In addition to the plethora of stories on SawStop.com’s testimonials page, there are several photos of fingers that have been saved by SawStop’s braking mechanism. None of them suffered more than a nick. Here’s one of the testimonials that is accompanied by a photo:
“One of my students was ripping a piece of solid stock black walnut. During the cut,the board started to come off the fence at which time his middle finger on his left hand was pulled into the blade. Fortunately for the student, the other students in the room and me, my next tasks of the day were getting the student a band-aid and ordering a new cartridge instead of calling for an ambulance. I’m amazed at how scary the incident was to both the student and me. The rest of my day went a whole lot better than it would have had we not had SawStop table saws in our school woodshop.”
James S. – Industrial Technology Instructor, Illinois
Obviously not every SawStop injury is going to be this minor; factors like the speed of your hand when it contacts the blade are going to affect the severity of your injury. However, these photos are good examples of what you can expect if you use the SawStop carefully and responsibly–as if it is any other table saw without the braking mechanism.
These photos are fantastic examples of how the SawStop can turn what would be costly, life-changing injuries into minor inconveniences. Head over to the testimonials page on SawStop.com to check them out!
We can write about how simple it is to replace the brake cartridge in a SawStop, but nothing will help you understand exactly how simple it is like a video. With that in mind, have a look at this great YouTube clip from Hermance Machine Co.:
As you can see, replacing the brake cartridge is no more difficult than replacing a blade. In the event of an accident, it is possible to have the SawStop up and running again within minutes if necessary–provided that you keep a spare cartridge around. This is great for classroom situations in particular; students are protected from debilitating injury by the SawStop, and at the same time the saw is not rendered useless to other students for an extended period of time if an accident occurs. Win/win!
Check out SawStop products on ToolKing.com.
An interesting table saw safety innovation that is becoming more and more popular is the inclusion of a riving knife just behind the blade. Though the big feature of the SawStop is the brake mechanism, it also includes a riving knife to minimize the risk of another major table saw danger: kickback.
Kickback occurs when the material that’s being cut gets caught on the back edge of the blade. Typically, the material then gets wedged between the blade and the fence and is then propelled back towards the operator at high speed. This can happen for several reasons, and it is never good; wood that is launched in this way can potentially fly fast enough to become embedded in nearby walls, and many people have been severely injured or even killed by kickback.
The purpose of a riving knife is the same as the purpose of a splitter, which is to prevent the cut from closing up behind the blade. This greatly reduces the risk of kickback. However, riving knives have some nice advantages over splitters; they’re pretty low-profile and sit closer to the blade than a splitter, which means that they’re more effective at preventing material from coming back into the path of the blade and they won’t interfere with blade guards and dust collectors. Additionally, they don’t have to be removed for cross-cutting. Ultimately, this means that a riving knife removes a lot of the inconvenience of a splitter while still providing the safety benefit.
Table saws are inherently dangerous to operate, so it’s good that the SawStop engineers have included so many safety features. With that said, all of the safety features in the world are not going to be able to replace common sense and proper technique, so it is still important to know what you’re doing before you fire up a saw.
The folks over at SawStop are not about to quit with table saws; they’re determined to integrate their technology into all kinds of tools. Recently, they released videos of their prototype band saw and chop saw models. You can see those videos below.
Band Saw:
Chop Saw:
Pretty awesome stuff. SawStop says that their technology could be used in all woodworking products, including handheld circular saws, miter saws, jointers, planers, shapers and band saws and chop saws as you saw above. They’re not saying anything about when (or if!) these prototypes will be ready to hit the market yet, so stay tuned for more information as it comes.
