Saw stop and a glove

[anthonyz]

After some time and seeing a guy at the local Woodcraft who managed to cut of 4 fingers (they saved them and $40k later) I think it's about time to save for that Saw Stop. Since it will still be sometime, before competitors can get another saw on the market due to Patents, I guess I am stuck with getting a Saw Stop Professional series.

Over all I think it's a good investment to add the safety feature. I have been critical of the Saw Stop Demos, because they always seem to move slowly into the blade, as not to break the Skin of the hot dog they use for demo. Finally someone has done a demo with a hot dog moving quickly into the blade and in a glove, which though you are not suppose to wear gloves, this rule was designed because gloves used to be loose fitting and could get caught by the blade. I do wear gloves in the shop, but I wear tight fitting Fastcap Skins and if it's getting caught in the blade it's because my hand is already in the blade.

Check out this video by Todd Clippinger

 

[Birdhunter]

I'm a Sawstop owner (Industrial version) and a real fan.

I suggest you buy the over arm blade guard/dust collector option and the mobile base option. Both are really good accessories.

I replaced both the saw blade and miter gauge on my Sawstop. Other than those two items, I believe the machine is incredible.

Even with the Sawstop, I don't wear gloves or long sleeve shirts around power tools.

 

[anthonyz]

I'm a Sawstop owner (Industrial version) and a real fan.

I suggest you buy the over arm blade guard/dust collector option and the mobile base option. Both are really good accessories.

I replaced both the saw blade and miter gauge on my Sawstop. Other than those two items, I believe the machine is incredible.

Even with the Sawstop, I don't wear gloves or long sleeve shirts around power tools.

Those are definitely Upgrades I plan on doing. Thanks

 

[jbasen]

I'm also a Sawstop owner (professional version).  I saw a live demo by a female Sawstop employee where she jammed the hot dog into the blade as fast as she possibly could.  Much faster than I would ever move cutting a board.  The saw responded exactly as you would have expected and there was, as is shown on all the videos I've seen, a very minor nick in the hot dog.

I would highly recommend that you get the saw with the 3hp motor vs. the 1.75hp motor.  Having used both saws I found the 3hp to be, not only much more powerful, but much smoother too.  And this is comparing the 3hp motor to the 1.75 hp motor with the 1.75 hp motor wired for 220 volts. 

As [member=15289]Birdhunter[/member] suggested, the overarm blade guard (with built in dust collection) and mobile base are both excellent options.

Hope this helps 

 

[Kev]

I'm going to say this ...

If I was operating a school of novices and/or children I would value the saw stop immensely as a way to avoid very nasty claims. As a personal user of a table saw, my fingers WILL NEVER go anywhere near the blade. Further, to me a sliding table (a proper one like a Felder .. not an add on to a cabinet saw) gives far greater safety across a broader ranger of table saw related issues.

 

[Stone Message]

I was not convinced by the demo and I am worried that people may have a false sense of security having seen it.

The sausage in the glove was not behaving like a finger or thumb in a glove would behave. Look carefully and you will see that as the glove makes contact with the saw blade it stops moving forward but the wood underneath continues to travel into the moving blade. You will also see the glove spring back to its original position with a kerf line going through its original position.

I do not believe that would happen in real life as one would (in the scenario shown) be pushing the wood with the gloved hand and it would therefore continue to travel with the wood below.

Now I am not saying that the Sawstop system would fail. I am just saying that this demonstration does not prove that it would work in a real life situation.

If you have a Sawstop please do not become complacent after seeing this ambiguous demonstration.

I think Todd Clippinger has an excellent video persona.

Peter

 

[Birdhunter]

I have a plastic replica of a severed finger as the pull for the lights over my Sawstop. I cannot prove it makes me more careful, but it might.

I think the Sawstop safety feature has made me more careful, not less so. It is very expensive to replace the saw blade and the cartridge.....also embarrassing.

Also, if you have the space and the money, the Industrial model is a big step up from the Professional. You get a much bigger table and a lot more cast iron. My saw has no discernible vibration and the big motor drives the Forrest blade through the hardest wood like butter.

 

[Bohdan]

Speaking from experience I wish that I had had that feature on the saw that left me with a permanent modification to my hand.

