Saw Stop Safety

[Tom Dent]

In the current issue of Fine Woodworking is an advertisement for SawStop which indicates hundreds of people have avoided serious injury by using Sawstop at time of their accidents. Does anyone have first hand experience of placing their own tissue into a running blade or a RELIABLE anecdote of same. Can such accidents be so common? I am not questioning safety, I am questioning incidence. Is there documented evidence of people actually sticking their hand etc in the device

Tom

[jason lambert]

I know of 4 people that have been cought by a table saw. Some really bad others just a big nick but enought to cause permident dammage. It seems like there are no small accidents with tables saws.

[Rick Gifford]

I bet sawstop is willing to provide information backing their claims. My local dealer was talking about the school systems have these now and more are getting them. Savings on liability insurance probably helps that decision.

I haven't seen any creekers postings on sawstop accidents.

I did learn it cost 70 bucks every time the safety device is activated, plus the cost of the blade. The brake engages the blade and both are damaged and need replaced afterward. So with a good $100 blade on there it would be $170! Still better than the emergency bill I guess. If the saw wasn't so darn much money I would have got one.

[John Russell]

http://www.cpsc.gov/volstd/tablesaws/tablesaws.html

[Mike Cutler]

I Is there documented evidence of people actually sticking their hand etc in the device

Tom

You would have to go to emergency room statistics, and accidents reports from companies. I'm sure some insurance company has the statistical data.

I know one person that got their hand caught while resawing on the tablesaw,a nd I know one person that got caught in a mitersaw.
Just this past week, someone here on the board detailed their accident with a tablesaw.

The wording of their claim is a little strange.

"which indicates hundreds of people have avoided serious injury by using Sawstop at time of their accidents"

If hundreds of people have avoided accidents directly by using a Sawstop at the time of the accident, then that means that statistically hundreds have not avoided accidents using other tablesaws, of each manufacturer that has an equal or greater market share to Sawstop.
That's a lot of people sticking their hands in a tablesaw,and I'm going to define it as contact with the blade, because that is SawStops principal safety attribute that separates them from other machines .

They make an outstanding machine, even without the safety brake. But , I still find that statement suspect.

[Tim Marks]

The sawstop website has a list of "saves'.

Challenge #1: read through the list and identify the number of times where using a bladeguard would have prevented the accident without costing them $170 ($70 for a cartridge and $10o for a new sawblade).

http://www.sawstop.com/why-sawstop-testimonials.htm

[Jim Becker]

I, too, would suggest you ask the vendor for any specific documentation of their claims. I have no doubt that there have been folks that have benefited from the technology, but there is no independent way to verify such claims that I can think of. I also don't think it's particularly important. If you are considering buying a new "North American design" table saw, SawStop and its technology is worthy of being on the short list, IMHO. Only you can make the determination if it's right for you over other valid choices.

[Jay Knepper]

Ridge Carbide, for one, can repair chipped or missing teeth for much less than $100.

[Mike Henderson]

If I remember correctly, SawStop reports "saves" as reported by their users. So if someone sends SawStop a note saying that the blade stop was triggered and it prevented a serious injury to them, SawStop counts that as a "save". As far as I know, they do not verify the reports.

That claim of "hundreds" saved is since the saw was introduced - don't know how many years that is.

But I would expect other manufacturers have the same injury rate. They probably don't get the reports like SawStop does and they almost certainly wouldn't report the accident rate since that doesn't do anything positive for their sales.

I have a friend who's an ER nurse (and a woodworker) and she reports on saw accidents often - not just table saws, but also circular saws. She sometimes has pictures to show us. And that's just one ER, and just when she's on duty.

Mike

[Bill Wyko]

I have touched the side of the saw blade. I was lucky though, I didn't touch the teeth. That will scare the cheetos out of ya.If I had the extra money, I'd go Saw Stop. One trip to the ER will usually pay for a Saw Stop.

[Randy Klein]

I know of 2 incidents. 1 at my local woodcraft store where the guy fed his hand into the blade while ripping. That would have been nasty otherwise. The other was at the base's shop, where the guy was flicking the offcut away after passing the blade (something he says he does all the time), and just flicked too early. A guard would have prevented this.

[Rick Gifford]

If we are talking about accidents outside the sawstop saves, then I know a life long buddy that had his fingers removed by a TS.

Think of a diagonal cut starting at the index finger below the first joint, ending just below the finger nail at the pinky. All those fingers were removed.

He was 13 years old at the time, no guard in place and NO SUPERVISION!

He has lived the past 28 years without those fingers.

I use push sticks like crazy, and think of Dwayne's accident when using the table saw.

One reason I am getting a new TS with the riving knife and easy on/off feature. I should have no excuse to keep the guards on now.

[Ron Bontz]

My 2 cents. Working as a paramedic I have seen a few table saw accidents. They are never pretty and it is usually a younger person getting the injury. The ER bills can be quite high not to mention the bill from plastic surgery etc. For what it is worth, I would rather hear someone complain about the cost of a blade etc. than have to explain to them they may loose several fingers for breaking a safety rule. With that said, if I did not already have a unisaw I would seriously consider the purchase of the saw stop. With the litigation these days the way it is, I would not be surprised if some time in the near future all saws including circular saws don't wind up with this safety device. Hence I would not even worry about the stats. on saves. One would be enough for me. Well, OK that's more like 10 cents worth.

[Billy Dodd]

I was checking out their website last night and am very impressed with the video where they cut into a hot dog. So much so that I'm trying to talk the Ol' lady into an extra 1000 to get one.( as per another post I put on I'm going to get a cabinet saw this week if I figure out which one I want) As for the testimony goes one trip to the emergency room without insurance would cost you probably as much as your house to get your fingers sewed back on. Then there's the probability of not being able to work again and how hard is it to collect social security to pay your bills for not being able to work. Just my 2 cents worth.

[Roger Bull]

SawStop asks for the spent cartridges to be returned after a 'save'. It stores the electronic profile of the contact. Contact with flesh shows a different profile than from contact with metal or wet wood. This would be one way for them to determine actual flesh contact. I suspect most users would gladly send their cartridges in for a free replacement after a save.

On a related note, while researching SawStop prior to buying, I called SawStop to find out how many failures (failure to fire when contacting flesh) they had. I assumed that nothing will work 100% of the time. I was told emphatically that there had never been a failure when the blade contacted flesh. The stops worked 100% of the time as of mid-December 2007.

-Roger