Table Saw braking

[Scrit]

.... and planers with American swing-away guards too!

As far as I'm aware they've not been legal for years now (circa 1974) ........

I reckon one day they (EU) my require the Saw Stop system to be compulsory?

I very much doubt it. The emphasis in Europe is on training and safer initial design rather than trying to apply technology to a fundamentally lesser design (the Saw Stop saw has a straight through fence, etc). In any case how do you apply the saw Stop technology to machines like spindle moulders and pin routers?

Scrit

 

[Digit]

The emphasis in Europe is on training

I must say that comment surprised me Scrit as any one can walk into a suppliers and set up a woodworking shop with no training what so ever.

Roy.

 

[Benchwayze]

It used to be said that a machinist isn't a machinist unles there was at least one digit missing.

But even with all the training in the world, none of us is immune. We can all have moments of distraction. So I try to remember; saws don't know the difference between flesh and wood and I keep my hands away. I try to treat every use of a machine as if it was my first time . So far, that respect has kept my hands intact.

Even then, I'm not 100% safe. Today I cut myself on the lands of a drill bit, because the bit was tight in it's plastic holder! There you go.
A bit of spit, and a band-aid! Next time? Who knows?

John

 

[Digit]

To me there are two different forms of incident, self inflicted, we all know about them, and those where the victim is is clearly not at fault.
One example of the latter was during my period of time with Vauxhall motors.
Somebody in charge decided that 400 hertz equipment at 110 volts was safer than 240 at 50 hertz
A colleague used such a drill, and went rigid as he provided a path to earth, fortunately a fire axe was close by and I cut through the lead in one swipe. We never trusted that idea again!
Then you see courage. I attended a safety lecture complete with a film, part way through there was a crash as Pete passed out and fell off his chair. The sight of blood was too much for him. His leg was pulled mercilessly.
Then one evening he was driving home and was the first on the scene of a nasty road accident.
The driver was hanging out of his cab door on the remains of a badly mutilated leg, Pete climbed onto the wheel arch and supported the driver back into his cab.
When the ambulance crew arrived and took over Pete again passed out and spent the night in hospital.
Nobody ever pulled his leg again.

Roy.

 

[Grinding One]

Add a saw stop to your machine,look it up on you tube key word SAW STOP it stops your blade like immediately .They show it with a hot dog barely breaks the skin.Stops in .10`s of a second

 

[Scrit]

The emphasis in Europe is on training

I must say that comment surprised me Scrit as any one can walk into a suppliers and set up a woodworking shop with no training what so ever.

The fact is that most people setting up a (commercial) shop are already in the joinery field and have as a consequence had some formal training (try getting a bench or site job without it and you'll see what I mean, not impossibnle, but also not that easy). Anyone who is not formally trained and wishes to set-up a for profit business is increasingly finding that the insurers require some form of training to be undertaken. As soon as they start to employ others it becomes mandatory to have a training regime. Ergo there is an emphasis on training - at least insofar as the professional woodworker is concerned.

As to automatic brake making no difference I have only the information from the local HSE inspector to go on. I'm informed that in this region instances of run-down hand to tool contact in woodworking establishments have more than halved since year 2000 and that the severity of such injuries is also reducing (as the result of the adoption of limiter tooling). If you consider that the introduction of braking was staged over about 10 years I feel that's a creditable record (although it could always be better), not to mention less of a burden on the NHS, etc, etc.

The Saw Stop mechanism cannot be retro-fitted (source: SawStop) and is currently only available on two models of rather small table saw (i.e. 10in blade). The system depends on physically throwing a braking cartridge into the blade should a hand to tool contact occur and that requires the redesign of the machine it is employed on, hence it is almost certain that no retro-fit is going to be possible. And I'd love to see how a SawStop could be made to work on something like a tenoner or a spindle moulder, especially for ring fence work.....). Oddly the SawStop saw benches have no run-down brake, so power the machine down and turn off the power to it and it's just as dangerous as any other old (unbraked) machine........ It might come as a surprise but its' design is not CE-compliant and nor does it meet the safety requirements of PUWER98, so it wouldn't be allowed into the EU (at least not into trade shops)

Scrit