The sausage demo, with or without glove, is nothing like the real world. The panel that I was cutting kicked, flipped over and in a fraction of a second my hand, which had been a long way from the blade, was never the same.

I believe that if that feature had been on my saw the most that I would have suffered would have been a nasty cut that would have healed with maybe a scar. I wouldn't have needed the five hours of surgery and months of physio to rebuild my hand.

It may be an expensive, and some people argue, unnecessary feature but once it happens to you, you will wish that you had spent the money many time over.

 

[festnoob]

I had a Sawstop 3HP before I lost my shop space. I bought mine because of the safety features but it was no doubt a quality table saw (At least in my opinion- for I could only compare it to a Ridgid granite top and a craftsman).

I built a hefty cross cut sled with a kreg miter stop rail on top. As I was cross cutting a thick piece of walnut, I left the blade up too high and the blade made contact with the blue kreg rail. BAM! I was like, "what the heck was that??"

After I realized I had tripped the brake there was about 1/16" notch in the aluminum rail, my woodworker II had three teeth missing, and I had to replace the brake, but at least I know it worked.

However, the hot dog has no bone or muscle behind it and easily bends back when pushed through the blade. Maybe putting a pencil through it would stiffen it up

 

[Brice Burrell]

I was not convinced by the demo and I am worried that people may have a false sense of security having seen it.

The sausage in the glove was not behaving like a finger or thumb in a glove would behave. Look carefully and you will see that as the glove makes contact with the saw blade it stops moving forward but the wood underneath continues to travel into the moving blade. You will also see the glove spring back to its original position with a kerf line going through its original position.

I do not believe that would happen in real life as one would (in the scenario shown) be pushing the wood with the gloved hand and it would therefore continue to travel with the wood below.

Now I am not saying that the Sawstop system would fail. I am just saying that this demonstration does not prove that it would work in a real life situation.

If you have a Sawstop please do not become complacent after seeing this ambiguous demonstration.

I think Todd Clippinger has an excellent video persona.

Peter

I had the same thoughts as Peter watching the video.  I don't want to see a hot dog on a board.  The speed of the contact of blade and the hot dog will be limited by how fast the saw can cut the board.  I'd like to see a stick placed in the hot dog and jammed into the blade as fast as possible, not on a board. 

 

[jeh]

Speaking from experience I wish that I had had that feature on the saw that left me with a permanent modification to my hand.

The sausage demo, with or without glove, is nothing like the real world. The panel that I was cutting kicked, flipped over and in a fraction of a second my hand, which had been a long way from the blade, was never the same.

I believe that if that feature had been on my saw the most that I would have suffered would have been a nasty cut that would have healed with maybe a scar. I wouldn't have needed the five hours of surgery and months of physio to rebuild my hand.

It may be an expensive, and some people argue, unnecessary feature but once it happens to you, you will wish that you had spent the money many time over.

For those who don't think it will ever happen to them because their fingers will never get near the blade should give this example some thought. Thanks for posting. For anyone who is purchasing a tablesaw there is no reason not to buy a SawStop (or possibly the Bosch when it is released). The price differential is irrelevant when you are at the hospital hoping they can reattach your finger(s) as Bodhan was.

 

[jbasen]

I suggest you scroll down on this page on the sawstop web site. 
http://www.sawstop.com/why-sawstop/testimonials

If you click on the pictures that have been sent in by people who's hands were saved by the safety mechanism you can read exactly how people described how their accident happened.  While some are people came slowly into contact with the blade while making a cut, this one jumped out at me:

"Some stacked material fell over and pushed my hand into the blade. SawStop saved my finger and allowed me to avoid a costly trip to the hospital."

That would not have been the slow movement of the hotdog demo.

I was at a woodworking show a number of years ago when they demoed the sawstop with a chicken bone instead of a hot dog.  Much more like a finger than a hot dog is.  I think they use a hot dog just because it is easier for people to see the small cut that the saw leaves.

 

[anthonyz]

I was not convinced by the demo and I am worried that people may have a false sense of security having seen it.

The sausage in the glove was not behaving like a finger or thumb in a glove would behave. Look carefully and you will see that as the glove makes contact with the saw blade it stops moving forward but the wood underneath continues to travel into the moving blade. You will also see the glove spring back to its original position with a kerf line going through its original position.

