Comments on: CPSC Table Saw Rules: Emotion vs. Numbers

By: GunnyGene

GunnyGene — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 16:31:54 +0000

PS: I figured it out. The comment site doesn’t like FireFox. Works ok in Chrome.

By: GunnyGene

GunnyGene — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 14:10:34 +0000

Ok. I cleared the cache, and got to the regulations.gov and found the document. But they won’t let me submit a comment. I get the same message as above. I have cookies enabled, and am not blocking scripts.

I guess they are going to force people to use snail mail.

By: Robert W. Lang

Robert W. Lang — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 21:25:31 +0000

You may be viewing a cached version of this post, links are currently working. You can get there from http://www.regulations.gov

Bob Lang

By: GunnyGene

GunnyGene — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 15:22:26 +0000

The link you provided for comment says:

“Document does not exist

The document you requested does not exist on Regulations.gov. The Web address may be incorrect, or the document may have been withdrawn.”

By: Recruiter

Recruiter — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 21:48:03 +0000

I have always been on the side of “Don’t use the tools, unless you know how”. In this case, they can be extremely dangerous. Education is the key, not government mandates.
When I took my first shop class in school, I remember my teacher giving us a long lesson on the proper way to use the table saw. He immediately followed up with a demonstration on the effects when you don’t pay attention. With everyone out of the way, he proceded to put a board through the running blade, and let it kickback. It threw the board sailing 30 feet, and smashed into the far wall.
That leaves an impression and a lot of respect for the tool.
If you don’t use the tool properly, its only a matter of time, before you are going to have an accident. This, to me, is a case where the government is going to regulate the table saw so tightly, that people are going to be complacent, and accidents that weren’t happening before, will start to happen, because they may take more chances.

By: tpobrienjr

tpobrienjr — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 21:10:42 +0000

While we’re at it, how about a performance-based specification for table saws that would eliminate kickback, which might not mangle your hands but has plenty of ability to to cause trauma?

By: tpobrienjr

tpobrienjr — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 21:03:09 +0000

Some wise fella once wrote that nothing can be made foolproof – there are too many fools.

By: tpobrienjr

tpobrienjr — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 21:01:44 +0000

It seems to me that a good alternative to the Gass patent has been overlooked.

No solution I’ve seen, including the PTI solution, uses a clutch and brake. If the arbor is disconnected from the motor shaft by a clutch, then stopped by a brake, it can be done pretty fast – in a few milliseconds. The reason is that the angular momentum of the motor is removed from the picture when a clutch disconnects it from the arbor. Then the arbor, having much less angular momentum, can be stopped by a suitable brake. I would also consider making the arbor from a lightweight alloy, which would also have a somewhat smaller moment of inertia. Jamming a moving blade, with the motor’s momentum attached, into an aluminum block, seems to be a brute-force approach.

This approach I describe avoids destroying the blade, but it might need to use the Gass patent’s flesh-sensing technology or some other technology to operate quickly enough.

By: Robert W. Lang

Robert W. Lang — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 20:00:20 +0000

On page 192 (page 7 of TAB C)of this document from CPSC:

http://www.cpsc.gov/LIBRARY/FOIA/FOIA11/brief/tablesaw.pdf

is the following statement:

“SawStop has also developed a prototype bench saw, which will probably cost just under $1,000.
This is expensive for a bench saw, several hundred dollars more than the most expensive bench saw ($600, according to PTI) currently available.”

Bob Lang

By: Robert W. Lang

Robert W. Lang — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 19:14:33 +0000

I’ve added (retail price) to the sentence up above to clarify that part of the post. And I’m off to dig through my notes about that.

Bob Lang