ROFL,Commentary by Colbert

[tommyt654]

Please take this for what it is and keep comments out of the range of independant views, Its meant to be a poke at Gass , http://www.colbertnation.com/the-col...rica---sawstop

[jimmy0x52]

Hahaha I saw this last night. Pretty funny stuff.

My wife was watching and said "Why don't you get one of those?" and when my eyes lit up she immediately asked how much they were.

She told me to just be careful after I told her how much

[chopnhack]

OMG, that was so funny!!! ahhahaha... you can have my saw when you take it out of my cold 9.5 fingers

I wish Gass would focus his energy on a retrofit kit of some sort.

Loring, would it be possible to stop a steel saw blade with an electromagnetic field? Would that be something feasible in a small package?

[woodinville guy]

Personally, I don't think the blade stopping is the key factor other than stopping the blade and destroying it. I think the key factor is the retraction of the blade. Seems that if they made a saw stop like device that retracted the blade down and back you would achieve the same results without destroying the blade and it "could" work with any size blade or dado because the operation is on the arbor not the saw blade.

I'm an engineer, but not a mechanical engineer. What do you guys think?

If He really wanted to save fingers he would "open source" the invention and let the tool manufacturers make use of it rather than license it.

[natausch]

Interesting that Colbert talked about this one since Stewart has talked about being a woodworker before, apparently since Tom Selleck talked him into it.

In fact he pitched becoming one to Jennifer Aniston on a show last year.

[LCHIEN]

i suspect that the safety aspect comes from A) the detection, B) a quick acting brake that
C) causes the energy in the blade to be redirected into pushing the blade downwards.

simply applying a braking force like a car brake be it electro-magnetic fields or disk brakes that doesn't assymetrically bite into the blade and redirect it probably won't stop it fast enough to prevent damage.

[big tim]

Video not available in Canada! Too bad.

Tim

[RodKirby]

Video not available in Canada! Too bad.

Tim

Or Oz.......

[Richard in Smithville]

And I wanted to see it too

[jaybee]

Yes, it is available in Canada

You go to:

http://shows.ctv.ca/ColbertReport.aspx

Choose the file from Feb 13th. It comes in 4 parts and the one you want is part 1 of 4. The website does not necessarily start at part 1 (very annoying - when I watched it started at part 2 and I had to skip through 2,3, and 4 before getting back to part 1).

[Mildoc]

Seems that if they made a saw stop like device that retracted the blade down and back you would achieve the same results without destroying the blade and it "could" work with any size blade or dado because the operation is on the arbor not the saw blade.

Agreed. Ever seen 1 or more fingers sliced off? I have, in the ER. Tip of 1 finger, not too bad. Then there are the idiots who lose whole fingers!!!

OTOH, retracting the blade and stopping the saw should be good enough.

[vaking]

Loring hit the nail on the head. The whole idea of sawstop is that it uses kinetic energy of a fast spinning blade to retract the blade under the table. If you try to operate on the arbor - you are doomed.
In order to understand how sawstop works picture the following:
The blade is spinning at 3000+ RPM around the arbor. Your finger comes in contact with the blade at the point nearest to you. The tooth that would normally be cutting the wood is about to cut your limb. Sawstop has electric sensor that detects that blade came in contact with the flesh. The sensor triggers 2 things to happen simultaneously:
1). A hefty chunk of metal gets jammed into the tooth exactly opposite to the one that is cutting your finger. That makes that point on the blade to stop moving.
2). Arbor gets disengaged and the blade is now able to move at the arbor.
The combination of these 2 factors result in the fact that blade continues spinning but now it has a new center of rotation. The one point on the blade that cannot move - that tooth that just grabbed the chunk of metal - is the new center. The new center is the tooth opposite your finger, so that tooth is under the table farthest away from you. It means the blade is rapidly moving under the table propelled by its own momentum. Once it is under the table - your finger is safe and what happens to the blade under the table is unimportant. The goal had been accomplished.

Now if you were to try to stop the blade or to pull it under the table without using blade's own momentum (operating on the arbor) - you would need a very big source of energy. Don't even think of using electrical outlet for it - current you need will blow circuit brakers off the wall. Notice that electric brad nailers are pathetic - they can't drive 2" brad and you want to pull a spinning blade under the table within similar amount of time? You will need to steal a battery from your Prius (the one that weighs hundreds of pounds), strap it to your table saw and keep constantly charged to pull a thing like this. Imagine how much such solution will cost and how much it will weigh?

What puzzles me the most is the amount of wining about a blade being destroyed by the sawstop. I understand objections to the sawstop because it will make the saw several hundred dollars more expensive or because it will make the saw heavier. Here you are thinking that there are 4000 people a year going to ER because of saw blade accidents, but there are hundreds of thousands of saws in use. So chances of you being one of the victims are not that high. Those several hundred dollars premium for sawstop are kind of insurance that will only pay off if you actually stick your finger in the blade. Is it worth it? It is a matter of opinion.
But when the sawstop sensor triggers - it means you already put your finger in the blade. There is no more hypothetical if or insurance. By all accounts now you should be sitting in the ER praying that doctors can reattach your flesh. Sawstop just saved your sorry ... limbs and you are wining you have to spend $100 for a new blade? That is just petty, you got no sympathy from me. You don't want to spend $100? - learn your lesson and don't put your fingers in the blade again. Hundred bucks is a cheap price for such a lesson.

[jackellis]

Seems that if they made a saw stop like device that retracted the blade down and back you would achieve the same results without destroying the blade and it "could" work with any size blade or dado because the operation is on the arbor not the saw blade.

It might be possible, but it might also be a lot more costly than the workings iun a Sawstop.

I can see where the cost of replacement cartridges might add up in a classroom environment with lots of inexperienced users. If more than one blade is destroyed every few years by hobbyists or in a production environment, it indicates a real safety problem. The cost of destroyed blades should be the least of anyone's worries.

If I was in the market for a new saw, and I'm not, I'd be put off by the huge price premium of a Sawstop.

[woodinville guy]

the problem I have is about misfires of the saw stop. At our local community college we have two saw stops and the saws are nice. The instructor has seen it fire twice, once on lumber with a higher moisture content the other on MDF.

The other problem is that if you have a cross cut sled on the table it is finicky about starting the blade.

[tommyt654]

Ahem,"Its meant to be a poke at Gass " falling on deaf ears again I gather, cmon folks its not a debate.