I didn't want this to get buried in the previous post, but I think that rumors are bad and their seemed to be more than the usual amount of trffic on a post. So I went right to the horse in this case and asked (Note: I asked them via e-mail this moring and received this response the sme afternoon.). The following is their lengthy response to my e-mail.

"Dear Mr. Schierer,

Thanks for your email and interest in our technology. Yes, there are a lot
of rumors floating around on the various woodworking forums regarding our
technology. When we begin shipping our saws later this year and around the
beginning of next year, hopefully a lot of those rumors will be put to rest.

Let me try to respond to your comments and answer your questions in the
order presented. First, I agree that in the past people have tended to
disconnect safety devices because they interfere with what they were doing,
but I believe SawStop will be different. Our technology does not interfere
with how the saw is used, so there will be no motivation to disconnect the
device. Also, our saws will have a self-test system that detects whether key
components are installed and functioning properly. If not, then the saw will
not run.

If you have an accident and our system is triggered, the user will have to
replace a brake cartridge ($59) and probably the saw blade. The process is
simple and takes about as much time as changing the blade. Hopefully, most
users will not have an accident and will not need to replace the brake
cartridge, but if they do, we do not think the cost of the cartridge and a
new blade will be a significant impediment when compared to the increased
safety of the saw.

Yes, we and around 350 other individuals jointly filed a petition with the
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to look at adopting new performance
based safety standards for table saws. You can see a copy of the petition at
http://www.cpsc.gov/library/foia/foi...ladesawpt1.pdf.

We filed the petition because we think it will help make saws safer. Every
year in the U.S. there are over 30,000 serious injuries involving table
saws. About 10% of these are amputations, and about 1.5% are to teenagers
and young adults. These injuries come at a tremendous cost to society in
medical expenses, disability, worker's comp, and rehabilitation, not to
mention pain and suffering. These injuries can now be minimized, and we
believe they should be.

We recognize there is only a very small chance the petition will be granted,
mainly because our saws are not yet out in the field. Nevertheless, we
believe the petition is worthwhile because it will allow the CPSC to analyze
both the technology and the cost to society of table saw injuries. Society
will then have more information to decide whether to adopt new safety
standards after our technology has been in the field for a period of time.

We also hope that filing the petition will motivate other manufacturers to
adopt something like our technology sooner than they otherwise would. We
have spent the last two years talking with all of the major saw
manufacturers about our technology, but no manufacturer has adopted the
technology. They all agree the technology is great, but they would have to
redesign their saws and retool their manufacturing to adopt it, and none of
them want to incur that cost if they can avoid it. The result is that people
are being injured unnecessarily.

We recognize that requiring table saws to be manufactured with something
like SawStop will limit how manufacturers can make saws, and will limit what
saws people can buy, but when we weigh that against the benefit of
minimizing tens of thousands of severe injuries every year - many to
students and employees who do not choose what saw they work on - we come
down on the side of minimizing the injuries. It is the same rationale that
is behind the regulations that currently require blade guards on saws, and
seat belts in cars - the benefits outweigh the costs.

Thanks again for your email. Let us know if you have any other questions.

David Fanning

SawStop, LLC
22409 SW Newland Road 503-638-6201
Wilsonville, OR 97070 503-638-8601 fax
fanning@sawstop.com www.sawstop.com

"