I do not believe that would happen in real life as one would (in the scenario shown) be pushing the wood with the gloved hand and it would therefore continue to travel with the wood below.

Now I am not saying that the Sawstop system would fail. I am just saying that this demonstration does not prove that it would work in a real life situation.

If you have a Sawstop please do not become complacent after seeing this ambiguous demonstration.

I think Todd Clippinger has an excellent video persona.

Peter

Good Point Peter, they should have nailed the hotdog finger to the board to keep in moving with the wood. My goal is to never put my hands near the blade, and in the 20 years I have worked on Table saws I have had several scares, but no trips to the ER. Those remind you to not get too comfortable. The Saw stop would just be that added protection, but I would still be avoiding even getting nicked. heck, I hate even getting paper cuts and splinters. lol

BTW, thanks for all the great videos you have done, learned a lot from them.

As JimH2 stated, there is really no reason for the most part not to purchase one, adding that extra layer of protection, and it just may make you more conscience about what you are doing when it will cost you a cartridge, and a blade, if you are not paying attention. I think most would be more thoughtful of this, than think about the Doctor bill for an accident to their hands until it happens. Sad but true, It's one reason I happily move to Festool to reduce breathing in all the dust, the Doctor bills for that later in age, will cost more than the tools do. Those who often complain about tool prices, are not looking at the long term benefits to their health and those costs and suffering.

 

[HMR]

While researching tablesaws, I saw many of these threads saying the hotdog demo "isn't realistic".  I started to agree.  Then it occurred to me that I've never seen a single report of the Sawstop mechanism NOT working fast enough to limit damage in a real world accident.  If people are being injured by Sawstops, wouldn't we hear about it?

My new PCS arrives this week.

 

[Stone Message]

While researching tablesaws, I saw many of these threads saying the hotdog demo "isn't realistic".  I started to agree.  Then it occurred to me that I've never seen a single report of the Sawstop mechanism NOT working fast enough to limit damage in a real world accident.  If people are being injured by Sawstops, wouldn't we hear about it?

My new PCS arrives this week.

I agree with you and do not think for a minute that there is anything wrong with Sawstop. I just think that the demo in the video is not convincing and not doing their product justice.

Peter

 

[Holmz]

While researching tablesaws, I saw many of these threads saying the hotdog demo "isn't realistic".  I started to agree.  Then it occurred to me that I've never seen a single report of the Sawstop mechanism NOT working fast enough to limit damage in a real world accident.  If people are being injured by Sawstops, wouldn't we hear about it?

My new PCS arrives this week.

We hear about everything else (like Kapex motors) so I assume that we would.

Ideally their mechanism would be licensed to other manufactures.
So a SawStop on an Erika, or a SawStop on a Kapex.

 

[Birdhunter]

I triggered the Sawstop safety a few months ago. I was using a tenoning jig (metal) and slightly misjudged how close to the blade the jig would come.

There was the slightest of scratches on the jig and "bam" the safety action was triggered. It was incredibly fast.

The saw blade was junk, but no teeth separated and no blood was shed. The saw remained perfectly aligned.

I never want to test the saw with my flesh, but I have no doubt it would save my fingers.

 

[Kev]

While researching tablesaws, I saw many of these threads saying the hotdog demo "isn't realistic".  I started to agree.  Then it occurred to me that I've never seen a single report of the Sawstop mechanism NOT working fast enough to limit damage in a real world accident.  If people are being injured by Sawstops, wouldn't we hear about it?

My new PCS arrives this week.

We hear about everything else (like Kapex motors) so I assume that we would.

Ideally their mechanism would be licensed to other manufactures.
So a SawStop on an Erika, or a SawStop on a Kapex.

A better mouse trap please!! The mass of the spinning blade creates the problem ... solve the problem differently. I'd love to see a 3mm wide chain cutting solution ... surely we have the technology for that these days [blink]

 

[Holmz]

[member=13058]Kev[/member] - Do I get a kickback?

 

[promark747]

I'm kind of surprised the owner/inventor of the SS has never done a video demo using his actual finger and feeding at normal speed.  What does he have to fear?