Dado's & Saw Safety

[Sam Salter]

I was reading a thread last night on this forum about dado's not being readily available in the UK and that table saw manufacturers don't make the arbour big enough to take a dado. I understood that it's to do with EC safety regs. and the blade having to brake to a stop in 10 secs - plenty of time to cut a finger or 5 off!

As a Brit living in Canada, I wasn't aware of this situation & it quite surprised me. Needless to say, I've got a dado for my table saw & use it all the time over here.

Anyway, I don't want to get people's knickers in a twist about dado's or no dado's.

Are you guy's aware of a newish product in the states called SawStop? http://www.sawstop.com/home.htm.
It doesn't brake the blade, but withdraws it instantly. So quick, in fact, that if a finger touches the spinning blade, it will only make a small nick before disappearing below the table. There's a demo video on their site - check it out.

I guess they tried to interest all the tablesaw manufacturers over here in N. America & got no takers. Safety wouldn't sell or something like that. (Didn't all the car manufacturers say that about safety belts in the '60's?). Because of the lack of interest, they have started manufacturing them, themselves.

Anyway, thought you might be interested. It certainly impressed me when I saw the demo.

Regards,
sam

 

[trevtheturner]

Hi Sam.

Can't really comment as I don't have a table saw (yet).

But - a hearty welcome to the Forum. I'm sure your post will be of interest to lots of members here.

Cheers,

Trev.

 

[Frank D.]

Hi Sam,
I don't post here too often but it's a great place and I learn a lot.
The "d" word seems to cause quite an uproar when anyone mentions it around here (usually it's an unsuspecting Canadian) but it's quite hilarious to see the moderators try to calm everyone down. :wink:
Frank D.

 

[Sam Salter]

Yeh Frank, it was your post that I was reading.
sam

 

[Sam Salter]

Trev,
What are you doing up at 1am in the morning? you've got work tomorrow!
sam

 

[Philly]

Sam
Yeah, liked the video clips on the web site. Anything that makes WW safer is good in my books!
Cheers (and Welcome!)
Philly

 

[woodshavings]

Hi Sam, welcome to the Forum

That's a very impressive demo video - I guess they are building their own saw that incorporates the sawstop device because they could not interest any existing mainstream suppliers.

It seems to be a "one shot" device, the fusable wire trip and stop block would have to be replaced if triggered.

Thanks for the links

John

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Sam

welcome to the forum and thanks for starting another dado thread :lol: :lol:

but it's quite hilarious to see the moderators try to calm everyone down

I wasn't doing anything much anyway :?

 

[Signal]

Didnt the saw stop fellas p*ss off a lot of manufacturers in the states by trying to convince the govt to make it a legal requirement to have such a device fitted to all new table saws?

Think I read that on the rec so it must be true

Signal

 

[Adam]

Didnt the saw stop fellas p*ss off a lot of manufacturers in the states by trying to convince the govt to make it a legal requirement to have such a device fitted to all new table saws?

Yep I think so. Interestingly, they never mention kickback.

My mate worked on some of the electronic signal processing to determine if the blade has touched your fingers, rather than wood - and I think it's really quite advanced. [All done in a DSP as far as I can determine - for anyone interested]

Adam

 

[Sam Salter]

Signal - Yes you're right they did try to get the technology legislated. But the technologies there & seems to work.
John - Yes, looks like a cartridge is about $60 US.

I've never seen one of these saws, & they're not out in many garages just yet.

The contractor saw is priced about the same as a good quality regular contractor saw (DeWalt) but the cabinet saw seems quite a bit more expensive than say a Delta. ($2,400 US compared to $1,600 US)

Anyway, I suspect they'll go out of business. There are way too many "red necks" south of here who hate any form of safety regs or Gov. interference, & the Canadian market isn't big enough to sustain them. The UK market might be interested though!

sam

 

[Midnight]

The UK market might be interested though!

Only prob there is still the lack of the 10 sec brake, and shipping / duty on something that weight would be crippling...

Pity.. it's a nice looking piece of kit.. Only US saw with a Euro spec splitter to defeat the dreaded kickback...