buyers? You would just give up? of course not, you would manufacture the saw yourselves, right?
Do you have any idea of what it takes to do something like that? The time, the money, the engineering, logistics, finance, dealer acquisition, marketing, support, and on and on?
To his credit he didn't just build a crappy table saw + his tech--he built arguably the best cabinet saw available + his tech.
Do they answer the phone? Yes. Try calling them or email them or chat on their website.
Do they support their product? Better than most companies. For example, free brake replacement if you stick your finger in the blade. When's the last time you got something free from Festool? Or Delta? Jet? Anybody?
Delta, Jet, General, Bosch, all of them were wrong: safety sells. With over 90,000 saws sold so far, SS is now the #1 selling cabinet saw in North America. And it's not just for the brake: for me the dust collection and the ease of changing from blade guard to riving knife were enough to make it a better option than any competing saw. The safety feature is icing.
I don't care who buys what. I really don't. But to deride this man who made a positive impact on society (hundreds or thousands of fingers saved) for what are normal business practices that almost certainly all of his detractors would have duplicated is just wrong.
