So we’re caught in a catch 22. The majority of home and contractor table saws don’t have this feature because the licensing is too expensive to implement it. No one can make a similar blade stopper because of the patent.
I don’t see this changing. The saw stopper saws aren’t going to put the major brands out of business.
The licensing isn’t too expensive. The proposed Ryobi deal was a 3% royalty against wholesale, with no upfront licensing fee. On a $1000 product you’re talking about a $30 cost hike - assuming the manufacturer chooses not to eat the cost given improved sales projections. Certainly not outside the norm. The major manufacturers apparently just didn’t believe their customers valued their fingers more than $30. In practice, the cost to implement the SawStop feature would probably be a bit higher given the new tooling and whatnot, but still.
In some ways the SawStop seems like a solution to a (largely) non-existent problem. I can’t cite any statistics, mainly because I’m at work and don’t have the time or inclination to do the research, but I don’t bet that cutting off one’s finger is a huge problem for the table saw-using population. I’ve been using them in shops, my former career and currently as a garage woodworker for over 25 years and have never heard of someone cutting their finger off on a tablesaw, unless they were drunk or really clueless about how to use it. I seriously doubt I’d pay a few hundred extra for that technology, any more than I’d pay extra for protective technology to keep me from accidentally putting a pneumatic nail gun to the side of my head and pulling the trigger.
The bigger problem, for beginners and professionals, is kickback. And the SawStop does nothing about that.
SawStop’s customer research indicates that the system has prevented 2,000 injuries since 2004. Make of that figure what you will, but presumably they didn’t make all of them up.
I guess if you consider approx. 33,000 injuries a year and 4,000 amputations a vanishingly small number, then it’s not a big deal.
(That was about a 30 second Google search.)
Granted, approximately 60% of the incidents involved people deliberately removing the safety guards and anti-kickback equipment, but the auto-brake technology would still have helped in those cases. “It won’t happen to me” is a pretty common attitude among table saw users.
If you want a low cost/benefits ratio, go argue with automakers. Your car is full of safety equipment that is activated in case of an accident. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates 3,000 lives are saved each yearby airbags.
ETA: I know losing a finger is not the same as losing a life, but people don’t tend to be killed by table saws, and car accidents don’t tend to lop off fingers. They’re just pretty much the most serious outcomes for the two different machines.
Given that we find out about these lacerations because people went to emergency rooms to have them stitched up, it’s possible that the severity of those lacerations might be a tiny bit worse than those inflicted by a Saw Stop. As in – someone get a mop, because there’s blood all over the shop floor.
That was my thought. I also had the 20 year patent duration in my head, but I wonder if anyone can cite that such a patent definitely is only 20 years?
I know one guy whose finger is split down the middle for a little less than an inch, and one who’s missing one knuckle on his ring finger. And I’m only 26. It’s not a massive problem, but if it’s a reasonably-priced safety feature, and I think it will be when the patent does run out or someone develops a good alternative, then why not add it?
And kickback doesn’t have anything at all to do with this. There’s no reason to refuse an improvement just because it doesn’t solve some other problem.
You’re right, but I was only speaking for myself that it seemed kind of an unnecessary solution to something that happened so infrequently. But I’ll admit I’m surprised at how many blade contact injuries there apparently are. I just think that in many cases, the operator will use even less care and caution knowing there’s a fail-safe.
I guess poetic justice for me will be that I accidentally cut my finger off in my shop this weekend.
The largest percentage of table saw injuries are from portable table saws. These saws are designed to be light and transportable. They are also have a very competitive market so low price points are important for sales.
Those two factors make manufacturers not want to include it even if the patent was free to them. It would make the saw heavier and it would make the saw cost more.
Saw Stop does not make a portable. Their lightest table saw is a contractor saw at 225 pounds. Portables are 50-100 pounds. I don’t think the a Saw Stop feature weighs all that much but even 5 pounds is a huge percent increase.
The cheapest of the portable saws are 80-100 bucks. I doubt most people buying those saws would be willing to pay 60-100 percent more for a saw stop feature.
The portables are not as safe as any of the semi-portable or stationary saws for many reasons beyond blade contact.
Not using a portable and using a saw with a saw stop feature would certainly cut down on table saw injuries. People want to buy cheap things and live dangerously so we’ll continue to see injuries because of that.
If a manufacturer includes this safety feature, they may be opening themselves up to lawsuits brought by individuals who hurt themselves doing dangerous things, and then claimed that they thought that the SawStop should have protected them.
By not including it, they can simply say “don’t be stupid, and you won’t get hurt.”
The physics are pretty simple. An electronic signal is near instantaneous. This feature is for 10" Saw blades. A 10" saw blade weighs less than 2 pounds. It doesn’t take much stopping power to stop a 2 pound object in a fraction of a second.
Watch the videos it can and does do what they claim.
If the blade is set at the proper height (which they didn’t do in the video) and a feeder board and feather board are used then body parts should never be close to the blade in the first place. There are far more dangerous pieces of equipment than a table saw.
I own a SawStop. My choice was a Jet, a Laguna or a SawStop, after winnowing down from a larger list. My SawStop is a 36-inch professional with T-Glide. I use all of the guards, along with push sticks, push blocks, featherboards, etc. I measure three/four times and cut once.
SawStop has kickback protection.
I learned on my father’s ShopSmith that had no guards. Even the pulleys were exposed.
Not necessarily. The guy in the video doesn’t use a feather board (the piece of wood was probably too small to be effective anyway), but does have it set to the proper height and uses a feeder handle thing. He just about loses a finger or two in the process.
The correct answer is to use a riving knife or splitter (which SawStop includes on their saws by default).