Thunderchyld
Member
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2014
- Messages
- 93
I'm waiting for the Bosch version myself. I liked what they were trying with SawStop, but I lost all respect for the company when they filed the lawsuit trying to make a table saw with safety features a requirement for schools.
Honestly, I'd probably already have bought the sawstop if not for the lawsuit.
If they wanted their saws to start appearing in every school woodshop across the nation, they should have given the schools a great promotion, either direct purchase at a substantial discount or part of a voucher system. If I were in their marketing division, I'd go for the voucher system. School woodshop gets the promo material, hands out the voucher forms to local woodworkers. Woodworker buys a sawstop, school gets say $250 for a contractor/jobsite or $500 for one of the bigger models. Probably limit 2 vouchers per school saw, depending on company finances.
The Bosch/Sawstop conflict really reminds me of another similar issue. Wood chippers, specifically the big tree eaters such as used by arborists, landscapers, and similar. The "standard" safety right now consists of bump bars and pull cords to stop the machine. You need to either have someone around who stops it in an emergency, be on the ball and catch one of the safeties on your way in the chute, or just get lucky and one of your flailing limbs catches the safety. Even after that, there's the delay time while the machine slows down.
Here's where the conflict parallels emerge. There is an electronic detection system available for chippers that uses radio tags similar to those used in a library or in retail for inventory control. From what I hear, it works pretty well. However, good luck finding an actual chipper that uses their system. The company has not entered into successful negotiations with any major chipper manufacturer. The manufacturers keep trying to license the system, but the detector company wants too big of a cut. An analogy I was given would be if the company that made the stereo in your car, with a parts cost of around $200, wanted 10% of the car's sale price.
It's all exacerbated by the fact that the DC did a good job of getting protective patents, none of the in-house attempts from the manufacturers have been able to make it past the patent lawsuits. That of course, is another compounding reason why we won't see a chipper with this tech for a while. The DC spends so much time and money defending it's patents and trying to shake down the manufacturers that they don't have the funding to try and put out their own chipper.
Oh, and of course, if you own one of the major manufacturer's chippers, installing the aftermarket system voids your warranty.
Honestly, I'd probably already have bought the sawstop if not for the lawsuit.
If they wanted their saws to start appearing in every school woodshop across the nation, they should have given the schools a great promotion, either direct purchase at a substantial discount or part of a voucher system. If I were in their marketing division, I'd go for the voucher system. School woodshop gets the promo material, hands out the voucher forms to local woodworkers. Woodworker buys a sawstop, school gets say $250 for a contractor/jobsite or $500 for one of the bigger models. Probably limit 2 vouchers per school saw, depending on company finances.
The Bosch/Sawstop conflict really reminds me of another similar issue. Wood chippers, specifically the big tree eaters such as used by arborists, landscapers, and similar. The "standard" safety right now consists of bump bars and pull cords to stop the machine. You need to either have someone around who stops it in an emergency, be on the ball and catch one of the safeties on your way in the chute, or just get lucky and one of your flailing limbs catches the safety. Even after that, there's the delay time while the machine slows down.
Here's where the conflict parallels emerge. There is an electronic detection system available for chippers that uses radio tags similar to those used in a library or in retail for inventory control. From what I hear, it works pretty well. However, good luck finding an actual chipper that uses their system. The company has not entered into successful negotiations with any major chipper manufacturer. The manufacturers keep trying to license the system, but the detector company wants too big of a cut. An analogy I was given would be if the company that made the stereo in your car, with a parts cost of around $200, wanted 10% of the car's sale price.
It's all exacerbated by the fact that the DC did a good job of getting protective patents, none of the in-house attempts from the manufacturers have been able to make it past the patent lawsuits. That of course, is another compounding reason why we won't see a chipper with this tech for a while. The DC spends so much time and money defending it's patents and trying to shake down the manufacturers that they don't have the funding to try and put out their own chipper.
Oh, and of course, if you own one of the major manufacturer's chippers, installing the aftermarket system voids your warranty.
